[Illustration: The Room in Which Ferdinand Foch was Born.]

[Illustration: The House in Tarbes Where Foch was Born.]

These four children led the ordinary life of happy young folks in
France. But there was much in their surroundings that was richly
colorful, romantic. Probably they took it all for granted, the way
children (and many who are not children) take their near and intimate
world. But even if they did, it must have had its deep effect upon
them.

To begin with, there was Tarbes.

Tarbes is a very ancient city. It is twenty-five miles southeast of
Pau, where Henry of Navarre made his dramatic entry upon a highly
dramatic career, and just half that distance northeast of Lourdes,
whose famous pilgrimages began when Ferdinand Foch was a little boy of
seven.

He must have heard many soul-stirring tales about little Bernadette,
the peasant girl to whom the grotto's miraculous qualities were
revealed by the Virgin, and whose stories were weighed by the Bishop of
Tarbes before the Catholic Church sponsored them. The procession of
sufferers through Tarbes on their way to Lourdes, and the joyful return
of many, must have been part of the background of Ferdinand Foch's
young days.

Many important highways converge at Tarbes, which lies in a rich,
elevated plain on the left bank of the River Adour.