At precisely 03:00, the orders arrived not by telephone or telegram, but by couriers, sweat-covered who rode through the night on motorbikes, horses, and battered trucks.
They handed out sealed envelopes, hand-marked with wax and ciphers.
Inside was only one word.
"Now."
Within ten minutes, troops began moving.
The columns started just outside Versailles, Saint-Denis, and Charenton-le-Pont.
Armored cars came to life.
Men stood from their field tents and donned their coats in silence.
Rifles were checked.
Ammunition belts clipped.
No bugles.
No shouts.
By 03:20, all across France, soldiers boarded trains freight cars stripped and loaded with field guns, horses, bicycles, and rations.
Across Paris's southern perimeter, more than 100,000 troops were in motion walking through the countryside, swallowing the roads under the guise of night.
Paris, as always, was sleepless but unaware.
In a brothel near Gare de l'Est, music still played.
