 Section 25 of The Book of Famous Seages. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Book of Famous Seages by Tudor Janks Chapter 25 The Siege of Paris, 1870 When we come to the taking of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, we reach a time that is in every way modern, and yet so rapid have been the changes in the last thirty years, that in certain respects many of the things that seemed remarkable in those days are now almost old fashioned. So many inventions were made between that time and hours, that the warfare of today makes even the war of 1870 seems anything but up to date. They used the old black gunpowder with its heavy smoke instead of smokeless powder. Their guns were far inferior in force and rapidity of fire. They made little use of electricity compared to the numberless ways in which it is now employed. And certainly upon the side of the French, the siege showed complete lack of previous preparation, owing largely to their surprise at the rapid progress of the German army. The origin of the war is said by the French historians of later times to have been due to the desire on the part of the emperor to win military glory, so that his descendants might retain the throne. Prussia had been growing in power so rapidly that the French were alarmed and desired to curb her strength. The crown of Spain was offered to a young prince of the Hohenzollers, the royal house of Prussia. And though he refused it, France demanded a promise that Prussia would not allow in future one of her princes on the Spanish throne. The dispatches telling of the refusal by the king of Prussia were deliberately doctored by Bismarck to bring on war. He believed war must come, knew Prussia was ready and France was not, and so desired the fight. France declared war, since the emperor and the government were told everything was ready. The French minister of war declared publicly, that though the war should last a year, they would not need to buy even a gator button. This was absurdly, disgracefully untrue of the French, entirely true of the German preparations. At Amir's Kirmish near Sarlbrück, the French were victorious, and Napoleon III sent a boastful telegram that the prince imperial had received his baptism of fire. But as soon as the armies came together in serious conflict, it was found that the German general von Moltke and his staff knew everything about the French country and forces, had complete plans, had brought into the field perfectly equipped armies, and could easily overwhelm the half-prepared French at every point. On the French side everything was wrong, confused and ready and at cross purposes. The only thing worthy of praise was the superb bravery of the French soldiers, of whom their own statesmen then said that they were lions led by asses. A few of the French officers distinguished themselves, but their fighting was like a football game in which team play is utterly lacking. Those who fought well lost all advantages through lack of support. There were throughout France guns without carriages, wagons without horses, troops without rifles, officers without maps. There is no need to retell the painful struggle made by the brave Frenchmen, who simply were striving to do the impossible. The Germans won every field and separated the three French armies from one another, shutting one into Sedan and capturing it with the Emperor. Another was driven into Mets and hopelessly besieged. The only notable resistance was made by the army of the lawyer, which had some successes at Orleans, but was finally overwhelmed by numbers and practically driven out of the field. In the same way, the Army of the North also won a few battles, but when heavier forces were brought against it, it was forced to retreat, finally passing into Switzerland and laying down its arms. The war had been declared on July the 15th. It was at the beginning of September that Napoleon III had been captured, and as soon as this news reached Paris, he was declared deposed, and a new government was created. A republic devoted simply to the defense of the Fatherland. The great crowd of Parisians that flocked into the Place de la Concorde burst into cries of «Bivelle Republique». And before the end of the next day, the revolution was complete, the Empire at an end, and the new government at work, to prepare the city for the siege that all new must soon follow. Orders were given to turn out all German residents, for fear of spies, to provision the city with flour, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, every sort of supply that could be drawn from the country roundabout. The defenses of the forts around the city, which occupied detached hills, were put in order, bridges over all neighboring rivers were mined, ready to be blown up or were turned down. All houses and woods that might prevent the artillery men from seeing the advancing enemy, were burned to the ground, and even great barricades were planned to be placed in the city if the Germans should succeed in passing the forts. To keep watch for the enemy, a great captive balloon was sent high above the city, where it floated at the end of its long rope. In order to