for a grand victory which was supposed to have been achieved by Hindenburg
over the Russians in front of Warsaw--a victory which caused Berlin to
burst out into bunting and braying and comparisons to Salamis and Leipzig
in its momentous results. But this acknowledgment of the Kaiser to the
Lord of Hosts, "our old ally of Rossbach"--which must surely have
inspired Hindenburg himself with a feeling of jealousy and sense of
soreness--turned out to have been altogether premature, and of the nature
of shouting before they were out of the wood.

For a fortnight or so the fighting in Poland continued to be of a very
confused kind, the telegrams from both sides being most contradictory, but
on the whole the advantage seemed to remain with the Russians, who
recorded their victories in very striking figures of killed and captured
during their defence of several rivers tributary to the Vistula on its
left bank. Hindenburg the redoubtable--the only General worth a rap (or a
"damn," as Wellington would have said), according to the German officer
already quoted--promised to let the Kaiser have Warsaw as a Christmas
present; but, according to all present appearances, he is no nearer the
capital of Russian Poland than his comrade von Kluck (who is now said to
have been superseded) was to Paris on the day of his being tumbled back
from the Marne.

London: December 28, 1914.

[Illustration: A PRINCELY INDIAN GIFT: MOTOR-AMBULANCES PRESENTED TO THE
KING FOR THE FORCES BY THE MAHARAJA SCINDIA OF GWALIOR.

The Maharaja Scindia's munificent Christmas gift for the soldiers
and sailors consists of 41 ambulance-cars, 4 cars for officers, 5
motor-lorries and repair-wagons, and 10 motor-cycles.--[_Photo. Illus.