Germany sent her ultimatum to Belgium on the evening of Aug. 2nd. It announced that Germany would violate Belgian neutrality within twelve hours, unless Belgium betrayed it herself, and it was rejected by Belgium the following morning. That day Germany declared war on France, and the next day, Aug. 4th, the advance guard of the German right wing crossed the Belgian frontier and attacked the _forts of Liége_. On Aug. 7th the town of _Liége_ was entered, and the crossings of the Meuse, from Liége to the Dutch frontier, were in German hands. Beyond Liége the invading forces spread out like a fan. On the extreme right a force advanced north-west to outflank the Belgian army covering Brussels and to mask the fortress of Antwerp, and this right wing, again, was the first to move. Its van was defeated by the Belgians at _Haelen_ on Aug. 12th, but the main column entered _Hasselt_ on the same day, and took _Aerschot_ and _Louvain_ on Aug. 19th. During the next few days it pushed on to _Malines_, was driven out again by a Belgian sortie from Antwerp on Aug. 25th, but retook Malines before the end of the month, and contained the Antwerp garrison along the line of the Dyle and the Démer. This was all that the German right flank column was intended to do, for it was only a subsidiary part of the two armies concentrated at Liége. As soon as Antwerp was covered, the mass of these armies was launched westward from Liége into the gap between the fortresses of Antwerp and Namur--von Kluck’s army on the right and von Bülow’s on the left. By Aug. 21st von Bülow was west of Namur, and attacking the French on the _Sambre_. On Aug. 20th an army corps of von Kluck’s had paraded through _Brussels_, and on the 23rd his main body, wheeling south-west, attacked the British at _Mons_. On the 24th von Kluck’s extreme right reached the Scheldt at _Tournai_ and, under this threat to their left flank, the British and French abandoned their positions on the Mons-Charleroi line and retreated to the south. Von Kluck and von Bülow hastened in pursuit. They passed _Cambrai_ on Aug. 26th and _St. Quentin_ on the 29th; on the 31st von Kluck was crossing the Oise at _Compiègne_, and on the 6th Sept. he reached his furthest point at _Courchamp_, south-east of Paris and nearly thirty miles beyond the _Marne_. His repulse, like his advance, was brought about by an outflanking manœuvre, only this time the Anglo-French had the initiative, and it was von Kluck who was outflanked. His retirement compelled von Bülow to fall back on his left, after a bloody defeat in the marshes of _St. Gond_, and the retreat was taken up, successively, by the other armies which had come into line on the left of von Bülow.