"The artillerymen had resumed their duel and as we came up in the lee of the outbuildings of a deserted farmhouse a shell struck and fired the farmhouse immediately in front of us. As we paused to see if the shot was a chance one, or if the Russian gunners had actually gotten the range, a regiment of fresh reserves, young men who had just come up from the west, passed us on their way to get their baptism of fire. "Their demeanor was more suggestive of a group of college students going to a football game than the serious business on which they were bent. They were singing and laughing, and as they went by a noncommissioned officer inquired rather ruefully whether there were any Russians left for them. "Throughout the day we watched the fight waged from the opposing trenches and by the artillery. "Suddenly at sundown the fighting ceased as if by mutual agreement. As I write this I can see occasional flashes of light like the flare of giant fireflies out over the scene of the Russian charge--the flashes of small electrical lamps in the hands of the Russian hospital corps. "I'm glad I don't have to look at what the flashes reveal out there in the night." CHAPTER XIII THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN CAMPAIGN _Declaration of War by Austria--Bombardment of Belgrade-- Servian Capital Removed--Seasoned Soldiers of Servia Give a Good Account of Themselves--Many Indecisive Engagements--Servians in Austrian Territory_. Formal declaration of war against Servia was proclaimed by Austria on Tuesday, July 28. The text of the official announcement was as follows: "The Royal Government of Servia not having given a satisfactory reply to the note presented to it by the Austro-Hungarian Ministry in Belgrade on July 23, 1914, the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary finds it necessary itself to safeguard its rights and interests and to have recourse for this purpose to the force of arms. Austria-Hungary, therefore, considers itself from this moment in a state of war with Servia." This declaration was signed by Count Berchtold, the Austrian minister for foreign affairs. The events that immediately preceded the declaration of war, as summarized in a previous chapter, were as follows: On June 28 a Slav student who thought he was a patriot killed the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, at Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, which had been lately made a province of Austria. An inquiry was begun in which evidence was introduced to show that the assassin's work was part of a plot for the revolt of the Southern Slav provinces of Austria, and that it was instigated by Servians, if not by the Servian Government. On July 23, however, before the investigation was completed, Austria sent an ultimatum to Servia demanding that it use every means in its power to punish the assassins and also to stop all further anti-Austrian propaganda. Austria demanded that she be permitted to have representatives in the work of investigation in Servia.