The Fourth French Army, which Gouraud commanded, was lying to the north-east of Rheims, and the German attack on the Monts de Champagne, already the scene in 1916 and 1917 of so much desperate fighting, was meant to carry the German line down to the Marne that same day.

Gouraud was amply informed by his intelligence staff, and his air service, of the enemy preparations, and had made all his own.

The only question was as to the exact day and hour of the attack.

Then by a stroke of good fortune, at eight o'clock on the very evening preceding the attack, twenty-seven prisoners were brought in--of whom some are said to have been Alsatian--and closely questioned by the Staff.

"They told us," said Gouraud, "that the artillery attack would begin at ten minutes past midnight, and the infantry attack between three and four o'clock that very night.