There can be no excuse for not having fortified Kowno. It is a town, containing ten or twelve thousand inhabitants, of which one half, perhaps, were Jews, but they could have been employed in the construction of the works. It was also most favorably situated for defence, being surrounded by heights on every side. On the same day, sanguinary skirmishes took place at Janow, Wieprz, and Wilkomierz. The two first towns were abandoned. In the attack on Wilkomierz, which was successfully repelled, an action took place, in which the lancers of Poznan and Plock threw themselves upon the flank of Russian cavalry, and, after causing severe loss, took about eighty prisoners, consisting of Circassians. General Dembinski, on the night of the 29th, learning that our positions of Janow and Wieprz were abandoned, quitted Wilkomierz on the next day, and took the road to Szawla. [_Plan_ XXXIV, (13)]. Although the occupation, by the enemy, of the town of Kowno, and the interruption of our whole line of operations on the Swienta and Wiliia, made our situation very perilous; yet it was still possible to avoid the disasters which followed, and to effect a return to Poland. By concentrating all our forces at Keydany, we could have effected a passage of the Niemen, in the same manner as we had already done in the direction of Gielgudyszki, which would have left the enemy in our rear; while on the other side of the Niemen, the enemy were not in force enough to prevent our passage. But, instead of doing this, as if to insure our ruin, a small detachment, consisting of four squadrons of cavalry, and the sappers, under the command of colonel Koss, were sent to make a bridge over the Niemen! This measure is perfectly inexplicable. Scarcely had this detachment arrived at the river, and commenced the erection of the bridge, when they were attacked on two sides, by the cuirassiers and the artillery of the enemy. They were saved only by the judicious conduct of colonel Koss, who threw himself into the protection of the neighboring forest, and succeeded in rejoining the corps. The loss which we incurred by this expedition, of all our implements for the construction of bridges, was irreparable. From this time, the enemy did not for a moment lose sight of us; and throwing his superior forces upon the great road which leads from Keydany, through Rosseyny (14), to Szawla, forced us to take that direction which was the most dangerous for us, as the field of operation for our forces was continually becoming more and more contracted. COMBAT OF ROSSEYNY.