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412 an unconditional surrender. In fact, under the circumstances, neither side could have expected less. The Grand Duke and all the Russian generals complimented Osman Pasha on the splendid defence he had made, and he was treated with every courtesy that could be shown to one whom they earnestly respected for his valor and his military genius.

With the fall of Plevna and the surrender of its garrison of 40,000 men, the Turkish opposition practically ceased. Within a month from that event General Gourko had captured Sophia, and General Radetsky took the village of Shipka, in the Shipka Pass, and compelled the surrender of a Turkish army of 23,000 men, 4 pashas, 92 guns, and 10 standards. Gourko and Skobeleff advanced upon Philippopolis by different routes and narrowly missed capturing Suleiman Pasha with his entire force. Skobeleff advanced upon Adrianople, which the Turks abandoned, and Slivno and Yeni-Zagra were occupied, all inside of thirty days, Plevna had made the Russians the masters of the situation and they advanced upon Constantinople, the Turks retiring before them, and occasionally making a feeble resistance. Turkey asked the mediation of England, and finally, despairing of her aid, signed an armistice that became the basis of the treaty of San Stefano, which was signed by the treaty powers on the 3d of March, 1878. The treaty guaranteed the erection of Bulgaria into an autonomous tributary principality, with a national Christian government and a native militia; the independence of Montenegro, with an increase of territory; the independence of Roumania and Servia with a territorial indemnity; the introduction of administrative reforms into Bosnia and Herzegovina; and lastly, an indemnity in money to Russia for the cost of the war. By the subsequent Congress of Berlin Russia was stripped of some of the fruits of her conquest, Turkey