d God with a prayer for Russia and the
Russian Czar!"

This proclamation was received in Galicia with acclaim. When the Russian
soldiers came, priests and people came out from the villages with
flowers and banners to meet their "little brothers." Flowers were thrown
on their heads from the upper balconies of houses, as they marched
through the streets. Whatever could be done by pretended ignorance or
silence to mislead the Austrians regarding the Russian advance was done
by peasants.

Meanwhile, General Brussilov was making the most of his opportunities.
He passed over the tributaries of the Dniester and without revealing his
strength pushed back the Austrian cavalry screen. For this work he used
large bodies of Cossacks, with all necessary infantry and artillery
support.

[Illustration: Field Marshal von Hindenburg]

While appearing to be merely a border raider, the Cossack had to veil
his main army and clear its path through bridgeheads, forts, and
blockhouses, and he was well suited to this kind of work. Moving at the
rate of eight miles a day in advance of the infantry and the big guns,
he maintained a continual skirmish with cavalry scouts, infantrymen, and
gunners in places that had been fortified, and even armored trains.

In all, the Cossack in the Galician campaign, proved himself not only a
most efficient soldier but well behaved. Previously, his reputation had
been an evil one. Naturally, there were reports of brutality and
savagery, but none were proved. In fact, neither on the part of the
Russians nor the Austrians was there manifest any of the "frightfulness"
attributed, rightly or wrongly, to combatants in the western theatre of
war.

It was, of course, not to the interest of the Russians to mistreat the
people of Galicia. They came, in their own estimation at least, as
deliverers, not as despoilers. As for the Austrians, they were in their
own country when in Galicia. When they penetrated north into Russia, it
appears that they did little wanton damage. On their return, it is true,
they laid waste a large part of the province of Volhynia, burning
villages and farmsteads as they proceeded. But this was dictated by
military exigencies, in order to delay and inconvenience their pursuers.

There was an occasion when it might have been supposed there would have
been excesses. This was when after an Austrian defeat, the Russian van,
composed of three divisions of Cossack cavalry, pushed through Halicz