hind it was of considerable effect in what followed.

To some extent von Auffenberg, in spite of the tardiness of his
decision to retire, had protected his retreat. The main line of that
retreat was established for him, of course, by the main Galician
railway, which runs back from Lemberg to Przemysl. He prepared a
position some two days' march behind Lemberg, and defended with a
rearguard at Grodek the belated withdrawal of his main force. But from
the nature of the Russian advance, Russky, upon von Auffenberg's left,
perpetually threatened this railway; and Brussilov, upon his right,
pressed the rapidly-melting mass of the varied contingents opposed to
him through the difficult, hilly, and woody country of the foothills.

[Illustration: Sketch 71.]

It was upon the Friday, September 4th, that the Austrian evacuation of
Lemberg was complete, and that the Russian administration was
established in the town. Before Monday, the 7th, the Austrian right
had already half converted their retirement into a rout, and the great
captures of prisoners and of guns had begun. That important arm, the
irregular light cavalry of the Russians, notably the great Cossack
contingent, found its opportunity, and the captures began upon a scale
far exceeding anything which the war had hitherto shown or was to
show for at least the next six months. The matter is of more
importance, to our judgment of the war, in its quality than in its
scale. In the very same week at Tannenberg nearly as many Russians had
been eliminated from the Russian forces as Austrians were here
eliminated from the Austrian forces. But the point is that, whereas in
the Battle of Tannenberg envelopment, with its consequent slaughter of
men who cannot escape and its wholesale captures, left the rest of the
Russian army with its _moral_ intact, the Austrian losses were the
product of a partial dissolution, and affected the whole of their
southern army. First and last one-third of it had fallen _as
prisoners_ into Russian hands, apart from the enormous number of
killed and removed wounded. It could only just be said that that army
remained in being upon Monday, the 7th September, with which date this
section of my work ends. The other Austrian army to the north, its
flank thus uncovered, was compelled to fall back rapidly, though the
forces in front of it were small; and the Austro-Hungarian service
never fully recovered from this great blow.

TANNENBERG.

The province