arouse the rest of France to the greatest efforts, Gambetta, who was the moving spirit of the defense, entered a balloon basket escaped from the city, and succeeded in making his way to Tours, where many of the authorities in charge of the war were gathered, having left Paris as the Germans came dangerously near. Meanwhile, the German armies had been arriving, almost unopposed, to within a short distance of the city, here and there, meeting some momentary attempts of resistance, but no organized force of any size. By the middle of October, despite several salleys which were sharply repulsed, the Germans had made their lines about the city a complete ring, so that no supplies could reach the capital. On October 27th came news of the surrender of Metz, containing 173,000 French. This set free for the sure taking of Paris, 200,000 of the best soldiers of Germany, against whom, inside and outside of Paris, could be mustered only almost untrained men. The French, despite all disadvantages, still showed the utmost bravery at times, making, on October 30th, a grand attempt to break the German line, in which they say that the bayonets of the armies crossed, an occurrence that is very rare in modern warfare, having taken place in our own civil war only, it is said, at Spotsylvania, and perhaps in the storming of one or two forts, like Fort Wagner, or in the siege of Port Arthur in 1904. After Metz was surrounded, it was seen, that only the army of Marshal MacMahon could bring help to the French. As a last resort, the empress directed Marshal MacMahon to try a flank attack upon the Germans, in the hope of diverting them from their advance upon Paris. In speaking of this afterward, the Germans said, that if he had commanded a thoroughly prepared army, the policy might have been a wise one, but with his half trained soldiers, the attempt resulted only in MacMahon's being driven back to Sedan, where he was later forced to surrender 80,000 men. In a little over two weeks from the time the Germans had first arrived around Paris, the serious siege began. Towards the end of September, an attempt had been made to enrol in the French army of defence, every citizen from the age of 20 to 40. But although this undoubtedly raised troops who were patriotic, brave and devoted, they were untrained and had nothing of the steadiness of veterans. Meanwhile Paris, unprepared for the siege, suffered from every sort of privation. One by one, first luxuries and then necessities began to fail. Not only was the city compelled to provide for its own citizens, but from miles around the country people had been coming in daily, up to the very arrival of the German army, to take refuge within its walls, bringing their few household goods in the hope of saving them from the German invaders. Food rose rapidly in price, and when ordinary kinds of meat failed, every eatable animal was resorted to for butcher's meat. In the markets, not only was horse meat commonly seen, but that of mules, dogs, cats and rats, and by the slaughter of the animals in the zoological garden, the meat of elephants, lions, tigers, and every sort of beast was brought to market and eagerly bought by the starving Parisians. Many books have been written concerning the incidents, the miseries and the humors of the siege. Unification with the outside world was kept up by dispatching balloons, over 90 of which left the city, and nearly all reached the outside world in safety. Carrier pigeons also were used to convey messages that had been photographed to microscopic size, printed upon the thinnest paper, thrust into quills, and attached under the bird's wings. The winter proved intensely cold. When ordinary fuel failed, everything burnable was soon used up to keep the inhabitants from freezing. Almost no news reached the city from outside, and what little came was discouraging. The Germans at first remained satisfied to keep their strong lines unbroken, knowing that they had plenty of troops to meet and defeat, and few armies that could be raised in France for the purpose of relieving the beleaguered city, and yet could easily overwhelm any sortie made by the Parisians. There was not much military skill shown in these French attacks, though there was plenty of desperate bravery. In the journals of the German staff we read that it was easy to know when an attack was preparing against the German lines. For a battle flag was hoisted near the French forts, where the troops were gathering for the assault. Thus, the four worn Germans had ample time to bring a strong force to any threatened point. When the French had determined to risk all upon one lost attempt to break through the German forces, they went about its preparation so openly that the German officers could see the troops marching to the points appointed. And from the German Emperor down, the leaders placed themselves where they could not only see every movement, but could direct the placing of the German forces to meet the attack. Consequently, when the French came out, they were met by so deadly a fire that their desperate charges did not carry them even to the first line of the German armies. And the French reserves were thrown