welcomed the Russians with shouts of joy, and the sound of their happy voices singing the Russian national anthem mingled with the last shots fired by the routed enemy outside the capital of the ancient Russian duchy.
As the conquerors, dull-eyed and wx*ary from a battle that had raged at last night and day without ceasing, passed down the streets they forgot their fatigue and their hunger and thirst. Flowers fell on them from the crow'ded windows, and cheering men and women, speaking a language they could understand, pressed by their side and offered them food and drink and kissed
•
their hands.
At half-past ten on September 3 the Rtissian flag fluttered
out from the staff of the town hall, and a deputation of towns- people waited on General Russky and assured him that the desire of all the Slav population was to become true and loyal sons of the might}' Russian empire. The condifct of the vic- torious troops was good. Having a large provision train, they had no need to ask the people for any assistance, and exemplary order was lit once maintained by the military authorities, with theco-operationofthemunicipalbodies. Theonlybootytaken w'as the Austrian army stores, with 200 guns and much baggage. The war material was enormous, as it had been collected from all parts of Austria-FIungary and stored in Lemberg to provide the armies on the frontier with supplies for six months or more. Its capture was of much importance.
But large as were the immediate consequences of the storming of the capital of Galicia, these were only the by-products of the greatvictoriesatHaliczandLemberg. Thegreatthingw^asthat the Napoleonic stroke had succeeded. Something like 300,000 hostile troops, forming the powerful right wing of the greatest army that ever invaded Russia, were shattered and fugitive. They had been gathered to protect the tw'O main Austro- Hungarianarmiesoperatinginthecountrytothenorth. Their defeat and flight exposed the main armies to an attack from the rearaswellasonthefrontandflank. GeneralRusskywithhis men went northward at once wdth a large force, while General Dmitriefl and General Bnisiloff acted together round Lemberg against the army they had broken, which was being reinforced by German troops and Hungarian militia.
While Brusiloff and Russky w^ere converging upon Lemberg the Austrian army in Russian Poland under General Dankl held
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THE CAPTURE OF LEMBERG