This is what I have tried to make clear in my simple sketch here
offered.




I

WHERE HE WAS BORN

Ferdinand Foch was born at Tarbes on October 2, 1851.

His father, of good old Pyrenean stock and modest fortune, was a
provincial official whose office corresponded to that of secretary of
state for one of our commonwealths. So the family lived in Tarbes, the
capital of the department called the Upper Pyrénées.

The mother of Ferdinand was Sophie Dupré, born at Argèles, twenty miles
south of Tarbes, nearer the Spanish border. Her father had been made a
chevalier of the empire by Napoleon I for services in the war with
Spain, and the great Emperor's memory was piously venerated in Sophie
Dupré's new home as it had been in her old one. So her first-born son
may be said to have inherited that passion for Napoleon which has
characterized his life and played so great a part in making him what he
is.

There was a little sister in the family which welcomed Ferdinand. And
in course of time two other boys came.