into disorder by the artillery of the Germans, which had been so placed as to destroy them even before they could reach the field of actual fighting. For three or four hours the hopeless struggle was renewed. But though a few places of small importance were captured and held for a short time, by nine o'clock that night the attempt of the French to break through had ended in a defeat so complete that in the morning there was no spirit to make a second attack. The Germans had not wished to bombard the city. They believed that when the French saw resistance to be entirely hopeless, surrender would follow. But although all attempts to break through the German lines had failed, the French pride refused to surrender and eluded itself with wild dreams of outside interference or impossible successes by the provincial armies and refused even to ask terms. It was only when the city was within two weeks of the end of its food supply and when the last sortie had failed that Paris was willing to talk of capitulating. On January the 28th, 1871, terms were made where B. France gave up Alzac and Lorraine a thousand million of dollars and agreed that the Germans should hold the city for forty-eight hours. Thus ended the siege and at once England, Germany and France united in sending food to the starving people. The lesson to be drawn from the siege of Paris has been pointed out by the German comments. It is the certainty that untrained men, no matter how brave and intelligent and willing to lay down their lives in desperate fighting, cannot hold their own against even inferior numbers of trained soldiers directed by intelligent, instructed officers. The French were mere amateurs playing the game of war against professionals. Paris was really taken by blockade rather than by a siege. It was a starved city that surrendered to the German armies. For none of the great fortresses were taken or needed to be taken. The Germans merely made their circle of soldiers and kept it unbroken until famine forced the surrender. And now we come to our own times. Though there were some notable small sieges between that of Paris and that of Port Arthur, none of them give us any new point of view. But at Port Arthur were used new weapons, new artillery, the telephone, searchlights, modern warships, torpedoes, all the modern improvements in war. The stronghold was prepared by five years of skilled work, of great Russian engineers, and no money was spared to make the forts able to resist any force that could be brought against them. They were placed on lofty ranges of hills, or provided with bomb-proof trenches, protected with steel plates, with deep ditches, with concrete walls, and were strengthened with wire entanglements charged with strong electric currents. And yet, despite machine guns that send trains of bullets, of strong garrisons having ample supplies of ammunition for their quick-firing magazine rifles, of great searchlights of rockets and bombs that turned night into day, these forts were taken one by one. And at length Port Arthur was surrendered to Japan. The story cannot be told at length, but we must at least note the most important features of this, the most modern of great sieges. End of chapter 25. Chapter 26. The Siege of Port Arthur, 1923. Port Arthur is a fine harbour on the southeast coast of Manchuria, just opposite Korea and Japan. It is situated in a long peninsula, at the end of which is a protected port for vessels, the entrance being a narrow straight less than a quarter of a mile wide. The peninsula ends in a great circle of hills, surrounding the town and harbour, making the place a wonderfully good fort, when properly supplied with artillery and fortified in modern ways. The trouble over the possession of this harbour, the key to Korea, began between the Chinese and Japanese, and in a war between these two races, Port Arthur was taken without great difficulty by Japan. When they came to make up terms of peace, Russia, Germany and France insisted that Japan should give up Port Arthur. Japan surrendered her capture, and a hundred Japanese committed Harikiri in solemn protest against her withdrawal. Then, by an agreement, Russia secured it for a few years, promising to give it up. When Russia took Port Arthur, it became the end of her great trans-Siberian railway, and she spent, it is said, three hundred millions in improving and strengthening the place, so that it might serve as a harbour open all winter, something Russia has eagerly sought for many years. As the time came for Russia to withdraw, it was plain that she did not mean to keep her agreement. Japan, knowing that this fortified place occupied by Russian fleet would put her in constant danger, insisted upon the withdrawal, and when certain that Russia would not go, waged a war to drive the Russians out of Manchuria. As soon as war was sure, the Japanese began to land troops in Korea, and sent a fleet to Port Arthur to keep the Russian warships from going out. February 7th, the Russians marched into Korean territory. On the night of February 8th, without warning, three deadly explosions were heard in the harbour of Port Arthur, at about half past eleven, followed