could not hear him, I think.  When the explosion occurred, Kitchener walked calmly from the Captain’s cabin, went up the ladder and on to the quarter deck.  There I saw him walking quite collectedly, talking to two of the officers.  All three were wearing khaki and had no overcoats on.  Kitchener calmly watched the preparations for abandoning the ship, which were going on in a steady and orderly way.  The crew just went to their stations, obeyed orders, and did their best to get out the boats.  But it was impossible.  Owing to the rough weather, no boats could be lowered.  Those that were got out were smashed up at once.  No boats left the ship.  What people on the shore thought to be boats leaving, were rafts.  Men did get into the boats as these lay in their cradles, thinking that as the ship went under the boats would float, but the ship sank by the head, and when she went she turned a somersault forward, carrying down with her all the boats and those in them.  I do not think Kitchener got into a boat.  When I sprang to a raft he was still on the starboard side of the quarter deck, talking with the officers.  From the little time that elapsed between my leaving the ship and her sinking I feel certain Kitchener went down with her, and was on deck at the time she sank.”

[Illustration:  Where Earl Kitchener met his death]

The British Admiralty, after investigation, gave out a statement declaring that the vessel struck a mine, and sank about fifteen minutes after.

The news of Lord Kitchener’s death shocked the whole Allied world.  He was the most important personality in the British Empire.  He had built up the British army, and his name was one to conjure by.  His efficiency was a proverb, and he had an air of mystery about him that made him a sort of a popular hero.  He was great before the World War began; he was the conqueror of the Soudan; the winner of the South African campaign; the reorganizer of Egypt.  In his work as Secretary of War he had met with some criticism, but he possessed, more than any other man, the public confidence.  At the beginning of the war he was appointed Secretary of War at the demand of an overwhelming public opinion.  He realized more than any one else what such a war would mean.  When others thought of it as an adventure to be soon concluded, he recognized that there would be years of bitter conflict.  He asked England to give up its cherished tradition of a volunteer army; to go through arduous military training; he saw the danger to the Empire, and he alone, perhaps, had the authority to inspire his countrymen with the will to sacrifice.  But his work was done.  The great British army was in the field.

CHAPTER V

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

In the very beginning Russia had marked out one point for attack.  This was the city of Cracow.  No doubt the Grand Duke Nicholas had not hoped to be able to invest that city early.  The slowness of the mobilization of the Russian army made a certain prudence advisable at the beginning of the campaign.  But the great success of his armies in Lemberg encouraged more daring aims.  He had invested Przemysl, and Galicia lay before him.  Accordingly, he set his face toward Cracow.