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no THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
that the sortie had been on a large scale, but had
been everywhere repulsed. It lasted for more
than an hour ;
then the fire from guns and small-
arms died down ;
the thunderstorm abated, and
not long afterwards the full moon shed its pale
light on a scene of perfect peacefulness.
Of smaller sorties and counter-attacks there
was at least one every night, and some few were
made even in the daytime. They were carried
out with the greatest determination, and though
the Russians never succeeded in retaking the
forts, they were able to inflict very serious losses
on the garrison and to make life there a perfect
hell. Some of the most desperate encounters
during the siege took place on these occasions,
and both sides fought with the most reckless
bravery and savage fierceness.
Amongst the many trophies and objects of
interest from the operations here which have
been collected at General Nogi’s headquarters
Russian rifles, parts of machine guns, shells of all
sizes, sappers’ tools, parts of contact mines and
so on—there is an ordinary sword, of the small
light type, without a guard, which the Russian
officers generally wear slung in a bandolier over
their shoulders. A wooden tag with an inscription
in Chinese characters is affixed to it, giving in a
few words the record of how it was taken. On
August 30th a small force of about twenty
Russians, under an officer’s command, made a
desperate attempt to rush West Panlung. They got
into the fort, and a most furious hand-to-hand fight
ensued, Japanese and Russians being mixed up in
the wildest melee. The Russians fought like lions,
and accounted for a great number of their enemies ;
but the handful of men had no chance against the
fourfold stronger garrison, and after a most heroic
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