So deep was his interest in the war that he could not content himself in St. Petersburg but felt that his place was on the Danube. When he reached the seat of war he assumed no command, but he endeavored to inform himself about everything. The failures before Plevna greatly troubled him. "If we lose I will never return to Russia. I will die here with my brave soldiers." Hence it was with more than usual emotion that the Emperor reviewed the troops, seventy thousand men, at Plevna a few days after its fall. The troops were drawn up in two lines of quarter columns at intervals of ten paces between regiments. The second line was about fifty paces in rear of the first. He embraced the Generals, greeted the officers and then accompanied by the Grand Duke and Prince Charles, attended by a brilliant staff, he passed down the front line and back by the second. His reception was most enthusiastic, every regiment cheering the moment it caught sight of the white flag with the ornamental cross that denoted the Emperor's presence; and nothing could be more impressive than the enormous volume of sound produced by the triumphant cheers of seventy thousand men. In a few days Skobeleff's division was to cross the Balkans by a pass leading to Senova while the main army was to take the Shipka Pass. One order he gave caused much amusement among his brother officers. Each man of his division was ordered to carry a log of wood with him. "What will he think of next?" said some one. "If Skobeleff has ordered," said the Grand Duke Nicholas, "he has some good reason for it." He had a good reason. There was no wood on the summit of the Balkans. He wanted his men to have three hot meals a day. And in consequence of his precautions not one man of his division arrived disabled or frozen on the other side; not one had straggled, and the only two who were lost had slipped and fallen over a precipice. The soldiers who crossed the Shipka Pass suffered frightfully. The passage to Senova was an awful journey. The men had to break their way through great snowdrifts. They had to drag their cannon on sledges by hand, but on the third day they descended into the Valley of Roses in splendid form. In the battles that raged during the next few days Skobeleff was uniformly successful, and the regiments coming down the Shipka Pass went right into the thick of the fight. At last the Turks put out two white flags. The Pashas surrendered themselves and their whole army--thirty-five thousand men and one hundred and thirteen guns were given up. "The scoundrels," muttered Gen. Skobeleff "to give up with such a force and with such a position." "No wonder," cried the Turks, "that we were beaten; for the Russians were commanded by Akh Pasha and it is impossible to overcome him." The first order given was, "Let the Turks' property be sacred to us. Let not a crumb of theirs be lost. Warn the men, I will shoot them for stealing."