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THE TURN OF THE TIDE 273
It was hard on the regiment which had had all
the work, and done all the fighting- against the
fort from the beginning of the siege, to be de-
barred from reaping the fruits of their own toil,
and see another regiment winning the prize which
they considered in fairness to be theirs ;
but the
General had no such sentimental scruples. He
had read their faces, he saw that they had been
too long in the front line, and he knew that a
fresh regiment, sent against the fort for the first
time, and goaded on by thoughts of the honour
and glory of taking the formidable position where
another regiment had failed, would be better fit
for the dangerous work.
A battalion of the 38th regiment was ordered
up instead, and General Sameyeda placed him-
self at their head. In order to be less conspicuous
the men had drawn their grey woollen jerseys and
drawers and hoods over their dark winter uniforms ;
round their waist they had tied a rope fuse, the
lighted end of v^hich dangled in front of them,
glowing red in the dusky demi-jour. Thus
arrayed, they presented a most peculiar and un-
canny appearance ;
wanting only a pair of horns
apiece to make them look like perfect devils.
They carried nothing but their rifles, their cart-
ridge belts, and a couple of hand grenades each.
The attack commenced at 5 o’clock in the
afternoon.
In order to make it more difficult for the
Russians to use their machine guns, the men were
sent over the parapet into the interior of the forts
one by one from different parts of the ramparts.
As soon as there was a little interval in the
rattling of the machine guns a man would jump
up and run for his life, and seek shelter behind
the ddbris piled up in the terre-t>lein after the
T
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