Mo-tien-ling, which English officers who had seen it pro- nounced
impregnable. General Kuropatkin, however, in a despatch to the Czar of June 27th admits that he has been out- flanked, and that the three passes, Mo-tien-ling, Fen-shui-ling, and Ta-ling, have been carried. The alternatives remaining for the Russian Commander-in-Chief are therefore victory in a battle of despair, or a retreat northward to Liaoyang, or, it may be, even Mukden. The latter movement would involve such terrible losses, in supplies as well as men, that it is scarcely possible ; and it is nearly certain, therefore, that the great battle will be fought. It was no doubt to this con- tingency that General Kuropatkin pointed when he told his troops that if they did not beat the Japanese they would not see their homes again. The chances are terribly against the Russians; but every great battle is something of a lottery, and the Russians, though depressed, and afraid of the enemy's superior artillery, will probably fight with all the national tenacity. A depressed Slav, like a beaten English- man, is a stubborn foe.
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