SMOLENSKI'S MOVEMENTS 695 sooting on the rocky hillside on his left flank.

Attacked on tlae centre, turnedon the left,and withhis ammunition nearly exhausted,Smolenski's position was becoming desperate. The irregulars on the left broke as theTurkish fire look them in flank and rear, and in their flight was left of Haidar's division, which had just been brought up from Larissa, was directed to march by Gherli to Rizomylon. Haidar's force, originally the 4thDivision,hadbeen reduced to six battalions, in order to bring up tlae other divisions to full strength. It was now officially known as the Reserve Brigade. Before it started for Gherli two battalions were added to it from the 2nd Division. Thus, on the morning of the 6th, about 14,000 fresh troops wereset inmovement against Smolenski.

they threw a regular battalion into confusion. Smolenski rode up and, with the help of his staff, rallied the fugitives. Two hundred wounded who had been collected at Velestino were placed in a train and startedoff for Volo, andpreparations were made for the retreat that None of these troops, however, arrived at Velestino till the 7th. On the evening of the 6th,Memdhuk's divisionbivouacked nearSeratsi, within three miles of the road by which Smolenski, with the Greek left wing from Velestino, was retreating on Halmyros. The Turks werequite unawareof this movement,or they might easily have cut off Smolenski's retreat. Nor had he any idea that 10,000 Turks were so dangerouslynearhis flank.

had now become inevitable. But every effort was made to prolong the resistance till sunset, in order that the retreat might be madeunder thecover of darkness. As the sun went down, the Turks at last seized the railway station, cut the line,and then pressed on into the town of Velestino, which wasset on fare.

The Greek retreat had already begun. The capture of the railway station had cut Smolenski's force in two. The smaller part of it, forming the right wing, fell back along the Volo road. The larger part, the left wing, under Smolenski's personal command, retreated to Halmyros in good order by the road that runs along the lower slopes of the hills on tlae west side of the Gulf of Volo. There was some When tlae troops of the Greek right wing reached Volo during the night of the 6th, accompanied by a terror-stricken crowd of villagers from all the country round, the alarm spread like wildfire through the town that the Turks were coming, and that the place would be sacked and burned. The presence of the Greekbattleships, and the warships of England, France, and Italy, did nothing to allay the panic. Everyone seemedto bepossessedby the same idea— to get away as soon as might be by sea to EubSa, or one of the other islands of the Archipelago. There were five large steamers in the port, and a considerablenumber of small trading craft. Those that lay near the shore were at once rushed by the fugitives. Crowds linedthe quays, begging to be takenoff to the steamers. It was in vain that the local authorities assured them that everyone who wishedto go would be given a passagesooner or later. All wanted to get away at tlae earliest possiblemoment.

confusion in the march of the right wingalong the Volo road, but there was, happily, no repetitionof the Larissa panic. The march was partly guided by the long white rays of the searchlights from theGreek battleships in Volo harbour.

Edhem Pasha had received no news during the 5th of the progress of events at Velestino. On the morning of the 6th,soon after the news of the evacuation of Pharsala, there came a report that the Greeks were still holding their ground on the Velestino position. These tidings caused some anxiety at the Turkish headquarters, for some of Edhem's staff had suggested that the Greeks might maintain themselves on the Velestino hills, receiving reinforcements and supplies by sea through Volo, and making the place a second Plevna, that would indirectly bar the advance towards Athens. For no Turkish army could march southwards unless the Velestino position was either captured or masked by a considerable force.

Early on the 6th, therefore, Edhem took steps to assist Hakki in his operations against Smolenski, Memdhuk's division was orderedto The Greek soldiersfoimed a lane through the crowd, guarded with fixed bayonets, and more than a hundred boxes were conveyed to the quay and sent on board the Greek waiships. Rumour said that they contained the treasure of the army and the Government archives of Volo. Then one of the steamers flying the Red Cross drew into the quay, and it was with difficulty the crowd was kept back as the wounded from thehospitals werecarried on board of her. The staff and appliances on board were part of the personnel and equipmentof the Daily Chronicle arch eastwards along the railway, and what