had brought it into great straits for food.

The insurgents retired before the advance of Mustapha, who gathered
the garrison and all the Mussulman families and began his return. I
had from my balcony followed his course going out by the smoke
of burning villages, and after two weeks, during which we had no
authentic information of his progress, all messengers having been
intercepted by the Christians, I got the first intimation of his
return by the same ominous signal in the distance. At Kakopetra, a
very difficult pass in the extreme west of the island, he was beset
by the bands of the insurrection, and had they been armed adequately
there had been an end of Mustapha and his army, who managed to
struggle through only after a running fight of several days, with
losses amounting, as one of the surgeons in the hospital assured me,
to 120 killed and 800 wounded, most apparently with pistol balls, the
Cretans having only the old _tufeks_ and smooth-bored pistols of their
fathers. At that moment, there was probably not a rifle in the ranks
of the insurgents.

There was, of course, now no question of conciliation. Both sides had
their blood up, and the successes had been mainly for the insurgents.
They held the hills above Canea, whence all their movements were
visible, and the next operation of Mustapha was to clear the road to
their headquarters at Theriso, a very strong position in the foothills
of the Sphakian mountains, from which the insurgents raided the plain.
From my balcony I could see all the operations, and that the two
battalions sent out, after fighting all day over the first line of
defenses, were obliged to retire, having effected nothing. The next
day a force of 5000 men went out, before whom the Cretans made a
fighting retreat to Theriso, where they held their own during the rest