men. Doubtless reports had come to him of the situation at Liege.
He immediately set to work to overcome the cause of the failure
of Brialmont's plan at Liege, by constructing trenches between
the forts, protected by barbed wire entanglements, and mines in
advance of the German approach. As his circumference of defense
was less than that of Liege, his force promised to be capable of
a more prolonged resistance.

Besides the Allies were close at hand. Only eighteen miles separated
him from strong detachments of French infantry and artillery at
Dinant. As we have seen French cavalry had been thrown forward
as far as Gembloux on the road to Brussels, but ten miles to the
northeast of Namur. Somewhere between that place and Charleroi
French Chasseurs d'Afrique had advanced to occupy outpost positions.
His position appeared by no means hopeless--considerably better than
the unsupported field army at Liege. The armor of his forts was
calculated to withstand the 36-lb. shells of the heaviest German
fieldpieces, but comparatively slight damage was anticipated from the
known heavier howitzers. If the Germans purposed to assault Namur
in mass formation, as they had done at Liege, General Michel had
every reason to feel confident he could repulse them with tremendous
losses.

But the Germans had learned a severely taught lesson at Liege. They
had no intention of repeating those tactics. Behind a remarkable
screen of secrecy, they managed to conceal from General Michel--as
they did from the Allies--the existence of their enormous siege
guns. Whether they brought into action at Namur their famous
42-centimeters, capable of throwing a shell of high explosive power
weighing 2,500 lbs., is uncertain. In fact, it is still doubtful