he Pruth," and
Czar Peter's sad rebuff there:--Munnich marched direct out of Poland
through the Ukraine, with his eye on the Crimea and furious business
in that quarter. This is his second Campaign there, this of 1737; and
furious business has not failed. Last year he stormed the Lines of
Perecop, tore open the Crimea; took Azoph, he or Lacy under him;
took many things: this year he had laid his plans for Oczakow;--takes
Oczakow,--fiery event, blazing in all the Newspapers, at Reinsberg
and elsewhere. Concerning which will the reader accept this condensed
testimony by an eye-witness?

"OCZAKOW, 13th JULY, 1737. Day before yesterday, Feldmarschall Munnich
got to Oczakow, as he had planned,"--strong Turkish Town in the nook
between the Black Sea and the estuary of the Dnieper;--"with intention
to besiege it. Siege-train, stores of every sort, which he had set
afloat upon the Dnieper in time enough, were to have been ready for
him at Oczakow. But the flotilla had been detained by shallows, by
waterfalls; not a boat was come, nor could anybody say when they were
coming. Meanwhile nothing is to be had here; the very face of the earth
the Turks have burnt: not a blade of grass for cavalry within eight
miles, nor a stick of wood for engineers; not a hole for covert, and
the ground so hard you cannot raise redoubts on it: Munnich perceives he
must attempt, nevertheless.

"On his right, by the sea-shore, Munnich finds some remains of gardens,
palisades; scrapes together some vestige of shelter there (five
thousand, or even ten thousand pioneers working desperately all that
first night, 11th July, with only half success); and on the morrow
commences firing with what artillery he has. Much outfired by the
Turks inside;--his enterprise as good as desperate, unless the Dnieper
flotilla come soon. July 12th, all day the firing continues, and all
night; Turks extremely furious: about an hour before daybreak, we notice
burning in the interior, 'Some wooden house kindled by us, town got on
fire yonder,'--and, praise to Heaven, they do not seem to succeed in
quenching it again. Munnich turns out, in various divisions; intent
on trying something, had he the least engineer furniture;--hopes
desperately there may be promise for him in that internal burning still
visible.

"In the centre of Munnich's line is one General Keith, a deliberate
stalwart Scotch gentleman, whom we shall know better; Munnich himself is
to the right: Could not on