We depend upon you to be equal to this occasion.
All riotous gathering is absolutely forbidden and will be immediately dispersed.
J. B. LANGLET, Mayor.
L. ROUSSEAU, DR. JACQUIN,
E. CHARBONNEAUX, J. De BRUIGNAC.
Assistants.
[XXV.]
A CITY IN AN ARMY'S PATH
EW who read this book have ever been in contact with actual war. In order that they may have an idea of what happens to a city which finds itself in the path of an irresistible enemy, some account will be given here of what happened to Reims, a city about the size of Youngstown, having a population of one hundred and twenty-five thousand and being situated on the north bank of the river Aisne, in north-eastern France.
When the Germans attacked France they hurled their great armies by three routes. Not only did they violate the neutrality of Belgium and Luxembourg, but they also sent an army across the frontier between Verdun and Belfort, this being the force stopped by the chasseurs at Gerbeviller, as has been told elsewhere. France had trusted too much and was in a desperate plight because her troops had been mobilized on the wrong front.
The first Germans crossed the frontier of little Luxembourg on the morning of August 2, 1914. They were met by the Grand Duchess, who disputed their passage and pleaded with them to turn back. Her little army of four hundred and thirty men could do nothing, and when she turned her car across the road the German soldiers gathered around and, on the order of their commander, pushed it to one side and passed on.