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408 battle of the 11th September before the routes for supplies and reinforcements destined for Osman Pasha could be secured. The investment was completed on the 3d November; 120,000 Russians and Roumanians were around Plevna, and the siege works were pushed with all the skill and vigor that engineering science and autocratic power could bring to bear. Osman Pasha and his 40,000 soldiers were shut up in Plevna and cut off from all communication with the rest of the Turkish forces.

Elsewhere the Turkish armies were busy with movements for the relief of Plevna, and sanguinary encounters took place between them and the Russian forces in the valley of the Lorn and among the Balkans. But as all these enterprises failed of their object, though the Russians were made to suffer severely, they did not affect the one great object in view—the capture of Plevna. Starvation was at work from the 3d of November, when the investment was completed. Spies brought intelligence that the men were on reduced rations and every available article of food was being devoured. Ammunition was scarce, and the Turks rarely replied to the Russian artillery fire. It became known to the Russians that Osman Pasha was preparing for a sortie, and the Russian trenches were kept full of men day and night. All the outposts were doubled or trebled, and every precaution was taken against surprise. On the 9th December a spy brought the news that three days' rations had been issued to the troops in Plevna, together with one hundred and fifty cartridges and a new pair of sandals to each man. About ten o'clock at night another spy came in and said that the Turkish troops were concentrating near the bridge over the Vid, and about the same time a telegram from the Russians on the other side of Plevna reported the movements of a great number of lights in the town, an unusual occurrence. Evidently the hour of the sortie was approaching.