place. Belgian cavalry caught a German cavalry detachment bivouacked
in the village. Sharp fighting through the streets ensued before the
Germans withdrew. In spite of the warning of the Belgian General
Staff, and similar advance German notices, the citizens of some
of these and other places began sniping German patrols.

Meantime, moving over the roads toward Namur, toiled the huge German
42-centimeter guns. The German General Staff had taken to mind
the lesson of Liege. Each gun was transported in several parts,
hauled by traction engines and forty horses. Of this, with the
advance of Von Kluck and Von Bülow, the Belgian General Staff was
kept in total ignorance by the German screen of cavalry. So ably
was this screen work performed that the Belgians were led to believe
the Germans had succeeded in placing no more than two divisions of
cavalry, together with a few detachments of infantry and artillery,
on Belgian soil. They, in fact, regarded the German cavalry skirmishing
as a rather clumsy offensive.

As we have seen, the resistance of Forts Boncelles and Loncin at
Liege held back the main German advance from seven to ten days.
Their fall released into German control the railway junction at
Ans. With that was included the line from Liege up the left bank
of the Meuse to Namur. Also, another line direct to Brussels.

On August 15, 1914, the cavalry screen was withdrawn, and four
German army corps were revealed to the surprised Belgian line.
In this emergency, clearly their only hope lay with the French.
In Louvain, Brussels, and Antwerp, anxious questions lay on all
lips. "Why do not the French hasten to our aid? When will they
come? Will the British fail us at the twelfth hour?"