nk with the Uzsok and Lupkow passes. The garrison
prepared to make a stubborn resistance with the object of checking the
Russian pursuit. A week later the Russians had broken up their heavy
artillery and had begun a steady bombardment. By November 12, 1914,
Przemysl was once more completely besieged by General Selivanoff with
not more than 100,000 troops.

Przemysl is one of the oldest towns of Galicia, said to have been
founded in the eighth century. It was once the capital of a large
independent principality. In the fourteenth century Casimir the Great
and other Polish princes endowed it with special civic privileges, and
the town attained a high degree of commercial prosperity. In the
seventeenth century its importance was destroyed by inroads of Tatars,
Cossacks, and Swedes. Przemysl is situated on the River San, and was
considered one of the strongest fortresses of Europe.

The original strategic idea embodied in the purpose of the fortress
was purely defensive; in the event of war with Russia only the line of
the San and Dniester was intended to be held at all costs, while the
whole northeastern portion of Galicia was to be abandoned. With the
fortress of Cracow guarding the west, Przemysl was meant to be the
first defense between the two rivers and to hold the easiest roads to
Hungary through the Dukla, Lupkow, and Uzsok passes. Within the last
ten years, however, the Austrian War Staff altered its plans and
decided upon a vigorous offensive against Russia should occasion
offer, and that Eastern Galicia was not to be sacrificed. Hence a
network of strategic railways was constructed with a view to attacking
the prospective enemy on a wide front extending from the Vistula near
Cracow on the west to the Bug on the east, where the latter flows
into Austrian territory and cuts off a corner of eastern Galicia. The
plan does not appear to have worked successfully, for, before the war
was many days old, the Russians had taken Lemberg, swept across the
Dniester at Halicz, across the San at Jaroslav, just north of
Przemysl, and had already besieged the fortress, which at no time
imposed any serious obstacle in the path of their progress. Perhaps
the only useful purpose that Przemysl served was that it restrained
the Russians from attempting an invasion of Hungary on a big scale, by
holding out for nearly seven months. Not having sufficient siege
artillery at their disposal, the Russians made no attempt to storm the
place