King George walking with King Albert in the main street of a Belgian town.
(Photo, Newspaper Illustrations, Ltd.)
He also threw himself whole-heartedly into the work of army reform. His father had clearly seen that, sooner or later, a war cloud would burst over Europe, and he had persuaded Parliament to agree to two important military measures. One was the building of forts along the Meuse; the other was the reform and increase of the army, which was then small in numbers and far from good in quality. At that time all men of military age were liable to serve in the army; but as only a certain number was needed, the men drew lots, and those on whom the lots fell were obliged to serve. But any man so chosen by lot could buy a substitute to take his place, and in this way the well-to-do men escaped service. King Leopold put an end to this system, and, just before his death, signed a law which made Belgian gentlemen and farmers serve their country in their own person. The army, which was soon to be at death grips with the Germans, was recruited partly under the old system and partly under the new. The new contingents, however, were not properly supplied with weapons and equipment, nor was the artillery well prepared for the terrible task which awaited it.
CHAPTER XXII.
HOW LIÉGE WON THE LEGION OF HONOUR.
On the next page you will see a map of Belgium. I want you to examine it carefully. You will notice that Belgium's real line of defence on the south and east is the river Meuse. After the war of 1870-71 the great military engineer, Brialmont,[186] was called upon to fortify the Meuse valley in such a way that an enemy advancing from the south or east might at least be delayed until other nations could come to the help of Belgium. He had already made Antwerp the chief citadel of the country.
In the neighbourhood of Liége the Meuse runs in a deep wide trench between masses of upland. On the north lies a tableland which extends for fifty miles to the neighbourhood of Louvain. On the east and south is the hill country of the Ardennes, a land of ridges and forests seamed by swiftly running streams, and sinking eastwards to the plains of the Rhine. The tableland to the north is flat, and is covered with fields of beetroot and cereals. An invader can cross it with ease. But the hill region to the east and south is too rough and broken for large armies to traverse without considerable difficulty. From the map you can readily see that the easy road from Germany into Belgium lies between the northern limit of the Ardennes and the Dutch frontier. Here stands Liége, and Brialmont naturally chose it as the site of a great fortress which should bar the way from Germany.