FOREWORD TO REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION

When the Great War broke out, one military name "led all the rest" in
world-prominence: Kitchener. Millions of us were confident that the
hero of Kartoum would save the world. It was not so decreed. Almost
immediately another name flashed into the ken of every one, until even
lisping children said _Joffre_ with reverence second only to that
wherewith they named Omnipotence. Then the weary years dragged on, and
so many men were incredibly brave and good that it seemed hard for
anyone to become pre-eminent. We began to say that in a war so vast,
so far-flung, no one man _could_ dominate the scene.

But, after nearly four years of conflict, a name we had heard and seen
from the first, among many others, began to differentiate itself from
the rest; and presently the whole wide world was ringing with it: Foch!

He was commanding all the armies of civilization. Who was he?

Hardly anyone knew.

Up to the very moment when he had compassed the most momentous victory
in the history of mankind, little was known about him, outside of
France, beyond the fact that he had been a professor in the Superior
School of War.

Now and then, as the achievements of his generalship rocked the world,
someone essayed an account of him. They said he was a Lorrainer, born