Hassib Bey instituted the excellent plan of getting all the medical staff to meet at nine o'clock every morning at the administrative block, where the main hospital was placed; and after breakfasting on coffee, pilaf, and eggs when I could get them, I used to ride up to the rendezvous. Hassib Bey and Reif Bey, his next in command, used to meet us all there, and the whole lot of us used to have a smoke together for half an hour or so, and discuss any interesting cases that we had to deal with. If we had any complaint to make about the food supplied to the hospitals, or if we wanted anything extra in the way of appliances, our representations were listened to on the spot. It was a capital idea, and worked very well indeed. After the first rush of work was over, I had my own hospital to attend to. This was a two-story Bulgarian house, the ground floor of which was unoccupied, while upstairs there were three large rooms, in which I had about twenty-five patients. Beds and blankets were provided, and I was able to make the sufferers fairly comfortable. Two Turkish soldiers were allotted to me to act as hospital orderlies, and they proved apt pupils at their work. I trained them to act as dressers and nurses, and found that they carried out their novel duties excellently. We had a good many deaths at first, and news was always conveyed to the Moslem priests, who came and laid out the dead, wrapping the bodies in white linen sheets, and taking them away for burial in the Turkish burial-ground. Good, nourishing food was provided for the convalescents, who had plenty of beef-tea, soup, pilaf, eggs, and bread; and possessing as they did an extraordinary recuperative faculty and constitutions unimpaired by intemperance, a very fair percentage recovered. CHAPTER VII THE SECOND BATTLE OF PLEVNA (JULY 30). Talks with my Patients--A Candid Kurd--Grim Confessions--How he killed his Enemy--Dr. Robert's Cave of Refuge--He loses his Dinner--The Spy's Death--Canards in the Town--The Second Battle of Plevna--I take a Hand--Turkish Women as Water-carriers--A Woman shot in Action--My Veiled Patient--Osman Pasha's Bay Cob--A Sign of Hot Fighting--The Attack on the Village of Grivitza--Czetwertinski and his Cigarette--Retreat of the Russian Infantry--A Cavalry Pursuit--Mustapha Bey waves his Sword--I join in the Charge--An Exultant Ride--The Retreat sounded--We retire--A _sauve qui peut_--Horrible Fears--The Ride through the Maize-field--Our Infantry Panic-struck--Osman Pasha's Method of rallying Men--A Timely Reinforcement--The Day is ours--Tremendous Russian Losses--Russian Physique compared with Turkish--Wounded Horses on the Battle-field--Back in the Hospital--Many Operations--Osman Pasha decorated--The Muchir makes a Speech--I shift my Quarters again--Bulgarian Hospitality--A Youthful Friend--A Terrific Rainstorm--The Tutchenitza runs a Banker--A Ghastly Find in a Gooseberry Bush.