held immediately the news of
the fall of the fortress reached the Grand Duke's headquarters. The Czar
was there to join with the staff in offering humble gratitude to the
Almighty for the great victory accorded to the Russian arms.

The first crowds which gathered here yesterday to rejoice over the great
news moved with one consent to the Kazan Cathedral, where they sang the
national hymn and crossed themselves reverently before the holy,
wonder-working picture of Kazan, the Mother of God. In spite of the
heaviest snowstorm of the Winter, which made the streets impassable and
stopped the tramway cars, the Nevski Prospekt rang all the afternoon and
evening with the sound of voices raised in patriotic song.

Przemysl is admitted to be the first spectacular success of the war on
the side of the Allies. It is not surprising that the nation is proud
and delighted, yet so generous is the Russian mind that there mingle
with its triumph admiration and sympathy for the garrison which was
compelled to surrender after a long, brave resistance. Popular
imagination has been thrilled by the story of the last desperate sortie,
which will take a high place in the history of modern war.

When toward the end of the week the hope of relief, which had so long
buoyed up the defenders, was with heavy, resolved hearts abandoned,
General Kousmanek resolved to try to save at all events some portion of
his best troops by sending them to fight a way out. From the ranks,
thinned terribly by casualties and also by typhus and other diseases
caused through hunger and the unhealthy state of the town, he selected
20,000 men and served out to them five days' reduced rations, which were
all he had left. He also supplied them with new boots in order to give
them as good a chance as possible to join their comrades in the
Carpathians, whose summits could be seen from Przemysl in the shining,
warm Spring sunshine.

It was a hopeless enterprise, pitifully futile. It is true that the
Austrian armies sent to relieve the city were only a few days' march
distant, but even if the 20,000 had cut a way through the investing
force they would have found another Russian army between them and their
fellow-countrymen. General Kousmanek, before they started, addressed
them. In a rousing speech he said:

Soldiers, for nearly half a year, in spite of cold and hunger,
you have defended the fortress intrusted to you. The eyes of
the world are fixed on you.