NEWS OF THE WEEK • T HE Russian army has struck
two serious blows this week. For four days they had been bombarding Nikopolis, the fortified position on the promontory which stretches into the Danube opposite Turnu Magurelle, and on the 16th, having car- ried the heights, they stormed the lines across the neck of the promontory. The Turkish garrison numbered only 7,000 men, under Hassan Pasha, and they were left with insufficient shells; but they fought gallantly till the soldiers of Baron Krudener's division by a most energetic attack forced their lines, when all left alive, some 6,000 men, with forty guns, surrendered at discre- tion. The capture of this most important post gives the conquerors a "head "for a new bridge, and renders the interruption of their communications with Roumania nearly impossible, a fact all the more important because, by the latest accounts, the railway-bridge over the Pruth is breaking down from overmuch traffic. There is nothing now to the east nearer than Rustchuk, which it is intended to invest at once, the corps d'arincre under the Heir- apparent having already crossed the Jantra for that purpose ; while the army of the Dobrudscha, 50,000 strong, has emerged from the desert, and occupied Kustendjie without resistance. This force is intended to cut the communication between Silistria and Shumla, and move westward, to assist in the attack on Rustchuk.
