When the torpedo that cost so many lives exploded within the hull of the _La Provence_, killing a good part of the engineroom crew, it was seen that only a few of her large company could escape. Lifeboats, rafts, and the makeshift straws to safety that could be seized upon in emergency accommodated a bare 700 and odd men. The troops gathered on the upper decks and sang the "Marseillaise" as the great hull settled in the water. Officers embraced their men, some indulged in a last whiff of tobacco, others prayed for the folks at home. Commandant Vesco stood on the bridge and directed the launching of the few boats that got away. Then, as the vessel came even with the waves, he tossed his cap overboard and cried: "Adieu, my boys." As one man they answered: "Vive la France." PART V--THE WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT CHAPTER XIX SUMMARY OF FIRST YEAR'S OPERATIONS After the last days of that fateful July, 1914, had passed, bringing mobilization in Austria-Hungary, Serbia, and Russia, and the outbreak of war between the former two countries, the dance of death was on. On August 1, 1914, Germany ordered the general mobilization of its armies, and on the same day declared war against Russia. Within a few days the first Russian advance into East Prussia began under the leadership of Grand Duke Nicholas, who, by a special order of the czar, had been made commander in chief of all Russian forces on August 3, 1914. Germany, fully occupied with its advance into Belgium and France, offered hardly any resistance, and its forces, consisting almost exclusively of the few army corps permanently stationed along its eastern border and reenforced only by local reserves, advanced only in a few places, and there only for short distances, into Russian territory.