Cruel reality was preferable to the uncertainty of days and days, each as long as a week.
In vain President Poincare, animated by a last hope, was explaining to the French that "mobilization is not necessarily war, that a call to arms may be simply a preventive measure." "It is war, inevitable war," said the populace with a fatalistic expression.

And those who were going to start that very night or the following day were the most eager and enthusiastic.--"Now those who seek us are going to find us! Vive la France!" The Chant du Depart, the martial hymn of the volunteers of the first Republic, had been exhumed by the instinct of a people which seek the voice of Art in its most critical moments.

The stanzas of the conservative Chenier, adapted to a music of warlike solemnity, were resounding through the streets, at the same time as the Marseillaise: La Republique nous appelle.
Sachons vaincre ou sachons perir; Un francais doit vivre pour elle.
Pour elle un francais doit mourir.
The mobilization began at midnight to the minute.

At dusk, groups of men began moving through the streets towards the stations.

Their families were walking beside them, carrying the valise or bundle of clothes.
They were escorted by the friends of their district, the tricolored flag borne aloft at the head of these platoons.