710 CHAPTER XI.

THE END OF THE WAR.

Turkish vanguard, the Greeks retired after sundown. '"TAHE Turks had lost about 1,500 men in the battle of Domokos, nearly half the " loss falling upon the Adrianoplebrigade. The Greek loss was only about 400. They left in Domokos one of the large siege guns, but removed tlae rest of their artillery. Colonel Smolenski had also retreated in the night between May 17th and 18th, in obedience to orders telegraphed by the Crown Prince. Hakki Pasha had advanced from Persephli against Halmyros on the morning of the 17th with 5,000 men and eighteen guns, making a detour through the hills to avoid the coast road commanded by the Greek fleet. He sound ■the village heldonly by a rearguard, and got possession of it after a brief engagement about 2 o'clock in tlae afternoon. It was then reported by the scouts that Smolenski was entrenched at Platanos with five battalions and a mountain battery. Hakki contented himself with reconnoitring the position, and arranged for an attack at dawn next day. In the night tlae Greeks retreated to Serpi. Next morning Smolenski embarked his artillery at a fishing village on the coast,- and marched his infantry overa spur of the hills to the coast roadalong the shore of the channel of EubSa. He reached Lamia on the 19th. The Greek fleet hadleft tlaeGulf of Volo theday before.

The Turks resumed their advance on the morning of the 19th, Haidar's brigade and Hamdi's division marching through the Pass, Memdhukmoving by the mountainpaths to the east of it. The Greeks were evacuatingLamia, the army and the civil population moving southwards to the Pass of Thermopylæ. The Turks had actually come in contact with the Greek rearguard near Taratsa, on tlae winding roadthat descends from the Pass to the townof Lamia, and had driven them from their first position, when a flag of truce was sent forward from the Greek lines. The officer whobrought it stated thai news had arrivedfrom Athens of an armistice being signed, and requested that the Turkish advance should be stopped. Seyfullah Pasha, who was with the vanguard, consented to halt until he could communicate with Edhem Pasha.

The news was true. On the morningof May 19th the Sultan, satisfied with the success at Domokos, had yielded to the representations of tlae foreign ambassadors, and consented to the armisticebeing signed. A telegram announcing the fact reachedEdhem Pasha's headquartersin the afternoon.

The Greekarmy continued its retreat during the day, and took up a new defensive position on tlae spurs of Mount Rta and in the Pass of Thermopylæ. While the negotiations were in progress and there was still a chance that the armistice might be broken off and hostilities resumed, the Crown Prince was engaged m fortifying this new position. Tlae first conditions proposed by Turkey were so disadvantageous to Greece that, desperate as the alternative was, many expected to see her forced into a defence a ouirance. The Sultandemanded tO therecession of all Thessaly and the restoration of the oldfrontiei of 1831; (2) the payment of a war indemnity of 10,000,000 Turkish pounds, equal to about -£"9,200,000 sterling ; (3) As soon as the Turkish staff was aware of the Greek retreat, orders were issued for an immediate pursuit. Hamdi and Memdhuk's divisions,with their mountainbatteries, were to move on thePhurka Pass by the hill tracks east of Domokos. Neshat and Hairi's divisions occupied theDomokos position. Haidar Pasha's division, now reduced to a brigade, was sent forward along the east side of Lake Nezeros. Late in the afternoon Haidar's column and the vanguards of Hamdi and Memdhuk's troops were converging on the northern approach to the Phurka. They sound a Greek rearguard with a mountain battery holding the entranceof the Pass. After exchanging fire with tlae