The Forest of Swords

The Forest of Swords, by Joseph
A. Altsheler

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Title: The Forest of Swords A Story of Paris and the Marne
Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
Release Date: May 3, 2005 [EBook #15760]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE FOREST OF SWORDS

BOOKS BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES
The Hunters of the Hills The Shadow of the North The Rulers of the
Lakes The Masters of the Peaks The Lords of the Wild The Sun of
Quebec
THE YOUNG TRAILERS SERIES
The Young Trailers The Free Rangers The Forest Runners The
Riflemen of the Ohio The Keepers of the Trail The Scouts of the Valley
The Eyes of the Woods The Border Watch
THE TEXAN SERIES
The Texan Star The Texan Triumph The Texan Scouts
THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
The Guns of Bull Run The Star of Gettysburg The Guns of Shiloh The
Rock of Chickamauga The Scouts of Stonewall The Shades of the
Wilderness The Sword of Antietam The Tree of Appomattox
THE GREAT WEST SERIES
The Lost Hunters The Great Sioux Trail
THE WORLD WAR SERIES
The Guns of Europe The Hosts of the Air The Forest of Swords
BOOKS NOT IN SERIES
Apache Gold A Soldier of Manhattan The Quest of the Four The Sun
of Saratoga The Last of the Chiefs A Herald of the West In Circling
Camps The Wilderness Road The Last Rebel My Captive The
Candidate

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
New York London

[Illustration: "He heard a shock near him and, ... saw a huddled mass of
wreckage."]

WORLD WAR SERIES
THE FOREST OF SWORDS
A STORY OF PARIS AND THE MARNE
BY
JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
AUTHOR OF "THE GUNS OF EUROPE," "THE STAR OF
GETTYSBURG," ETC.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON 1928
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America

FOREWORD
"The Forest of Swords," while an independent story, based upon the
World War, continues the fortunes of John Scott, Philip Lannes, and
their friends who have appeared already in "The Guns of Europe." As
was stated in the first volume, the author was in Austria and Germany
for a month after the war began, and then went to England. He saw the
arrival of the Emperor, Francis Joseph, in Vienna, the first striking
event in the gigantic struggle, and witnessed the mobilization of their

armies by three great nations.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. IN PARIS 1 II. THE MESSAGE 30 III. IN THE FRENCH CAMP 53
IV. THE INVISIBLE HAND 76 V. SEEN FROM ABOVE 99 VI. IN
HOSTILE HANDS 121 VII. THE TWO PRINCES 146 VIII. THE
SPORT OF KINGS 167 IX. THE PUZZLING SIGNAL 186 X. OLD
FRIENDS 209 XI. THE CONTINUING BATTLE 231 XII. JULIE
LANNES 247 XIII. THE MIDDLE AGES 268 XIV. A PROMISE
KEPT 291 XV. THE RESCUE 311

THE FOREST OF SWORDS
CHAPTER I
IN PARIS
John Scott and Philip Lannes walked together down a great boulevard
of Paris. The young American's heart was filled with grief and anger.
The Frenchman felt the same grief, but mingled with it was a fierce,
burning passion, so deep and bitter that it took a much stronger word
than anger to describe it.
Both had heard that morning the mutter of cannon on the horizon, and
they knew the German conquerors were advancing. They were always
advancing. Nothing had stopped them. The metal and masonry of the
defenses at Liège had crumbled before their huge guns like china
breaking under stone. The giant shells had scooped out the forts at
Maubeuge, Maubeuge the untakable, as if they had been mere eggshells,
and the mighty Teutonic host came on, almost without a check.
John had read of the German march on Paris, nearly a half-century

before, how everything had been made complete by the genius of
Bismarck and von Moltke, how the ready had sprung upon and crushed
the unready, but the present swoop of the imperial eagle seemed far
more vast and terrible than the earlier rush could have been.
A month and the legions were already before the City of Light. Men
with glasses could see from the top of the Eiffel Tower the gray ranks
that were to hem in devoted Paris once