the War of 1877-78_, ch. viii.]

They now threw a pontoon-bridge across the Danube between Simnitza and
Sistova; and by July 2 had 65,000 men and 244 cannon in and near the
latter town. Meanwhile, their 14th corps held the central position of
Babadagh in the Dobrudscha, thereby preventing any attack from the
north-east side of the Quadrilateral against their communications with
the south of Russia.

It may be questioned, however, whether the invaders did well to keep so
large a force in the Dobrudscha, seeing that a smaller body of light
troops patrolling the left bank of the lower Danube or at the _tete de
pont_ at Matchin would have answered the same purpose. The chief use of
the crossing at Matchin was to distract the attention of the enemy, an
advance through the unhealthy district of the Dobrudscha against the
Turkish Quadrilateral being in every way risky; above all, the retention
of a whole corps on that side weakened the main line of advance, that
from Sistova; and here it was soon clear that the Russians had too few
men for the enterprise in hand. The pontoon-bridge over the Danube was
completed by July 2--a fact which enabled those troops which were in
Roumania to be hurried forward to the front.

Obviously it was unsafe to march towards the Balkans until both flanks
were secured against onsets from the Quadrilateral on the east, and from
Nicopolis and Widdin on the west. At Nicopolis, twenty-five miles away,
there were about 10,000 Turks; and around Widdin, about 100 miles
farther up the stream, Osman mustered 40,000 more. To him Abdul-Kerim
now sent an order to march against the flank of the invaders.

Nor were the Balkan passes open to the Russians; for, after the crossing
of the Danube, Reuf Pasha had orders to collect all available troops for
their defence, from the Shipka Pass to the Slievno Pass farther east;
7000 men now held the Shipka; about 10,000 acted as a general reserve at
Slievno; 3000 were thrown forward to Tirnova, where the mountainous
country begins, and detachments held the more difficult tracks over the
mountains. An urgent message was also sent to Suleiman Pasha to
disengage the largest possible force from the Montenegrin war; and, had
he received this message in time, or had he acted with the needful speed
and skill, events might have gone very differently.

For some time the Turks seemed to be paralysed at all points by the
vigour of the Muscovite movements. Two corps, the 13th and