The French victory at Melmaison on October 23rd and the
rapid advance which followed it compelled the enemy, as we ventured to anticipate last week, to evacuate all his remaining positions on the northern slopes of the Chemin dos Dames ridge north of the Aisne. On Friday week the Germans withdrew beyond the Ailette and left the French in complete possession of the strongest part of the invader's southern line in France. In the offensive which thus terminated so successfully the French took two hundred guns and a mass of material, besides inflicting very heavy louses on the enemy. Apart from a few vain enemy attacks on the outer Verdun lines, east of the Meuse, the French front has been comparatively calm. The American troops holding some French trenches north-west of Reims suffered their first casualties in an enemy raid on Saturday last. Rewards were said to have been offered to the first German soldiers who could capture Americans.
