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CHAPTER XI
quarrels between the allies
On the 12th (25th) March, M. Gueshov telephoned to me
in the morning to say that the attack on Adrianople
had begun, and that the Bulgarians had taken all the
advanced positions on the eastern side of the place. At
noon I heard that the operations had been successful,
and that the Bulgarians were already occupying several
of the principal forts. And at four o’clock, the beautiful
big Russian bells, which had been put up a few days
before in the belfry of the cathedral which was being
built—the cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky—began
their deep and solemn pealing to announce the great
victory to the inhabitants of Sofia. The last rampart
of Ottoman domination in Thrace had fallen: the
Bulgarian and Serbian troops, who had vied with one
another in courage and self-sacrifice, had taken this
formidable fortified place by assault, thereby displaying
to the whole world what Slav patriotism was capable
of. From that moment one could consider the war
with the Turks to be ended, to the complete advantage
of our Slav kinsman and our Greek co-religionists.
Although latterly I had been a sorrowful spectator
of the rivalries and of the hostility which divided these
same kinsmen and co-religionists, yet I could not
repress a deep and joyful emotion when I heard the
symbolic pealing of the Russian bells in honour of
the Slav victory. Likewise in Russia the taking of
Adrianople produced a profound impression. The
Duma was the scene of a great ovation in honour of
the Bulgarian hero, Radko-Dmitriev, who was in St.
Petersburg at the time.
The taking of Adrianople virtually concluded
154
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