surmounted all artificial obstacles entered the village of Sandepu, which is large and strongly entrenched." Unfortunately, however, for the triumph of the Russian arms, this announcement proved to be premature--or rather to be an incomplete version of the actual fact. The Russian troops entered Sandepu only to be driven back after a desperate struggle; and the indomitable Japanese infantrymen who manned the loop-holed walls of the hamlet were never dislodged from their position. This successful stand was the turning point of the battle. It checked the flank movement of the Russians and gave Oku time to bring up his reinforcements and deliver his counter-stroke. The Russian attack had been from the west and northwest, the object being to envelop the Japanese extreme left. The movement was met by an extension of the Japanese left, which in turn threatened to outflank the outflankers. On the southwest of Sandepu the Russians were driven back along the line of the Hun-ho, and soon the battle centred about the village of Heikautai, a few miles southwest of Sandepu. That this was no mere affair of outposts may be gathered from the fact that the Russian force was made up of two divisions of the Eighth Army Corps, two brigades of Russo-European Rifles, one division of the Tenth Army Corps, part of a division of reserve infantry, and part of the First Siberian Army Corps, and a large force of Cossacks under Mistchenko. On the 27th and 28th, the fighting became desperately fierce and after the Japanese had succeeded in carrying Heikautai and the surrounding positions, they were exposed to repeated night attacks before the Russians at last made up their minds to accept defeat. From Russian sources came the usually inconsistent story--a story in which a long series of unbroken successes culminated inexplicably in an admission of failure and retreat. It now appeared that far from capturing Sandepu, the Russian column that attacked that place lost twenty-four officers and 1,600 men killed and wounded by coming unexpecedly upon "a triple row of artificial obstacles" on the ground swept by artillery and machine-gun fire which the Russian gunners could not subdue. This intelligence came as a severe disappointment to the friends of Russia, who had begun to believe that the tide of war had at last begun to turn, and that Russian arms were about to secure their first victory. Eager strategists in St. Petersburg pointed out that Sandepu was only twenty or thirty miles from Liao-yang, and that its retention would be such a serious menace to the Japanese line of retreat that the evacuation of the whole position on the Sha-ho would be a necessity. Alas! while these fascinating speculations were being indulged in, the Russian Army of the right was already in full retreat, and was indeed suffering appalling losses in the effort to extricate itself from the toils of the enemy. The fighting round Heikautai lasted five days, and the issue almost to the last hung in doubt.