But it left a world of nations free to work out their several destinies, self-determining, not subject any more to the threat of causeless war at the hands of a government steeled to barbarity. A world cemented by the blood the monster itself had caused to be shed; by the memory of brave sons fallen that others might live; by the tears of countless women and children made widows and orphans; by a new understanding between all the nations of men that dwell upon the face of the earth, because of mutual sacrifices in a common cause; by a knowledge that the long night of medieval tyranny had faded out and a new day had come, in which power shall arise from and be wielded by the peoples, never again by kings or emperors. And so our planet shall be ruled as long as man inhabits it. Out of bitter darkness, in the splendor of this new day the spirit of liberty has risen, with healing on its wings.
We who have lived through the struggle may say with gratitude, each of us, "I saw the light! I saw the morning break!"
AMONG THE LAST SHOTS FIRED
While Berlin was trying to get into touch with Marshal Foch, and the end was coming into sight, the Americans along the Meuse put forth all the energy that was in them, in their eager desire to hand the enemy a final series of wallops. It was here one of the most brilliant exploits of the war occurred.
On the night of November 4, American troops, though under very heavy artillery and machine gun fire, succeeded in building four pontoon bridges across the Meuse, a little more than a mile east of Brieulles. Early in the morning one of these was destroyed, but a strong force crossed over the other three, and swept forward with such rapidity, though in the face of superior numbers, that by noon the enemy was in disorderly retreat northward. By nightfall the Americans on that side of the river had captured Liny-Devant-Dun and Mille-Devant-Dun, on the east bank of the river, while a large American and French force pushed back the Germans on the west bank, capturing Beaumont, Pouilly and several less important places, and taking positions on three sides of Stenay, the pivot on which the whole German retirement had turned. American troops the 5th and 6th of November had advanced to within five miles of the main communication line of the Germans between Metz, Mezieres, Hirson and the north.
After destroying the bridge connecting Stenay with Laneuville, the Germans had opened the locks of the Ardennes canal and flooded the river to a width of about two-thirds of a mile.
It was here the Americans undertook and accomplished the impossible. They picked out the best of their swimmers, who crossed the stream carrying light lines attached to heavy cables, which were drawn after them, and by a hasty pontoon construction got the whole force across. Then, in the face of heavy firing, they pounded their way over a mud flat nearly a mile wide, and hit the canal, which by then, had been drained, forming a deep ditch that would have stopped any other soldiers. But the Americans rustled up some grappling irons and hooks, which they tied to the ends of ropes, and throwing them to the coping, then swarmed up and chased the disconcerted Germans out of their last position in that sector.
On November 7th American troops entered Sedan and cut the German line of communication between Metz and the north.
The same day, troops from Ohio, under command of General Farnsworth, took the Ecke salient sixteen miles southwest of Ghent in Belgium, and were advancing on the city when the Germans suddenly evacuated it, departing in haste toward the German frontier.
Stenay was the last town to fall into American hands. It was occupied without resistance, an hour before the armistice went into effect. While preparations for attack were in course, paroles came in reporting that the Germans had cleared out. The American troops at once poured in, and established occupation at 10:45 in the forenoon, just a quarter of an hour before word came that the armistice had taken effect.