"Here I was born, and here I am going to die. It is no use, my son;
I am now in the eighty-second year of my age, and I am too old to be
transported to a strange place. What is to be will be."
Mooska Zarden took his mother's frail hand in his.
"But I entreat you," he said; "the whole of the Russian population is
leaving Dvinsk. There is no time to be lost; even now the German guns
are at the door, and the Governor's order is that the whole of the
civilian population must be out of the town within twenty-four hours to
seek refuge in a safer place, because the Russian army is about to take
up the line and make a stand of Dvinsk."
"You are a Cossack," she replied, "and must go wherever you are sent to
serve your country; but here I was born, and here I am going to die."
Dvinsk was a fortified town, or "Kerpost," as it is called in Russia,
but of late years it has been turned into an arsenal of munitions and
material of war, all ready for the appointed day should the enemy try
to cross the fair River Dvina. The stream at this point is beautiful
and wide; very few bridges span its flowing waters, and these few
were now securely held by the Russians. On the southern side of the
river the country is flat and low-lying, the land rolling away to the
horizon. The approach of an enemy, therefore, would be distinctly
visible, while the northern banks are well timbered, and higher than
on the southern side, so that an army concealed in the woods, if well
supplied with ammunition, could play havoc with the enemy when they
tried to cross the river from the opposite bank.
The Germans have by this time learned the reason why they suffered such
an important check at Dvinsk, and therefore I shall not be giving away
any military secrets by describing the Dvinsk sector of the Dvina line,
which the Russians took up after their retreat from Poland. It was an
excellent one from the strategical point of view, and one which they
have held ever since.
There are three railway lines available, of great importance for the
army--one from Riga to Oriol, which follows the line of the Dvina as
nearly as possible; the main line from Petrograd to Warsaw; and a
branch line of the Lembo-Rommy railway, with a junction connecting the
three together. When the Russian army was about to make a stand at
Dvinsk, at the beginning of the war, the civil population of the town
received orders to leave, and men, women, and children were sent to
seek refuge at a sufficient distance for their safety, out of reach of
Prussian guns.
The terror-stricken people had no time to take their household goods or
the treasures they so much prized; they simply had to flee, they knew
not whither. Vanda Zarden, however, was not among that stricken crowd.
With bowed head and prostrate form, she was kneeling before an _ikon_
in the home that had been hers for so many years, the home she had been
brought up in and where her children were born. Her husband had long
been dead, and her sons were all married except Mooska the Cossack, the
pride of her life and the comfort of her old age.
The Cossacks of the Don, the distant Carpathian mountains, and other
remote regions are among the most famous cavalry in the world, and it
is the ambition of many a Russian mother that her boy will obtain a
commission in a Cossack regiment or even a place in its ranks.
Thus it was that Mooska Zarden was only a few hours old when his father
registered his name in Dvinsk as a trooper. He was determined that
one of his sons should have the distinction of serving the Czar as a
mounted soldier; so Mooska was trained for this branch of the service,
and learned all about horses. When he joined the regiment it was soon
discovered how quickly he could tame the wildest steeds and teach them
many things beside their drill. His own horse followed him about like a
dog, and would lie down at the word of command. Mooska also taught him
to lift a man in his teeth by the belt of his uniform and carry him,
which was not a part of the regulation army drill.
And now the hour had come when Mooska must leave Dvinsk, his native
town, and the aged mother who refused to flee. His heart was heavy
within him at the thought of deserting her in the time of peril; but
his regiment was ordered to join the army that was marching towards
the Masurian Lake district to oppose the advance of the Huns. This
was during the earlier days of the war, when there was not much known
about these wilds nor about the lake district that proved so full of
surprises for the great Russian armies that were rolling westwards.
There was only one German who knew how to deal with the invasion of
East Prussia, and he was soon busily occupied. General Hindenburg had
a very intimate knowledge of that particular region, founded upon
great experience, and had studied in detail the strategic and tactical
bearings of this highly restricted field of operations.
He had bought large properties in the district, and knew every inch
of the ground. He had secretly deepened fords that were marked on the
maps and made new ones that were not marked; he had tested the bearing
powers of the quagmires and guns and wagons, and he knew just where men
and horses might venture and where they would be swallowed up. Some
time before the war, when it was suggested that a big land company
should be formed to drain the bogs and lakes and turn them into arable
farm land, Hindenburg advised the Supreme War Lord not to let the
project be carried out.
"Those lakes," he said, "are more valuable to us than two army corps.
No guns will be needed if the enemy advances. You will see when the day
comes."