’The interior of this large work was piled up not only with dead but with wounded, forming one ghastly undistinguishable mass of dead and living bodies, the wounded being as little heeded as the dead.  The fire had hindered the doctors from coming up to attend to the wounded, and the same cause had kept back the wounded-bearers.  There were not even comrades to moisten the lips of their wretched fellow-soldiers, or give them a word of consolation.  There they lie, writhing and groaning.  I think some attempt might have been made, at whatever risk, to aid these poor fellows, for they were gallant men, who, twenty-four hours before, had so valiantly and successfully struggled for the conquest of that long-uncaptured redoubt; and it was sad now to see them dying without any attempt being made to attend to them.  I could fill pages with a description of this harrowing scene and others near it, which I witnessed, but the task would be equally a strain on my own nerves and on those of your readers.’[188]

But the Roumanians were not contented with holding their position.  Within 250 yards of the Grivitza was another Turkish redoubt whose fire commanded the former, and that they attempted in vain to take on the 11th.  Nothing daunted, however, they held their ground day after day, and on the 18th they made another gallant but futile attempt to expel the enemy from his position.  ‘It is said they will renew it,’ writes one of the spectators, ’and there is plenty of fight in Prince Charles’s gallant young army, but, in my opinion, there is little chance of success unless they work up to the hostile redoubt by sap.’[189] On September 24 they were progressing by trenches, and were only 80 yards from the second Grivitza redoubt.  ’Their fighting spirit and cheerful endurance of hardships are admirable,’ we hear.  And again, on the 26th:  ’The Roumanians are pushing forward their works against the second redoubt with a perseverance and pluck worthy all praise, and which is the more remarkable as the Russians are doing absolutely nothing on their side.’[190] This contrast comes from the pen of the chronicler who told the story of the twenty Roumanians being taken prisoners by five Russians, and whose views of the relative merits of the combatants had evidently undergone considerable modification; for he now says of the Russians:  ’They are waiting for reinforcements, which are arriving slowly, and which, when they are here, will hardly more than cover the losses by battle and by sickness during the last two months.  I think history offers no such example of a splendid army in such an utterly helpless condition.  The Roumanian generals are showing far more pluck and energy.’[191]

[Illustration:  PRINCE (NOW KING) CHARLES OF ROUMANIA, BEFORE PLEVNA

(From a Photograph taken on the spot by F. Duschek.)]