e in 'Lesser
Wallachia.' Omar Pasha, however, either intended this as a feint, or
changed his plan, for he soon afterwards occupied strong positions on
the Danube at Turtukai and Oltenitza, between Silistria and Rustchuk,
and was there attacked by a Russian force, which he succeeded in
repulsing. No results followed this encounter; the Russians retreated
towards Bucarest, and the Turks fell back across the Danube into
Bulgaria.

In February 1854 the French and English Governments sent an ultimatum to
Russia, requiring her to evacuate the Principalities, and in March they
declared war against her. In June Austria followed suit, so far as
demanding the evacuation of Moldo-Wallachia, and received permission
from the Porte to drive the Russians out of the Principalities, and
occupy them with her troops. She, however, contented herself during the
continuance of the war with accumulating forces on her frontiers, and no
doubt it was this threatening attitude which at length compelled Russia
to evacuate them. Meanwhile active hostilities were proceeding between
Omar Pasha and Gortschakoff. In the early part of 1854, the Russians
having met with a reverse at Cetate, near Calafat, the Russian army was
ordered to invade Turkey, and, having succeeded in crossing into the
Dobrudscha at Galatz, Braila, and Ismail, it was deemed necessary to
capture Silistria as a strategic post, in order to ensure the safety of
the advancing army. In May 1854 the Russians attacked that fortress
unsuccessfully, and after they had attempted to storm it four times, the
Turks (in June) assumed the offensive, and made a sally, during which
one of the Russian generals was slain. In the same month Nicholas,
finding himself threatened by the Western allies in the Black Sea, and
fearing to make an open enemy of Austria, whose forces were constantly
increasing on her frontier, gave orders for raising the siege of
Silistria, and subsequently for the entire withdrawal of his troops from
the Principalities. This was not, however, effected until July, nor
before the Russians had sustained another defeat from the Turks at
Giurgevo.

Then it was that the army was completely withdrawn, the Turkish vanguard
entered Bucarest, and, says one of the historians of the war, 'the
Wallachian nobles celebrated a Te Deum in the metropolitan church to
commemorate the restoration of Turkish supremacy--the same boyards who,
in 1829, kissed the hands of the Russians who had freed