He counter-attacked both north and south of Ivangorod, and thus was able to cut off the German centre and left from the German right. The invaders were now in two groups, the one to the north and the other to the south of the Pilitza. Advancing with great spirit, the Russians thrust the enemy out of the open country near the river into the great spruce woods which extend westwards for ten miles. Countless hand-to-hand engagements took place in their marshes and forest glades. The slaughter was terrible. At a village north of the railway between Radom and Ivangorod, the Russians buried 16,000 dead, their own and the enemy's. When the tide of war had rolled by, the forest seemed as though it had been swept by a hurricane. The Germans were forced into the open country beyond the woods, and as they emerged the Russian guns caught them and mowed them down in thousands. The Germans fought desperately, but every attempt to make a stand was crushed, and the remnants were forced back. By the 25th they were at Radom, and the Crown Prince, who had been waiting to enter Ivangorod in triumph, boarded the train which was waiting with steam up, and hurried westwards into safety. The Russians gave the retreating enemy no rest day or night. Near Kielce[156] they stood at bay. The strongest position in their line was a graveyard, with a little white church in the middle. The Caucasians[157] poured like a torrent over the wall and seized the gate, which was the only outlet. In the darkness, amidst the graves, men fought with clubbed muskets and cold steel until the ground was literally soaked with blood. Ringed round by foes, the Germans and Austrians strove with the fury of despair, but they were no match for the Caucasians. The enemy's loss was very heavy, and 12,000 prisoners and fifty guns were taken. At one o'clock on 4th November the Russians, horse, foot, and artillery, poured into Kielce. Meanwhile the extreme left of the Russians had won Sandomir[158] after storming a triple line of defences, and the routed enemy was flying south-west towards Cracow. [Footnote 151: Picturesque town on the Eastern Alps, 155 miles west by south of Vienna.] [Footnote 152: Capital of the Tyrol; on the Inn, a tributary of the Danube.] [Footnote 153: See Vol. II., p. 58.] [Footnote 154: See Dickens's _Old Curiosity Shop_, chap. xix. Each of these worthies tried to prove to Little Nell that he was the friend to be trusted and not the other.] [Footnote 155: See Vol. II., p. 71-72.] [Footnote 156: _Kyel´tseh_, on the railway, about eighty miles as the crow flies south-east of Ivangorod.] [Footnote 157: Natives of the Caucasus, a Russian territory between the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Caucasians are very fierce and warlike.] [Footnote 158: On the left bank of the Vistula, a few miles above its junction with the San.] CHAPTER XXV. VON HINDENBURG FOILED.