by a roar of guns, which lasted until three in the morning. Dawn showed that two battleships and a cruiser had been destroyed, while their Russian crews were unsuspicious that the enemy was near. On the same night, two other Russian vessels were forced to come out and fight fourteen Japanese warships at the mouth of the Korean harbour, Chimulpo. They were shot to pieces, retreated and were destroyed by their own commanders. Japan, thus at the beginning, had control of the sea, and was able to land her forces in Manchuria long before the Russians could bring a sufficient force to meet them. The Japanese numbered 200,000, with an even larger reserve army in Japan, while the Russians at the beginning had at the seat of war about 160,000. Every attempt of the Russian fleet to escape from the harbour was defeated, and the Japanese tried again and again to sink vessels across the narrow strait. After two vain attempts, they were partly successful on May 3. In this last enterprise, eight Japanese vessels were sunk across the harbour entrance, while their devoted crews went down with them, cheering and firing upon the Russians, even as they sank. On April 13, the Russian vessels had attacked the Japanese, but after losing their flagship, the Petropavlosk were forced to retire. On August 10, an attempt to break out and to reach their own port, Vladivostok, met with even greater disaster, three of the Russians being sunk. There were countless floating and sunken mines in the waters, and they did much damage, not only to the Japanese, who lost two battleships and three cruisers, but to the Russian's own vessels. Consequently, the naval forces at Port Arthur were simply at a standstill, and the Japanese armies were free to carry out their work, without fear of a Russian force being landed. The Japanese armies once landed took the town of Dalney, a few miles from Port Arthur, and by sharp fighting drove the Russian troops into Port Arthur, at the same time surrounding the town, so as to prevent help coming to the garrison. By September 4, Port Arthur was left to itself, besieged by 80,000 Japanese, without hope of aid from outside, the only army within reach having been beaten or driven away about the middle of June. The forts around the town were of stone and of cement, of enormous strength, fully supplied with heavy guns and ammunition. In addition to the main forts which crowned the highest hills, the were, upon lower hills all around them, positions nearly as strong, forming a ring of fire without a weak point which the Japanese could take, except by great losses. Sure that no army from the outside could reach them for many weeks, the Japanese picked out their ground and began a series of attacks that gradually showed them which points of the Russian line were strongest, and what was the range of the Russian guns. The attacks were made by day and by night, but the night attacks showed that the Russians were fully provided with nine or more great electric searchlights which mounted on the heights through their clear light continually here and there all over the surrounding country. Whenever the moving light brought to view bodies of Japanese, instantly telephone signals were sent to the Russian gunners and a heavy fire followed upon the forces the searchlights had discovered. Whenever the companies of Japanese made their way near to the lines of forts, they would arise from the Russian batteries a great volley of starbombs and rockets. These were prepared so that when they burst in the air, they broke into masses of slowly falling stars, which, as villias, the war correspondent writes, were bright enough to make the moonlight look grey. Consequently, the night attacks became nearly as costly as those made in broad daylight. So many were the forts and so frequent the attacks made upon them during August and September that it is impossible to give here even a list of them. The attacks would be watched by the Japanese from their own lines of batteries and were vigorously supported by artillery fire. The earliest attacks during these months were made by small bodies spread wide over the slopes, but these showed that it was impossible for the bravest troops to live under the fire of the machine guns, which poured their shot in a thick rain upon everything that came within range. The only way by which these assaulting parties succeeded in taking the forts was by making rushes up the hills from one depression in the ground to another, sheltering themselves often in the pits left by the explosion of their own shells. But in spite of their bravery, and villias says that the Japanese never retired, sometimes only a tenth of the attacking party succeeded in getting so near the forts that they were below the guns and protected in the deep ditches. One such assaulting party, after reaching the ditch, were compelled to spend all day in its deep water under the burning sun, surrounded by their own dead and without hope of support by their own forces. This party, like most of the Japanese attackers, had with them hand bombs loaded with dynamite, and late that day a brave sergeant stole to the embersia, or opening, in which was a