The flood of the Danube having at last subsided, all was ready by midsummer.  Russian batteries and torpedo-boats had destroyed two Turkish armoured gunboats in the lower reaches of the river, and on June 22 a Russian force crossed in boats from a point near Galatz to Matchin, and made good their hold on the Dobrudscha.

Preparations were also ripe at Simnitza.  In the narrow northern arm of the river the boats and pontoons collected by the Russians were launched with no difficulty, the island was occupied, and on the night of June 26-27, a Volhynian regiment, along with Cossacks, crossed in boats over the broad arm of the river, there some 1000 yards wide, and gained a foothold on the bank.  Already their numbers were thinned by a dropping fire from a Turkish detachment; but the Turks made the mistake of trusting to the bullet instead of plying the bayonet.  Before dawn broke, the first-comers had been able to ensconce themselves under a bank until other boats came up.  Then with rousing cheers they charged the Turks and pressed them back.

This was the scene which greeted the eyes of General Dragomiroff as his boat drew near to the shore at 5 A.M.  Half hidden by the morning mist, the issue seemed doubtful.  But at his side stood a general, fresh from triumphs in Turkestan, who had begged to be allowed to come as volunteer or aide-de-camp.  When Dragomiroff, in an agony of suspense, lowered his glass, the other continued to gaze, and at last exclaimed:  “I congratulate you on your victory.”  “Where do you see that?” asked Dragomiroff “Where? on the faces of the soldiers.  Look at them.  Watch them as they charge the enemy.  It is a pleasure to see them.”  The verdict was true.  It was the verdict of Skobeleff[137].

[Footnote 137:  Quoted from a report by an eye-witness, by “O.K.” (Madame Novikoff), Skobeleff and the Slavonic Cause, p. 38.  The crossing was planned by the Grand Duke Nicholas; see von Lignitz, Aus drei Kriegen, p. 149.]

Such was the first appearance in European warfare of the greatest leader of men that Russia has produced since the days of Suvoroff.  The younger man resembled that sturdy veteran in his passion for war, his ambition, and that frank, bluff bearing which always wins the hearts of the soldiery.  The grandson of a peasant, whose bravery had won him promotion in the great year, 1812; the son of a general whose prowess was renowned—­Skobeleff was at once a commander and a soldier.  “Ah! he knew the soul of a soldier as if he were himself a private.”  These were the words often uttered by the Russians about Skobeleff; similar things had been said of Suvoroff in his day.  For champions such as these the emotional Slavs will always pour out their blood like water.  But, like the captor of Warsaw, Skobeleff knew when to put aside the bayonet and win the day by skill.  Both were hard hitters, but they had a hold on the principles of the art of war.  The combination of these qualities was formidable; and many Russians believe that, had the younger man, with his magnificent physique and magnetic personality, enjoyed the length of days vouchsafed to the diminutive Suvoroff, he would have changed the face of two continents.