Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XII. Bulgaria attacks her allies
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
i9i3] RUMANIANS ENTER BULGARIA 195
Governments, returned to Sofia from his fruitless
errand.
I must mention here a very characteristic detail of
General Paprikov’s journey. The Serbians complained
that the Bulgarian command near Pirot had profited by
the short opening on the front to advance the troops
in certain places and to alter the disposition of the
batteries. And Colonel Romanowski having made
inquiries about this accusation found it to be true.
While Paprikov was in Nish, the military position
of the Bulgarians became still worse : the Serbians, as
I said before, broke through their enemies’ second line
of defence and were on the point of occupying
Kus-tendil; the Greeks had taken the positions of
Rilo-Dagh and were hence on Bulgarian territory, with all
the possibility of descending the Rilo range either on
the Philippopolis side or on the side of Samakov and
Sofia. Meanwhile the Rumanian Army, not at all
content with the occupation of the Dobrudja, having made
three bridges over the Danube, occupied the whole of
Northern Bulgaria at one stroke, crossed the Balkans
by the Arab-Konak Pass — the way taken by the
Russians in December, 1877 — and began to descend
into the plain of Sofia. By this rapid advance the
Rumanians threatened to cut off the Bulgarian forces
that had entered Serbia from the side of Belogradchik
and of Trn, so that there was nothing left to the
Bulgarian command but hurriedly to recall these troops ;
one division, which could not possibly retire in time, fell
into the hands of the Rumanian Army ; the soldiers
cried treason, laid down their arms and surrendered to
the Rumanians; complete disorder was beginning in
the Bulgarian Army.
On the 1st (14th) July, the Turks definitely threw off
their mask, and an irade of the Sultan’s ordered the
Ottoman troops to cross the frontier and to re-occupy
Adrianople.
Exactly a week after the conversation reported
above, Danev, pale and upset, came to see me, and when
o
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