machine gun, and destroyed it by throwing in an explosive bomb. Others imitated him. The fire at that point was checked, and the reserves came up. The Japanese then dashed into the fort and captured it, much of the hand-to-hand fighting being done with the explosive hand grenades, or dynamite bombs. Another fort was upon a lofty rock, which rose six hundred feet above the plain, and enabled the Russians to see the advance of the different Japanese columns. Up this great rock the little Japanese crawled, and took it after a terrible fight with its brave defenders. The whole Japanese line of embankments and batteries was connected by telephone lines, the stations being in bomb-proof shelters close to the General's quarters. Having command of the sea, the Japanese were constantly landing additional forces, and bringing over artillery and plentiful supplies. While the Russian armies had to depend upon the Great Trans-Siberian Railway, a single track rode thousands of miles in length. The Japanese recruits, as soon as they arrived, were trained in camps for the work of assaulting the forts, being taught by sham fights and by lectures from their officers, just how to protect themselves in advancing on the forts and in fighting the Russian garrisons. A story told by Vilas in his book on the siege gives a good idea of the devotion of the Japanese soldiers. General Nogi, the Japanese commander, told him that the few survivors of that attack, wherein the sergeant had destroyed the machine guns, were being kept in camp, expecting to be sent again to the front. Nogi, however, said that they had done enough and would be sent home safely, but that he feared they would commit suicide if they knew this. General Nogi also told the same correspondent of his great admiration for General Sturzel, the Russian commander who, he thought, had shown superb skill and splendid generalship throughout the defence. So constant was the fire by day and by night that the Russian garrison were in a constant state of wracked nerves. At the slightest sign of activity on the Japanese line, a storm of shot and shell from the Russians was sure to follow. This constant pressure upon the lines, with the occasional taking of an advanced position, lasted until October, and yet no position of great importance had been captured, despite the most desperate efforts. The main object of the Japanese army was to get possession of a certain fort upon the most commanding height of all, which would enable them to place guns where they would be able to shell not only the town of Port Arthur with its arsenals and magazines, but especially to destroy the Russian fleet where it lay imprisoned in the harbour. But it was first necessary to take the lesser heights that protected this great Wangtai fort. Some of these were taken by assault, in which the Japanese used at least two methods new in that kind of warfare. As they charged upon the Russian ramparts, they brought up behind their own lines light bamboo mortars, one tightly with ropes or bamboo fibres, to make them strong enough to carry a light charge. This sort of light artillery was their own invention. Two men could carry a bamboo gun forward as fast as the assaulting companies advanced, and being loaded lightly, it would throw its missiles in a curve over the heads of their own men to fall among the Russians. But to this invention they had added another. Instead of firing explosive shells, they fired from these mortars light masses of burning gun cotton, which while it did less damage than shells, on the other hand, by its blinding light and burning flakes, threw the defenders into disorder and prevented them from firing effectively. Before making an assault, the wire entanglements were destroyed by means of explosive bombs pushed forward at the end of long bamboo poles. Those who were wounded in these terrible assaults had to lie all day where they fell. Even the devoted Red Cross hospital attendants would have met certain death if they had tried to rescue them. Consequently, searching parties set out by night, and whenever the moving searchlight came near them, they would fall to the ground, pretending to be the dead, and so remain until the light had passed on. Thus, the rescue of the wounded was nearly as dangerous as attacking the ramparts. Among the inventions used in modern sieges and employed by the Japanese during the siege at Port Arthur is the hyposcope, a sort of telescope so arranged with mirrors that the observer sits safely behind an embankment while the hyposcope is bent so as to give him a view over the breastwork in front. The enemy's fire may destroy the instrument, but the observer is out of range. Protected by the embankment, he can give directions for the firing of the guns. He is connected by telephone with the batteries, which may be, as they were at Port Arthur, fire in the rear, and even on the other side of Lofty Hills from which their fire is delivered according to the directions given by the advanced officers. By October the 7th, the Japanese had taken the outer ring of forts, but had convinced themselves that it would be impossible to take the stronger forts by means of direct