Then came the frantic call from Paris for new troops. Young Foch was
one of the first to respond to this appeal. He could do his bit, at
any rate, and once the Second Army was assembled, the invader would
see! But alas! he was destined to do no fighting. For four months he
remained with his regiment, a high private in the rear ranks, doing
drill and garrison duty until peace was declared.
The war was over. France had concluded a shameful peace but one that
was forced upon her. This sort of war had brought bitter
disillusionment to a host of French boys, and they always thought in
their hearts of the day of reckoning which must come later on--and
hoped that they would be alive to see it. Such must have been the
dream of Foch, the "sleeping firebrand."
For the present, there was nothing for it, but to doff his uniform and
take up his studies again. The college of St. Clement had ceased to be
a hospital and was again full of classrooms. But over the old fort
floated a strange flag--the black, white and red emblem of Germany, and
German officers strutted everywhere on the streets. The French signs
over the shops and on the street corners were rapidly disappearing.
Soon came an official order from Berlin forbidding the teaching of
French in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine.
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