But on the morrow his onset on the main Turkish positions carried all before it.

On all sides the Turks were worsted and laid down their arms; 36,000 prisoners and 93 guns (so the Russians claim) were the prize of this brilliant feat (January 9, 1878)[154].
[Footnote 154: Greene, _op.

cit._ chap.xi.I have been assured by an Englishman serving with the Turks that these numbers were greatly exaggerated.] In Roumelia, as in Armenia, there now remained comparatively few Turkish troops to withstand the Russian advance, and the capture of Constantinople seemed to be a matter of a few weeks.

There are grounds for thinking that the British Ministry, or certainly its chief, longed to send troops from Malta to help in its defence.

Colonel Wellesley, British attache at the Russian headquarters, returned to London at the time when the news of the crossing of the Balkans reached the Foreign Office.