Millions at home are waiting with
painful eagerness to hear the news of your success. The honor
of the army and our fatherland requires us to make a
superhuman effort. Around us lies the iron ring of the enemy.
Burst a way through it and join your comrades who have been
fighting so bravely for you and are now so near.

I have given you the last of our supplies of food. I charge
you to go forward and sweep the foe aside. After our many
gallant and glorious fights we must not fall into the hands of
the Russians like sheep; we must and will break through.

In case this appeal to the men's fighting spirit were ineffective
threats were also used to the troops, who were warned by their officers
that any who returned to the fortress would be treated as cowards and
traitors. After the General's speech the men were told to rest for a few
hours. At 4 in the morning they paraded and at 5 the battle began. For
nine hours the Austrians hurled themselves against the iron ring, until
early in the afternoon, when, broken and battered, the remains of the
twenty thousand began to straggle back to the town. Exhausted and
disheartened, the garrison was incapable of further effort.

In order to prevent useless slaughter General Kousmanek sent officers
with a flag of truce to inquire about the terms of surrender. These were
arranged very quickly.

In spite of the local value of the victory, and the vastness of the
captures of material as well as of men, it must not be thought, as many
are inclined to think here, that the Novoe Vremya exaggerates
dangerously when it compares the effect likely to be produced with that
of the fall of Metz and Port Arthur.

It certainly brings the end of the Austrians' participation in the war
more clearly in sight. But the Austrians will fight for some time yet.
What it actually does is to free a large Russian force for the
operations against Cracow or to assist in the invasion of Hungary.

What is the strength of this force it would be imprudent to divulge, but
I can say that it certainly amounts to not less than an "army,"
(anything from 80,000 to 200,000 men.) Those who are anxious to arrive
at a closer figure can calculate by the fact that the Russians had a
forty-mile front around Przemysl which was strong enough to repulse
attacks at all points. Another very useful consequence is that all the
Galician railway system is now in Russian hands. It makes the