A DISASTROUS NIGHT FOR GREECE. 675 of rifles (the 3rd Euzonoi), four batteries, and a few horsemen.

than 200 had fallen in the unequal fight, and he himself was wounded. The column sent towards Pentepigadia for some reason made a very late start. It did not get away tillthe afternoon. Then marching up the Luros Valley, it bivouacked for the night nearKerassovon. It had made a short marchof a few miles,and, as we shall see, when it halted the fate of the battalion that held the fort had alreadybeendecided.

MahnaudBey hadbeen delayedin his advance along the Luros road by bands of Greek irregulars, and towards evening exchanged some shots with the column destined for Pentepigadia as it halted nearKerassovon. In thenight Coumoundouros joined the column, and next day it retired onPhilippiades. Ithadbeen a disastrous night for Greece; the abandonment of Fort Pentepigadia took place on the same eveningas the panic-stricken retreat of the Crown Prince's army to Larissa.

At early morning on the 23rd, the Turks, having completed their reorganisation, put a part of their 2nd Division inmotion southwards from the fork of the roads at Davitschon Han. The troops moved in two columns— the right column, under Colonel Mahmud Bey,followed the road down tlae valley of the Luros;the left, under Colonel Mustapha Bey, marched by the old road that runs through the Pentepigadia defile. Mahmud had only two battalions with him. Mustapha, who expected to find at least a strong Greek advanced guard at the fort, had five battalions and a mountain battery.

On the morning of the 24th, Colonel Manos countermanded his unfortunate orders of the day before, and directeda general concentration of his troops with a view to attacking the Turks at Pentepigadia next day. The Turks were entrenching themselves on the ground they had won,andpushedreconnoitring parties southward by both theroads. That same day therewas an indecisive skirmish between Turks and Greeks on the upper Arta near Kalentsi.

During the .day, Colonel Manos was informed that theTurks were beingcontinually reinforced, and he also receivedthe depressingnews of the collapse in Thessaly. He therefore once more changedhis plans and resolved to stand on the defensive. He telegraphed to Athens for reinforcements, and was told in reply that all that could be sent to him wouldbe 2,500 gendarmes and armed police and some Garibaldian volunteers,but eventhese would not be available for a week. He moved his first brigade into the Pentepigadia Valley between Kanopulo and Mechista,left a small detachment to hold Philippiades, and posted a company of infantry and two guns at the bridge of Luros. The bulk of the 2nd Brigade was sent back to Arta, where he established his headquarters. It was a confession of failure.

He was nearBuratsa whenhis scouts informed him that the Greeks were holding both sides of the defile north of the sort. He at once formed for attack, with two battalions east of the road and one west of it,hisguns in the centre, with two more battalions in reserve. The guns openedfire, and just as the fight began a Greek company, formed of volunteers from the Ionian Islands, broke and fled in a panic. This left Major Coumoundouros only 600 rifles with whichto meet the attack of a battery and more than 3,000 infantry. But for seven hours he heldhis groundon the rocky hill-sides,repulsing four successive attacks and making such an obstinate defence that the Turks never realised the weakness innumbers of the force opposed to them. If the belated reinforcements had only arrived, he might have not only held the position,but made a successful counter-attack On the 25th a Turkish columnrecaptured the bridge ofPlakka after a sharp skirmish. Feeling thatJanina wasnow safe,OsmanPashaestablished his headquarters at Fort Pentepigadia. But, though he was a young general,he had all the traditional slowness of the Turk. Instead of holding the Greeks in front and turning their flank by the Luros Valley, he remained idle for three days collecting further reinforcements, while his outposts entrenched to the south of the fort occasionally exchangeddistantrifle shots with the outpo.-ts ot the Greek ist Brigade.

on the Turks.

In the course of the day Ahmed Hifzi had started off four more battalions from Davitschon, three to reinforce Mustapha, and one to Mahmud. One of these battalions arrived in time to take part in the fourth attack on the Greek position. When it was repulsed, Coumoundouros,having exhausted his ammunition and knowing nothing of the approaching reinforcements, decided to withdraw,and retreated >n pood order into the Luros Valley under the cover of darkness. Of his brave 600, more At List, on April 29th, he advanced with6,000 men against the Greeks, who held a ridge