Page:Armistice Day.djvu/218

196 attempt to retreat.' I left two documents drawn up in haste on the corner of the table with both of them which were conceived in almost identical terms:

"We shall remain on the spot.... We shall defend the lines we hold."

"These were not orders; they were counsels. I merely persuaded the King of the Belgians and the English marshal so well that the advice given was good that they issued orders in consequence. And I really believe that I, who had no right to command at that time, commanded then. Only I had discovered the right way of commanding...."

"Yes, but you know, sir," said I, smiling, "that there are some people in the world who maintain that you have not discovered the right way of negotiating. They reproach you with that Armistice which you signed, eight years ago, in the forest of Compiègne. They even say that you reproach it to yourself. If there had been no Armistice, they say, the next Allied drive would have reached the Rhine."

"Nonsense!" cut in Foch sharply. "Did we not reach the Rhine without fighting? Listen here, and mind my words: What is an armistice? An armistice is a suspension of hostilities, the purpose of which is to discuss peace by placing the countries that have consented to the armistice