The Couilly bridge is as yet only mined. The English will not blow it up until they have crossed to the other side, in case they are obliged to retreat. Captain Simpson said that General Joffre's orders are to make a final stand at the Marne. His orders are explicit on this point. If our troops are forced back over the Marne, they will fall back to the Morin, but the enemy will not come that far, he adds. [Illustration: The junction of the Marne and the Canal de Chalifert, between Lagny and Esbly; the point nearest to Paris where bridges were destroyed during the Battle of the Marne] This morning the English artillery placed batteries at the bottom and top of Justice Hill, commanding the town of Meaux. From the road-maker's cabin where they have established an observation post, likewise from the roof of an isolated house on the top of the hill, they sweep the plain and direct movements of troops. Road-maker Duchesne is invited by the English to look through their field-glasses, and as the weather is very clear, he sees the Germans arrive in close formation and in great numbers beyond Lizy, marching towards La Ferté-sous-Jouarre. Artillery and infantry are on the move. Some of the troops have halted and are camping. At this moment a loud booming of cannon is heard in the direction of May-en-Multien, Acy. But Duchesne cannot make out anything in that quarter, as it is in a valley cut off by the heights of Monthyon and Penchard. In the direction of Trilbardou Chauconin, Neufmontiers, Penchard, he sees French troops coming up and taking positions. Presently, at two o'clock, the artillery receives orders to start for the forest of Le Mans, in an attempt to check the Germans who are coming down the hill and advancing towards the forest. The German troops seen near Lizy are marching at this moment upon Mary, Germigny-l'Evêque, Saint-Jean-les-deux-Jumeaux, Montceaux, Villemareuil, Pierrelevée, on the way to Coulommiers. English engineers continue to blow up bridges. Between three and four o'clock they blow up the bridges of Trilport, the railroad bridge, that of the State road, and likewise that between Moulins and Meaux. The Cornillon bridge, over the canal, is mined. The last inhabitants have left Meaux; they went by on the road at the same time as a detachment of infantry, falling back before the enemy. As they go along they shout to us: "They have blown up the bridges behind us. The Germans are already at Trilport!" "But," asks a woman, "isn't there any way of stopping them?" A lieutenant who heard her question answers: "You might as well try to stop the waters of the sea. They pour in from everywhere--from every highway and byway and back-alley--a regular tidal wave. Unless some miracle happens they will be here by to-night."