attacks. They consequently decided to begin the regular digging of parallels and trenches against the most important of the Russian strongholds. These methods, of course, they had used to some extent before, but now they resolved to depend upon them. Brave as the Japanese soldiers had been, their losses had been enormous, and they met in the Russian soldiers, perhaps less cleverness, but certainly equal bravery in the hand-to-hand struggles. Some of the outlying forts had been taken and retaken four or five times. Thus it is told that in an attack on one of the three strongest forts, the Japanese made their way even to the very ditch, but found this was 45 feet deep and 50 feet wide, and that their scaling ladders were too short for climbing the farther side. In repelling this assault, at one time a company of Russians, despite the terrific fire, took their position standing out clearly on the ramparts, and sent their volleys at the word of command as steadily as if upon parade. This bravery was cheered, even by their enemies. It is said that against the Japanese attacks, the Russians sometimes used torpedoes taken from their warships, launching them downhill against the ascending Japanese troops. The English correspondent, Villiers, early in November, gave up his accounts of the siege, giving us his reason that he had already written an account of each various method of attack, and that what remained was merely a repetition of the same things on a larger scale. Digging their great trenches parallel to the mountain fortress, and by night carrying forward the saps or trenches toward the fort, the Japanese had approached by the middle of December, near to the two strong forts that alone remained untaken of all those defending the approaches to the chief stronghold. These two forts that still held out were known as the East and West Urum, which translated double dragon, the name being Chinese. The East Erlong Fort had been dug out on the crest of a hill in two stories, the upper one containing the heavy guns for distant firing, the lower story, the machine guns and the riflemen, ready to range shot upon the assaulting columns. The Japanese, from their nearest parallels, had succeeded by the end of December in carrying their tunnels beneath this fortress and had dug out five mines and filled them with dynamite and gun cotton. On the 28th, a strong force of four battalions was sent forward to lie in the trenches, ready to attack as soon as the mines should be exploded. At 10 o'clock in the morning, the five mines were set off, one after the other, so quickly that there seemed to be one long detonation, a tremendous mass of black smoke sprang upward and immediately the Japanese rushed forward to drive out the few of the garrison who had escaped the explosion. As soon as the Japanese had appeared on the ground in front of the fort, they were met by so heavy a fire that nearly the whole force was swept away. A stronger attacking party followed and after a long fight, advancing slowly under cover, succeeded in reaching the crest of the hill and digging in trenchments beyond the moat of the fort. But before they could take the position of which the explosion had left only the rear wall standing, they had to bring up artillery, one mounted cannon and several magazine guns. With these, they succeeded in driving out the garrison, who, however, took refuge in their barracks built of concrete at the rear of the fort. In the evening, the Japanese attacked these barracks with their dynamite hand grenades and finally drove the defenders out. But these brave Russians, before they retired, poured petroleum over the place and left it in flames. In this fight, 200 of the garrison were killed in the explosion, 200 in the later attacks and 200 more made their escape. The Japanese lost 1,000 killed and wounded. But after this victory, there remained only one of the supporting forts. This second Uralung fort had also been undermined, though to advance to the fort and to carry mines forward had cost months of work and heavy losses in lives. Again and again, the path of the mine had to be changed to avoid the Russian countermines. But two days after the taking of the East Uralung fort, all was ready for the blowing up of its Western companion. On the last day of the year, 1904, two battalions of the Japanese being ready for the assault, two mines were set off at 10 a.m. And the explosion of these was followed by an even more fearful detonation. As soon as the ruins were clear of smoke, the Japanese rushed forward, one toward the front, the other toward the rear of the fortress, or rather of the crater where the fortress had been. They met with absolutely no resistance. Not a Russian was to be seen. But after a little delay, a white flag was thrust out from the ruins of the great barracks of the fort. And it was found that 159 of the garrison had been entombed in this ruin by the explosion of the Japanese mines and by that of the fort's magazine, which had followed. In order to extricate these men, the Japanese had to send their own engineers, who with dynamite blew an opening through which they rescued the Russians. Thus fell the second of the