dans--fatalists--the Russians hurled themselves
against the powerful batteries and got to close quarters with the
enemy. For nearly twenty minutes a wild, surging sea of clashing
steel--bayonets, swords, lances and Circassian daggers--wielded
by fiery mountaineers and steady, cool, well-disciplined Teutons,
roared and flowed around the big guns, which towered over the lashing
waves like islands in a stormy ocean. A railway collision would
seem mild compared with the impact of 18,000 desperate armed men
against a much greater number of equally desperate and equally
brave, highly-trained fighters. But machinery, numbers and skillful
tactics will overcome mere physical courage. The Russian avalanche
was thrown back with terrific slaughter; the Caucasian Corps alone
lost over 10,000 men, for which, it is estimated, they killed and
wounded quite as many. More remarkable still was the fact that they
captured a big battery and carried off 7,000 prisoners. For five
days the storm raged backward and forward across the river; during
the more violent bombardments the Russians left their trenches to be
battered out of shape and withdrew into their shelter dugouts; when
the enemy infantry advanced to take possession, the Russians had
returned to face the charge. Whereas cool, machinelike precision
marks the German soldier in battle as on the parade ground, an
imperturbable obstinacy and total disregard of mortal danger
characterizes the Russian.

During the night of May 6-7, 1915, the Austrians sent two regiments
across the Wisloka, north and south of Brzoctek, about midway between
Pilzno and Jaslo, under cover of artillery posted on a 400-foot hill
near Przeczyca on the opposite bank, _i.e._, the left. Austrian
engineers constructed a bridge across the river, and on the morning
of May 7 the Austrian advance guard were in possession of the hills
north of the town. Infantry were then thrown across to storm Brzostek.
Here, again, they met with resolute opposition from the Russian
rear guards covering the retreat of the main armies, which had
already fallen back from the Wisloka. Desperate bayonet fighting
ensued in the streets, each of which had to be cleared separately
to dislodge the Russians--the civilians meanwhile looking out of
their windows watching the animated scenes below. Hungarian troops
in overwhelming masses poured across the river and finally captured
the town. Once more on the backward move, the Russians established