Slowly, but standing up to the enemy like the true sons of Great Britain always have done, they were forced back. They stood for hours, without sight of the enemy, men dropping on all sides under the fearful fire of the great German guns miles away. While the French, farther south, gave way more rapidly, these few English stood their ground.
Time after time they came to hand grips with the enemy, and at the point of the bayonet drove them back with terrible losses. These bayonet charges were things of wonder to Hal and Chester, in spite of the fact that they had been in the midst of similar actions before Liège.
As the French and Belgians advanced in a wild whirlwind of fury, the English went about the business of a charge more deliberately, though with the same savage determination. They charged swiftly, but more coolly; gallantly, but more seriously, and the effect of their charges was terrible. The Germans who came on in the face of the fierce rifle and artillery fire, could not face the British bayonets, and time after time were driven back in disorder.
And as the British charged, always the words of their battle-song, fated for some unfathomed reason to become historic, rose above the sounds of battle:
“It’s a long way to Tipperary.
It’s a long way to go;
It’s a long way to Tipperary,
To the sweetest girl I know.
Good-by, Piccadilly,
Farewell, Leicester square.
It’s a long, long way to Tipperary,
But my heart’s right there!”
Liège had fallen before the invading German hosts, though several of the forts still held out; Louvain had been captured and its beautiful buildings burned to the ground. Brussels had been invested by the Teutons. In Alsace-Lorraine the French had been forced to relinquish the spoils won in the first days of the war. General Pau, after a stubborn resistance, had fallen back, and General Joffre, commander-in-chief of the French army, also had been forced to retire.
So close to Paris were the Germans now that the seat of government, the day before this story opens, had been removed to Bordeaux. Homes and other buildings in the French capital were being razed, so that the great French guns in the city could sweep the approach to the town unobstructed. Paris, the most strongly fortified city in the world, was being prepared to withstand a siege.
And still the Germans came on. Several of the enemy’s war aviators flew over Paris and dropped bombs in the streets. This occurred upon several days, and then the French airmen put an end to these daring sky fighters. After this, no more bombs were dropped on Paris.
But as the Allies fell back, it was always the few British troops that time and again checked the Germans. The morale of the English was excellent.
In a final desperate charge, a small body of British cavalry had succeeded in driving back the German vanguard, while the main body of English retired still further. Then this little body of men returned, their number much smaller than when they had charged.