At the foot of the villages of Allemant and Broyes, the vast plain of the Aube spreads itself out, and it was there that things were going badly with Foch, the loss of ground being serious. The colonials under General Humbert, who were hanging on grimly to the Plateau of Mondement, could see their comrades on the right falling back as far as Mount Chalmont, while the enemy fire reached successively Linthes and Pleurs. [Illustration: ALB. VON WURTEMBERG] If the centre had given way completely, the defenders of Mondement would have been taken in the rear, and obliged to abandon the plateau. In other words, it would have meant complete defeat. To avert this terrible danger, Foch had only Grossetti's Division which, as mentioned a few moments ago, had been decimated by four days of the fiercest fighting, and which he had that morning taken from his left wing and sent to the rear to rest. Foch recalled this division, and hurled it against the most critical point of his line between Linthes and Pleurs. He hoped it would be in a position to attack about noon, but at three in the afternoon it had not yet been reformed. These were hours of mortal suspense along the whole front. General Grossetti needed all his energy to reform the scattered units of his division, and his men, who were on their way to the rear to rest, when they were again ordered into the thick of the battle, had need of superhuman courage to carry out the long fatiguing flank march of twelve miles, which was to bring them that afternoon to Foch's centre. Finally, at about four in the afternoon, Grossetti appeared on the scene and the situation rapidly changed. With what feelings of intense relief the defenders of Mondement must have seen Grossetti's men moving eastwards to the attack and driving the Germans back again behind Mount Chalmont. The enemy was literally demoralized by this unexpected arrival of reinforcements. The objective of Grossetti's attack was the junction of the armies of Von Bulow and Von Hausen, viz.: the weakest point of the German front. The German generals had at that time nothing with which to counter this last effort of Foch's, and, realising that the battle was indeed lost, began to make preparations for retreat. [Illustration] Just as Franchet d'Esperey had supported Foch energetically on his left, so, throughout this fateful day, Langle de Cary helped him not less effectually on his right, where he violently attacked Von Hausen. However, in the centre and on the right, the troops of Langle de Cary could not do more than hold their ground against the furious attacks of the Duke of Wurtemberg's army. [Illustration: SARRAIL] [Illustration: CROWN PRINCE]