With the Serbs in Macedonia

INCH BY INCH 141
the assault was renewed during the afternoon,
and trenches were taken at various points.
Strong counter-attacks were made during
the night, with the troops on both sides fighting
desperately in water and mud, and part of
their trenches was taken back by the enemy.
But their line had been pierced, and the pressure
of those pertinacious Serbs on the Bulgar-
German left was making their position daily
more and more perilous. Quietly, in the early
hours of November 15th, covered by a dense
fog, they slipped out of their trenches. The
Russians, advancing at dawn to attack Lajets,
a village from which the day before they had
been unable to dislodge the enemy, found the
place evacuated. The whole of the Kenali
lines, which had held up the French for so long,
had been evacuated, and the Bulgars had
retired five miles to their next position on the
Bistrica river, some four miles south of Mon-
astir.
The fall of the city was not, however, destined
to be brought about by a frontal assault. The
Bistrica line was thoroughly prepared, with deep
well-sited trenches protected by much barbed
wire. But heavy rains had turned the whole
district into a dreary swamp that made extensive
movement out of the question. Kenali had
fallen, and the French had advanced, but only