A Forlorn Hope--Stirring Episode of the Battle--A Night Attack--Difficult Operation--Elaborate Preparations--A Horror of Great Darkness--Slowly Pressing Onward--Zone of Death--The Russian Imperial Regiment--Fearless and Resolute Men--Stronghold Swept by Fire and Bayonet--Step by Step--Not Died in Vain. CHAPTER XXXVII Valley of the Shadow--Dead and Dying--Plucked from the Grave--A Shattered Victim--Strangely Pathetic Group--A Soldier on his Knees--“Kick him up”--A Slain Drummer. CHAPTER XXXVIII Mukden in Sight--Storming a Hill--Four Roads Open to the Retreat--Our Failure to Envelop the Enemy--Its Reason--Caution Justified--A Feature of the War--Breakdown of the Russian Intelligence Branch--Bombardment of a Mountain--At Close Quarters Again--Courageous and Audacious Defence--Flight. CHAPTER XXXIX The Story of a Famous Brigade--General Okasaki’s 4,000 Fighting Men--Their 3,889 Casualties--Unshaken Morale of the Brigade--Okasaki’s Career--What the Brigade Did--A Crowded and Stirring Chronicle--Typical of the Japanese Infantry. CHAPTER XL To Port Arthur--A Change of Scene--Miscalculations as to Port Arthur--Permission to Join Nogi--Appreciation of Privilege--Hurrying South. CHAPTER XLI The Surrender--New Year’s Day--Flag of Truce--A Land of Silence--Incredible News--“Port Arthur has Fallen”--Stoessel’s Message--Fateful Council of War--Orders to Destroy the Ships--Nogi Agrees to Negotiate--His Delegates--“The Road to Peace”--Plum Tree Cottage--Terms of Capitulation--Russian Requests--The Answer--Fire in Port Arthur--Stoessel’s Enquiries after Kuropatkin and the Baltic Fleet--Kondrachenko, the Heart and Soul of the Defence--Stoessel’s View of the Cause of the War--His Wish to Retire. CHAPTER XLII The Two Leaders--Sketch of Nogi--The Meeting--Stoessel’s Honour Preserved--Nogi’s Bereavement--A Courteous Gift--Stoessel on his Way to Dalny--Inside the War-scarred City--The Broken Battleships--Nogi’s Triumphant Entry--The Japanese Good Soldiers but Bad on Parade--Russian Officers on the Defence--Technical Criticisms. CHAPTER XLIII Why did General Stoessel Surrender?--Port Arthur Capable of Further Resistance--Four Justifications for Capitulation Examined--Facts and Figures--The Last Days Less Glorious than the First--The General, and not the Garrison, Surrendered. CHAPTER XLIV