[Footnote 72: French officer who crossed Africa from the Atlantic coast to the White Nile in 1898 and claimed Fashoda for the French. He was met by Lord (then Sir Herbert) Kitchener, who said to him, "I congratulate you on all you have accomplished." "No," replied Major Marchand, pointing to his troops, "it is not I but these soldiers who have done it." Kitchener surrounded Marchand's forces and ordered him to withdraw his troops or to haul down his flag. For a moment there was a chance of war between Britain and France, but the French Government decided to withdraw the troops, and the incident ended with an acknowledgment of our right to the Nile valley.] [Footnote 73: French word for rising ground, knoll.] [Footnote 74: _Mass-seige._] CHAPTER XLIII. THE BATTLE OF LOOS.--I. You will remember that, in order to prevent the Germans from massing their forces to resist the great French offensive in Champagne, the Allies had prepared attacks on other parts of the enemy's line. While the French were pushing forward across the miry downs of Champagne, six separate assaults were launched on the German front between Lens and Ypres--four to the north of the La Bassée Canal and two to the south of it. The four attacks which were made to the north of the canal were merely for the purpose of distracting the enemy's attention; the two attacks which were made to the south of the canal were part of the main movement against the enemy's lines of communication. While the French in Champagne strove to capture the railway by which the Germans maintained themselves in this region, the French and British tried to seize the railway junction of Lens and open a road into the plain of the Scheldt. Had these thrusts from the south and the west fully succeeded, the enemy would have been forced to retire, probably into Belgium. I shall not trouble you with an account of the "holding" attacks which were made to the north of the La Bassée Canal. Three of them served their purpose and resulted in some gains, but the fourth, which was made against the Aubers Ridge, came to grief. The two attacks which I shall describe at length are those which were made by the French and the British south of the canal.