On the 7th of January, his Majesty the King had assigned General von Manteuffel to another section of the theatre of war, and had given the supreme command of the Ist Army to General von Goeben. Freed from concern as to Peronne, that General's only duty thenceforward was to insure the protection of the investment of Paris. For this purpose the Somme, whose passages were all in the hands of the Germans, formed a natural bulwark, behind which the attack even of a greatly superior enemy could be awaited. And some reinforcements now arrived for the VIIIth Army Corps. The peaceful condition of the Lower Seine allowed of two infantry regiments and two batteries being sent from thence to Amiens. By instructions from the supreme Head-quarter an infantry brigade of the Meuse Army was held in readiness, which in case of need was to be sent up by rail to reinforce the Ist Army. It was still uncertain whither the enemy would direct his stroke. General von Goeben, therefore, spread his forces behind the Somme on a prolonged extension of some forty-five miles, still holding fast the points gained in front of the river, to meet the contingency of his having to renew the offensive. In the middle of the month, the detachments of the Ist Corps under the command of General Count von der Groeben occupied Amiens, Corbie, and the line of the Hallue as a flank position. The 15th Division, holding Bray firmly, took up quarters south of that village. Next to it, on the left of Peronne, was the 3rd Reserve Division, right of it were the 16th Division and the 3rd Reserve Cavalry Brigade, holding Roisel and Vermand to the front. The 12th Cavalry Division was at St. Quentin. The French army had already begun to advance on the Cambrai high-road, and its XXIInd Corps had pushed back the 3rd Cavalry Division first out of Bapaume and then out of Albert behind the Hallue. The XXIIIrd followed by the same road, and their objective really appears to have been Amiens. But a reconnaissance had exposed the difficulty of attacking in that direction, besides which a telegram from the War Minister announced that the Army of Paris within the next few days was to make a last supreme effort to burst the bonds of the investment, and the Army of the North was enjoined to divert, as far as possible, the enemy's forces from the capital, and draw them on itself. In accordance with these orders General Faidherbe decided to advance without delay on St. Quentin, whither the Brigade Isnard was already marching from Cambrai. An attack on their right wing, consisting for the time solely of cavalry, directly threatened the communications of the Germans, while the vicinity of the northern forts afforded the French army shelter and also greater liberty of action. But General von Goeben had foreseen such a leftward movement of the enemy, and concentrated all his forces to meet it.