The fortress of Toul is almost exactly half-way between Epinal and Verdun, about forty miles from each. In the lower stretch of country, the Trouée de Charmes, which had been so gallantly defended by the 75’s and Chasseurs-à-pied of the First Army, there are no forts. Between Toul and Verdun the French position was much stronger. East of the Meuse the Hauts de Meuse slope gradually down to the river, broken at intervals by a series of deep and precipitous ravines, guarded by numerous forts, ancient and modern. On the north the district is bounded by the Verdun-Metz railway, below which is the plain of the Woevre, and on the south by the quick-flowing Rupt de Mad, which runs from near Commercy on the Meuse north-east past Thiaucourt to Arnaville, where it falls into the Moselle close to Metz. The chain of forts extends all along the Meuse, on both sides of the stream. South of the Rupt de Mad, between Commercy and the Moselle (which here takes a sharp bend north-east from Toul, almost parallel to the Rupt de Mad, till it is joined at Frouard by the Meurthe) the forts of Liouville, Gironville, Jouy, Lucey, Bruley, and St. Michel, point their guns to the east and north, towards the German frontier. Lower down, on the right bank of the river, the guns of the Camp des Romains, a little south of St. Mihiel, like those of Forts Genicourt and Troyon to the north of the town, command much of the surrounding country and are ready to dispute (or rather were ready to dispute) the passage of the river, and still further north are the southern defences of Verdun, facing up the channel of the stream, on the further or left bank of which the Fort des Paroches, close to St. Mihiel, looks across the river to the east. [Illustration: Libert-Fernand, Nancy, phot. REMEREVILLE—MEURTHE ET MOSELLE. ] [Illustration: Libert-Fernand, Nancy, phot. CHÂTEAU DE HARAUCOURT—MEURTHE ET MOSELLE. ] The real grand attack on this formidable position began about September 19th, I suppose when there were enough forces available. But before that there was a determined assault on Fort Troyon—once again on September 8th, the date which was to have been pregnant with such glorious possibilities for the Kaiser, the day of the most furious attack in front of Nancy, the last day before the Germans began their retreat from the Marne. It is worth going back to, for the defence of Troyon during both of the two bombardments which it suffered was one of the most gallant stands of the campaign. Earlier still the Crown Prince had tried to bombard it in a feeble sort of way, but apparently without much effect, for on September 8th, after the attack from the east had begun, an officer of the garrison wrote to his wife, “Nous avons été tranquilles pendant trente-sept jours,” that is to say, from the beginning of the war.