British Troops Land on the Continent 69 force, which had the strength of at least two army corps, and the British force, with the strength of four on paper. What now occupied the attention of the world was the question as to whether the resistance of Liege might not have resulted in a material dis- arrangement of the whole German plan, which, as was well known, contemplated throwing a huge force into France and crushing the French army before Russia could mobilize and become aggressive on the east. This the Bulgarians had accomplished by their unexpected victory about Kirk Killisse in the Balkan war. The announcement that the British troops were proceeding to Namur, a wholly false and deliber- ately misleading assertion, was accepted as a promise that the Belgian Army would promptly be reenforced and the press despatches of all nations began to be filled with prophecies of approaching encounters be- between Allies and Germans on the fields forever memorable because of their connection with the Waterloo campaign, mistaken conclusions which per- sisted for many days. Meantime a whole flood of historical parallels was awakened by the arrival of another British army on the Continent. It was almost exactly a century since Wellington had won his last great battle. Two centuries spanned the distance between Marlborough and Sir John French. But now British soldiers were to fight with the French as comrades and, as