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rHE TURN OF THE TIDE 271
of the defenders and render easy the task of the
attackers.
Of the two explosions, only the one at the
north-eastern corner had been successful, blowing
up the whole rampart here, and completely
wrecking this part of the fort. The other mines
blew most of their strength out backwards through
the shafts which it had been very difficult to get
properly blocked with the frozen earth. The
volunteers of the first batch were all killed by the
falling stones and lumps of earth, and completely
buried under the ddbris, and the explosion filled
the approaches up to the moat, making it im-
possible for the second batch or the supports to
follow. To attack across the open field, with-
out any shelter, under the furious fire of the
Russian batteries, was out of the question ; the
Japanese had tried that once too often. They
had to clear away the ddbris from their saps before
any attack could be made, and this respite
enabled the Russians to send reinforcements of
about 300 men, and to make arrangements for a
firm stand in the rear of the fort where it was
undamaged by the explosion.
It was nearly dusk before the men of the 22nd
regiment were drawn up under the parapet of the
front rampart. The breastworks here were very
high, about twenty feet above the terre-plem of
the fort, in order to give protection against fire
from Takushan, which loomed up, tall and for-
bidding, about 2,500 yards away. It was, as one
of the officers said to me, like standing on the
rim of a basin, looking down into what they knew
would soon be transformed into a witch’s kettle,
seething with blood and horrors. And at the
rear of the fort they saw before them the sandbag
trenches, behind which the Russian sharpshooters
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