fect of doubly isolating
that line, by which the survivors of the first bombardment cannot
retreat, neither can reenforcements be sent to them, for no living
being could pass through the fire curtain. Now is the time for the
attacker's infantry to charge. Along the greater part of the
Ciezkovice-Walastow line this stage was reached by ten o'clock in the
morning of May 2, 1915.

[Illustration: Grand Duke Nicholas.]

A German writer tells us that "in this part of the front infantry
fighting has given place for the time being to the action of our heavy
artillery, which is subjecting to a terrible fire the positions of the
enemy. These positions had been carefully reconnoitered during the
lull in the fighting which prevailed during the last few months. Only
after all cover is destroyed, the enemy's infantry killed or forced
to retire, we take up the attack against the positions; the _elan_ of
our first attack now usually leads to a favorable result."

At Ciezkovice the Germans pushed bridges across the Biala under cover
of a furious cannonade. Troops were thrown over, and after a very
short struggle the village was taken. The huge oil tanks soon were in
flames and Ciezkovice a heap of smoldering ruins. The Russian defense
crumpled up like smoke; their position blown out of existence. Their
guns were toys compared with those of the Germans and Austrians. North
of Ciezkovice the Prussian Guard and other German troops under General
von Francois fell upon the Russians and forced them to retire toward
the Olpiny-Biecz line. The ground of the Russian positions on Mount
Viatrovka and Mount Pustki in front of Biecz had been "prepared" by
21-centimeter (7-inch) Krupp howitzers and the giant Austrian
30.5-centimeter (10-inch) howitzers from the Skoda-Werke at Pilsen.
The shells of the latter weigh nearly half a ton, and their impact is
so terrific that they throw the earth up 100 feet high. Whatever had
remained of the town of Gorlice in the shape of buildings or human
beings was meanwhile being wiped out by a merciless spray of shells.
Being the center of an important oil district, Gorlice possessed oil
wells, great refineries, and a sulphuric-acid factory. As the flames
spread from building to building, streets pouring with burning oil,
huge columns of fire stretching heavenward from the oil wells in full
blaze, and, over all, the pitiless hail of iron and explosives pouring
upon them, the horror of the situation in which the so