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400 came in person to witness the assault, establishing their head-quarters near those of Prince Charles. The attack began with a bombardment on the 6th September, the Russians bringing a large part of their artillery into play, including the heavy siege guns which had been slowly dragged by oxen from the banks of the Danube to the points where they were mounted. The Russian fire was severe, and if it had been directed against stone fortifications would have battered them down in a little while. But the military engineer knows the comparatively slight effect of artillery upon earthworks, and as all the defences of Plevna were simply the earth of which the hills were composed, the Russian fire did little more than dismount some of the Turkish cannon, and keep the men confined to their bomb-proofs, with the exception of those who were working the guns that replied to the assailants. The Turkish fire was slow but steady; the Turks did not seem inclined to be in a hurry, and they evidently felt that they could afford to let the Russians pile tons and tons of iron inside their works, and add the solid masses of metal to the earth which formed the bastions and redoubts. Since the repulse of Krudener and Schahofskoy on the 30th of July, Osman Pasha had greatly strengthened the defences of Plevna. When Krudener's assault failed there were no fortifications on the Grivitza knoll east of Plevna, nor on the Krishin heights a mile and a half southwest of the town. The Green Hills which Skobeleff carried and held for a time during the second battle of Plevna were also without fortifications at that time, but by the 1st of September all these commanding positions had been crowned with works and were connected by a series of rifle-pits and trenches. It was evident that the Turkish engineers were thoroughly competent for their work, and they had thrown around Plevna a line of defences that would certainly give the Russians a great deal of trouble. And so the sequel proved.