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38 By motor and lorry and truck they came

Swift as the wind and fierce as flame.

Galliéni knew the trick

Of stinging hot and hard and quick.

Not for ambition and not for pride,

For France they fought, for France they died,

Striking the blow of the Marne that hurled

The barbarians back and saved the world.

The German against that hope forlorn

Broke his drive like a crumpled horn.

Their right was weakened, their left was thin,

Their center was almost driven in;

When the tide of battle turned with a rush—

For France was there—and Ferdinand Foch.

Not since Garibaldi's stroke

Freed his land from the Austrian yoke,

And Italy after a thousand years

Walked in beauty among her peers;

Not since Nelson followed the star

Of Freedom to triumph at Trafalgar

On the tossing floor of the Western seas;

No, not since Miltiades

Fronted the Persian hosts and won

Against the tyrant at Marathon,

Has a greater defender of liberty

Stood and struck for the cause than he,

Whose right was weakened, whose left was thin,

Whose center was almost driven in,