They
made an incomparable spectacle, that magnificent summer night, in the
bright moonlight, the long column of Algerian cavalry, with their
shining burnouses, on fiery little horses. Applause burst forth from
the mob and reached the soldiers. The women threw kisses at them, but
they overwhelmed my men and me with reproaches:
"See," they shrieked at us, "if we had minded you and gone home, we
wouldn't have seen them."
* * * * *
Paris, which didn't know about the Battle of Charleroi, knew about the
Battle of the Marne. Paris knew about the Battle of the Marne not only
on account of the troops who marched through its streets, but because
it heard the big guns roar for three days, without stopping, towards
the north.
What has not already been written and said about the Battle of the
Marne, a conflict which will remain legendary in history? What will
not be said and written on that subject in the future?... Some writers
will see in it a miracle, others a strategic action engineered by a
genius, others a chance stroke of destiny. The truth of the matter is
more simple and appealing than any of these explanations and, although
the whole truth is not yet known about the fight at the Marne, enough
is known to make clear the two or three chief reasons why victory came
to France and defeat to Germany, safety to civilization and a repulse
to barbarism.
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