There was not likely to be much that could be safely spared to back up a Franco-British offensive on the Plateau.

The Belgian army retired to the north within the fortifications of Antwerp, where they were joined by French troops, but desultory fighting against the German invader continued at many points and the Franco-British allies soon came into contact with the advancing German army.

Slowly but surely the Franco-British army was forced back across the French border, to take up a new position on the line, Noyon-Chant-La Fere, which constituted the second line of the French defense.

Halted in France by the Franco-British armies and meeting with varying fortunes against the Russian hosts in the eastern campaign, Germany chose to make Belgium once more the international cockpit and hurled an army against Antwerp.

Moving northward from Lille, the Allies encountered the Germans at Armentières, which was occupied by a Franco-British force and there was also fierce fighting at Ypres, where there is a canal to the sea.

The reign closed amid turbulence and humiliationsmassacre and bombardment at Jidda, massacre and Franco-British coercion in Syriafrom all of which the sultan took refuge with women and wine, to meet in 1861 a drunkard's end.