But for that matter German war-preparations were going on much nearer to Nancy than in Metz, while Foch was playing with his grandchildren at Morlaix. Beginning about July 21 and ending about the 25th, twelve thousand Germans left Nancy for "points east," and six thousand others left the remainder of French Lorraine. The pretexts they gave were various--vacations, urgent business matters, "cures" at German watering places. They all knew, when they left, that Germany was mobilizing for attack upon France. They had known it for some time before they left. Since the beginning of July they had been working in Nancy to aid the German attack. They had visited the principal buildings, public and private, and especially the highest ones, with plans for the installation of wireless at the modest price of $34. "It is so interesting," they said, "to get the exact time, every day, from the Eiffel Tower!" They had also some amazingly inexpensive contrivances for heating houses, or regulating the heating already installed, or for home refrigeration--things which took them into cellars in Nancy--and before they left to join their regiments they were exceedingly busy demonstrating those things. They were all gone when General Foch was recalled, on July 26. On July 30 German under-officers crossed the frontier. On August 3 Uhlans and infantrymen on motorcycles were shooting and pillaging on the French side of the border, although it was not until 6:45 P.M. that day that Germany declared war on France. That which France had been unable to suppose even Germany capable of, happened: The treaty with Belgium became a scrap of paper and the main attack upon France was made by way of the north. But the expectation that Nancy would be one of the first objectives of the Hun-rampant was not without fulfillment. For the hordes advanced in five armies; and the fifth, the German left wing under Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, was ordered to swarm into France south of that of the Imperial Crown Prince, spread itself across country behind the French armies facing northward, join with Von Kluck's right wing somewhere west of Paris, and "bag" the French--armies, capital and all--"on or about" September 1. It was all perfectly practicable--on paper. The only difficulty was that there were so many things the German staff had omitted from its careful calculations--omitted, perforce, because it had never guessed their existence. And that spoiled their reckoning.