Gradually I came to extend the sphere of my labour, as the knowledge grew upon me that at least one other chapter of modern history in con nection with that much-fought-for town is un recorded: the attacks of the Servians in 1885 and the heroic defence of the Bulgarian garrison. That, after I had decided to include this event, I had to make my work comprehend also the Turco Servian War of 1876 was almost a matter of necessity. From this to brief accounts of the part which Widdin and Calafat played in the Oriental War, 18 5 3 and 1854, and in the russo-turkish campaign of 1828 and 1829, and of Pasvan Oq's remarkable rebellion in the beginning of the present century — all episodes practically unknown to the average reader — it was but a few steps more; and a general, though unavoidably sketchy, retrospect of the history of the town, since its foundation by the Romans, followed in natural sequence. This is the evolution of the present work.