680 THE QUAY AT VOLO.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIGHTING AT VELESTINO.

Marshal Ghazi Osman Pasha had left Constantinople for the front on April 23rd. He reached Salonika next morning, and was to have proceeded by train to Karaveria and then to have ridden over to Elassona to take the command out of the hands of Edhem Pasha. But, on hearing the news of the Greek rout of the night before, he decided to go no further. Edhem was an old friend of the veteran marshal. When Osman was defending Plevna, it was Edhem, then a colonel, who commanded in the Gravitza redoubts, and hurled back the Russians again and again from these two small field works whichhis valour made famous in modern military history. Osman had no wish to supersedehis oldcomrade of Plevna,and the Sultan agreed to his suggestion that Edhem should be allowed to retain the command in Thessaly and reap the full fruit ofhis victory.

Slow and sure wasEdhem's policy throughout the campaign. Having securedLarissa,he prepared for his advance against the new positions of the Greeks in the same leisurely fashion in which he had directed the march of his divisions from the border passes into the plain of Larissa. He thus gave the Greeks time to recover from the shock causedby the collapse of their first line of defence and the simultaneous disaster to their arms both in Thessaly and in Epirus.

The Greek Government had up to the last moment published optimist reports of what was passing on the frontier. The Press censorship with the army had not only stopped all news unfavourableto the Greek arms, butit had also "corrected" very freely the information it allowed to reach Athens, and that which was telegraphed to foreign countries. The tidings of defeat came like a thunderclap to startle the Athenian public from its dream of victory. There was an outburst of popular indignation against tlae Premier, M. Delyannis, against the commanders in the field, and against the commodoresof the fleet. The report that the Government had asked for the mediation of England, France, and Russia, in order to procure an armistice, only added to the general excitement. It was declared that all might yet be regained,and that to surrender after a first defeat was out of tlaequestion. On the Monday the Ministry cancelled the appointments cf severalofficers on the staff of the Crown Prince, and appointedColonel Smolenski chief of the staff, with power to select his new colleagues. At the same time Commodore Sakhtouris was deprived of the command of the Eastern Squadron,and replacedby Admiral Stamatellos.