As I have said, all the north-west corner of France was denuded of
troops, with the exception of some poor Territorials, ill-trained and ill-
equipped, and never meant to withstand the crush of Imperial troops
advancing in hordes with masses of artillery, so that they fled like
panic-stricken sheep. The forts of Paris on the western side would not
have held out for half a day against the German guns. All that
feverish activity of trench work was but a pitiable exhibition of an
unprepared defence. The enemy would have swept over them like
a rolling tide. The little British army was still holding together, but it
had lost heavily and was winded after its rapid retreat. The army of
Paris was waiting to fight and would have fought to the death, but
without support from other army corps still a day's journey distant,
its peril would have been great, and if the enemy's right wing had
been hurled with full force against it at the critical moment it might
have been crushed and annihilated. Von Kluck had twenty-four hours
in his favour. If he had been swift to use them before Joffre could
have hurried up his regiments to the rescue, German boots might
have tramped down through the Place de la Republique to the Place
de la Concorde, and German horses might have been stabled in the
Palais des Beaux-Arts.
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