The enemy's line has again assumed the shape of an
L, each side of which is about a hundred miles long, while the apex is on the Serre, ten miles north of Leon. But the side running due south from the Duteh frontier is being pushed back daily, while the angle between the Oise and the Aisne is being blunted by the persistent French attacks. The enemy's object is to delay our advance on his lateral communications, so that he may have time to remove his guns and stores and prepare for a fresh stand farther back. He hopes, no doubt, to hold the line of the Meuse, from Namur to Sedan, with the Ardennes behind it, basing his right wing on Antwerp and his left wing on Metz. It would be unwise to assume that the enemy would be greatly embarrassed by having to withdraw his centre into the Ardennes, or that we should be unable to follow him there. The modem engineer and the modern motor-lorry have triumphed over far greater natural difficulties—in Macedonia, for example, or in the Trentin.o---than are to be found nowadays in any part of the Belgian bill-country. No one familiar with the High- lands or Snowdon can regard the Ardennes, with their low hills, excellent roads, and fairly good railways, as a wild region offering serious obstacles to the passage of armies.
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