ple to add murder to robbery when the individual who was the victim made any protestations. Most of the massacres in Bulgaria before the war broke out were the work of the Bashi-Bazouks, and while the war was in progress they proved nearly as great a pest to the Moslem inhabitants as they did to the Christians. The Nizam, or regular troops of the Turkish army, were of very good material; many of them came from the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, and when well drilled they made excellent soldiers. The faith of Islam teaches that a Moslem who dies fighting for the preservation of his religion, goes straight to paradise, according to the teachings of Mohammed, the Russian is an infidel, and consequently the war with Russia had a religious aspect. Under these circumstances it is no wonder that the Turkish soldiers manifested an almost stoical indifference to death, and fought bravely to the last.
Russia was at a disadvantage in one respect. She had no fleet of war ships to cope with the ironclad fleet of the Turks, and consequently the latter had practically the control of the Black Sea. Without transports and a fleet of war ships to protect them, Russia was compelled to march her troops by land and across the Danube, where she ran the risk of an encounter with the Turkish gun-boats which patrolled that river. Early in the war two of the Turkish gun-boats on the Danube were destroyed by torpedoes, and in a little while the Russians filled the lower Danube with such a net-work of torpedoes, that the Turkish gun-boats dared not venture among them.
From the frontier the line of advance for the Russians was by the railway to Galatz and thence to Bucharest, the capital of Roumania. The Roumanians made hearty cause with the Russians, whom they joined in declaring war on Turkey, and sent a contingent to the field. From Bucharest a line of railway reaches to Giurgevo on the Danube; Giurgevo is opposite to Rustchuk. whence the
