With the recollection of this exploit and the story of Cambrai and Bourlon (and many others) before them, will anyone in future be daring enough to try to convince us of the physical and moral decadence of the Cockney--a doctrine which some offensively superior people tried to preach not so many years ago? [Illustration: _PLATE CVII._ THE MONS-CONDÉ CANAL. _General Smith-Dorrien's men were in position along the canal when they first received the German attack on Sunday, the 23rd of August, 1914._] [Illustration: _PLATE CVIII._ SLAG HEAPS AT MONS. _The colliery slag heaps close to Mons, among which fighting took place on the first day of the retreat from Mons in 1914._] [Illustration: _PLATE CIX._ THE MORMAL FOREST. _The western end of the road across the Mormal Forest to Jolimetz. The wood has been much thinned by the Germans during their four years of possession._] [Illustration: _PLATE CX._ LANDRECIES. _Here the Guards first came into action in August, 1914, and here in 1918 the German Guards failed to stand in their retreat against our infantry._] [Illustration: _PLATE CXI._ LE CATEAU. _The town is very little, if at all, damaged. It stands close to the "Roman Road" at the eastern end of the road to Cambrai, across and to the south of which we fought heavy rear-guard actions in 1914, and across which, in the opposite direction, the Germans retreated four years later._] [Illustration: _PLATE CXII._ THE MARNE. _This view gives some idea of the size of the river. It was taken near La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, which was in the British lines in the first battle of the Marne in September, 1914._] [Illustration: _PLATE CXIII._ DORMANS. _On the Marne, a few miles east of Château Thierry. It is one of the places covered in Ludendorff's_ Friedensturm _advance, and therefore one of those first to be recovered by Foch in 1918._] [Illustration: _PLATE CXIV._ EPERNAY. _Ludendorff's great attempt at encircling Rheims involved that two advances, one east and one west of the Montagne de Reims, should meet at Epernay, and thence advance on Paris by the Marne Valley. But Epernay was never reached from either side, although it was shelled from a distance of seven or eight miles._] [Illustration: _PLATE CXV._ THE VESLE AT SILLERY. _About six miles from Rheims, where General Gouraud held up the eastern arm of Ludendorff's "pincers."_] [Illustration: _PLATE CXVI._ BUZANCY CHÂTEAU. _At the top of a little ridge above the Crise, south of Soissons. It was stormed by the Highlanders in very notable fashion in July, 1918. The plateau beyond it gave General Mangin command of the German communications farther east._] [Illustration: _PLATE CXVII._ MONUMENT AT BUZANCY. _This memorial was erected by the 17th French Division, who took over from the Camerons, with the inscription "Ici fleurira toujours le glorieux Chardon d'Écosse parmi les Roses de France."_] [Illustration: _PLATE CXVIII._ LE QUESNOY.