outlying defences of the great Wangtai fort. The Japanese had already advanced close to this last stronghold and had even succeeded in mining the trenches in front of it at the foot of the hill whose crest it occupied. These were blown up and occupied by a party of Japanese on the same day that saw the taking of the second Uralung fort. On the first day of 1905, shortly after nine o'clock, two strong bodies of Japanese were gathered at the foot of the hill leading up to Wangtai. Many heavy guns had been brought to bear, and now these opened, sending showers of shot and shell against the stronghold in order to prepare for the Japanese advance by dismounting guns, breaking the nerve of the garrison and if possible, breaching the walls. A fine account of the attack on these last three forts is given by the war correspondent, W. Richmond Smith in his book, The Siege and Fall of Port Arthur. In speaking of this final assault, he says, the fight was a splendid one to see. From the time the advance began, the assaultors were in plain view, their dark uniforms and glittering bayonets showing up against the lighter background of the steep hill slope. Like swarms of ants, the black bunches of men worked slowly upward in the direction of the battery position upon the crest, which all the time resembled the crater of an active volcano from bursting shrapnel and heavier shells. Many wonderful sights this siege had afforded, but this last scene in the last act of the great drama was more fascinating than anything which had preceded it. The very manner in which those Japanese soldiers wormed their way inch by inch toward the crest, dying as they crawled, told the observer, even that if all other attacks had failed, were almost bound to fail, this one was just as sure to succeed. Nothing short of absolute annihilation could have stopped those men at that time in their slow upward climb. For the end, the very last of the awful siege lay at the top, and when it did come, it was superb, that end. Only a short 20 yards separated the leaders of the nearest bunch of men from the goal. It was then about 3.30 o'clock in the afternoon. Half an hour was spent in the exchange of dynamite hand grenades between the assaulters and the garrison. Suddenly a Japanese officer rose from his crawling attitude, waved his sword high in the air and made straight for the crest. He was followed closely by 20 or 30 men with fans eyes that could be heard for miles. The crawling hundreds rose to their feet and went to the crest like a whirlwind. In the midst of it all, there was a loud explosion. The Russians in retiring had fired a mine under the battery position, but it was timed too soon and did no serious damage. Nor did it stop the assaulters for a second. Through the smoke and dust they went and one tie was there as at last. The possession of this hill meant not only the destruction of Port Arthur, but of its supplies, of all the other forts and the Russian vessels that remained in the harbour. Further resistance would have been mere slaughter and the negotiations for surrendering of the stronghold at once began. Final terms being signed on January the 2nd. During the siege the loss of the Russians exceeded 50,000, including two generals killed and four wounded out of 10. The Japanese loss was even greater, but they deny that there was any unnecessary sacrifice of the soldiers' lives. Sturzel, the Russian commander, declared that he had 14,000 sick in hospital, that the garrison suffered terribly from scurvy and that the surrender was necessary as soon as the Japanese had their great 11-inch guns placed to command the town, their shells causing widespread destruction. This account of the siege of Port Arthur does not, of course, speak of the taking of even the more important points before these last three attacks. The object has been to show the use of modern methods in detecting and resisting attacks and also to point out that against modern artillery and small arms, the only sure method of taking a stronghold is by the slow, regular approach in trenches followed by mining and the blowing up of walls. Mr. Richmond Smith closes his account of the taking of Wang Tai by the suggestion that possibly the world will never see another siege wherein these methods are used, his idea being that attack by airships dropping explosives will take the place of mining. But it may be that the coming of airships into warfare will result only in sending defenders more deeply underground. The art of besieging has now been followed from its first form, the mere rush of an armed mob, to the most modern forms of all attacks wherein the telephone, searchlight, modern explosives and scientific mining are used so skillfully as to ensure in time the fall of any unsupported fortress. It only remains for modern science to discover a means for avoiding warfare entirely. No one doubts it is a most wasteful, cruel and wicked means of settling disputes. But the way to put an end to warfare remains to be discovered and meanwhile it is the duty of nations to prepare for war until peace is sure never to be broken. End of chapter 26, End of the Book of Famous Seages by Tudor Jenks.