acked the higher intellectual qualities that garner the full
harvest of results.

Osman, either because he knew not that the Russians had used up their
last reserves at Plevna, or because he mistrusted the manoeuvring
powers of his men, allowed Kruedener quietly to draw off his shattered
forces towards Sistova, and made only one rather half-hearted move
against that all-important point. The new Turkish commander-in-chief,
Mehemet Ali, gathered a formidable array in front of Shumla and drove
the Russian army now led by the Cesarewich back on Biela, but failed to
pierce their lines. Finally, Suleiman Pasha, in his pride at driving
Gurko through the Khainkoi Pass, wasted time on the southern side, first
by harrying the wretched Bulgarians, and then by hurling his brave
troops repeatedly against the now almost impregnable position on the
Shipka Pass.

It is believed that jealousy of the neighbouring Turkish generals kept
Suleiman from adopting less wasteful and more effective tactics. If he
had made merely a feint of attacking that post, and had hurried with his
main body through the Slievno Pass on the east to the aid of Mehemet, or
through the western defiles of the Balkans to the help of the brave
Osman in his Plevna-Lovtcha positions, probably the gain of force to one
or other of them might have led to really great results. As it was,
these generals dealt heavy losses to the invaders, but failed to drive
them back on the Danube.

Moreover, Russian reinforcements began to arrive by the middle of
August, the Emperor having already, on July 22, called out the first ban
of the militia and three divisions of the reserve of the line, in all
some 224,000 men[145].

[Footnote 145: F.V. Greene, _The Campaign in Bulgaria_, p. 225.]

The bulk of these men did not arrive until September; and meanwhile the
strain was terrible. The war correspondence of Mr. Archibald Forbes
reveals the state of nervous anxiety in which Alexander II. was plunged
at this time. Forbes had been a witness of the savage tenacity of the
Turkish attack and the Russian defence on the hills commanding the
Shipka Pass. Finally, he had shared in the joy of the hard-pressed
defenders at the timely advent of a rifle battalion hastily sent up on
Cossack ponies, and the decisive charge of General Radetzky at the head
of two companies of reserves at a Turkish breastwork in the very crisis
of the fight (Aug. 24). Then, after riding post-haste northwards to the
R