[Footnote 146:  Reminiscences of the King of Roumania, p. 275.]

[Footnote 147:  F.V.  Greene, op. cit. p. 232.]

This success having facilitated the attack on Plevna from the south, a general assault was ordered for September 11.  In the meantime Osman also had received large reinforcements from Sofia, and had greatly strengthened his defences.  So skilfully had outworks been thrown up on the north-east of Plevna that what looked like an unimportant trench was found to be a new and formidable redoubt, which foiled the utmost efforts of the 3rd Roumanian division to struggle up the steep slopes on that side.  To their 4th division and to a Russian brigade fell an equally hard task, that of advancing from the east against the two Grivitza redoubts which had defied all assaults.  The Turks showed their usual constancy, despite the heavy and prolonged bombardment which preluded the attack here and all along the lines.  But the weight and vigour of the onset told by degrees; and the Russian and Roumanian supports finally carried by storm the more southerly of the two redoubts.  The Turks made desperate efforts to retrieve this loss.  From the northern redoubt and the rear entrenchments somewhat to the south there came a galling fire which decimated the victors; for a time the Turks succeeded in recovering the work, but at nightfall the advance of other Russian and Roumanian troops ousted the Moslems.  Thenceforth the redoubt was held by the allies.

Meanwhile, to the south of the village of Grivitza the 4th and 9th Russian Corps had advanced in dense masses against the cluster of redoubts that crowned the heights south-east of Plevna; but their utmost efforts were futile; under the fearful fire of the Turks the most solid lines melted away, and the corps fell back at nightfall, with the loss of 110 officers and 5200 men.

Only on the south and south-west did the assailants seriously imperil Osman’s defence at a vital point; and here again Fortune bestowed her favours on a man who knew how to wrest the utmost from her, Michael Dimitrievitch Skobeleff.  Few men or women could look on his stalwart figure, frank, bold features, and keen, kindling eyes without a thrill of admiration.  Tales were told by the camp-fires of the daring of his early exploits in Central Asia; how, after the capture of Khiva in 1874, he dressed himself in Turkoman garb, and alone explored the route from that city to Igdy, as well as the old bed of the River Oxus; or again how, at the capture of Khokand in the following year, his skill and daring led to the overthrow of a superior force and the seizure of fifty-eight guns.  Thus, at thirty-two years of age he was the darling of the troops; for his prowess in the field was not more marked than his care and foresight in the camp.  While other generals took little heed of their men, he saw to their comforts and cheered them by his jokes.  They felt that he was the embodiment of the patriotism, love of romantic exploit, and soaring ambition of the Great Russians.