There were about twenty of us in all on the surgical staff, and the hospital arrangements were excellent. It was here that I performed my first big operation, the patient being a Turkish infantryman who was brought in from Alexinatz with his knee shattered by a shell. He refused to take chloroform, and I took his leg off above the knee without any anæsthetic. He never said a word, and went on smoking a cigarette all the time. When the captain came round with his notebook afterwards to take down the name, age, and regiment of each wounded man, my patient answered all the questions quietly and unconcernedly while I was stitching up the flap of skin over the stump. It was a marvellous exhibition of fortitude, and a striking illustration of the mettle of the men whom I was soon to see charging with such splendid courage upon the bayonets of the Russians. CHAPTER II. THE PRELIMINARIES TO THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. Prince Czetwertinski--A Romantic Career--His First Commission--A Retrospect--The History of a Noble Pole--From Monte Carlo to Brisbane--A Prince as a Deck Hand on a Schooner--A Bush Tutor--He returns to Europe--The Load of Poverty--Lighter to Bear in Australia--A Big Win at Flemington--School Teaching in Batavia--Back to New South Wales--Death at Wagga--The Vale of Moravia--The Hot Spring--Bulgarian Blanchisseuses--Slavonian Folk-songs--How the Turks sing--A Bulgarian Sámadh--Foley's End--Infuriated Scavengers--A Mysterious Disturbance--Rough-and-tumble Fighting--A Turkish Hercules--Capturing a Prisoner--A Solitary Ride--A Bulgarian Farrier--Back to Sofia--Christmas in the Snow--A Maize Cob for a Christmas Dinner--Orkhanieh to Sofia--A Doctor frozen to Death--Bitter Experiences--Salutary Effects of a Good Dinner.