The loss of Milouna Pass was a severe blow to Greece, but not half so bad
as the fall of Larissa, which from all accounts appears to have been a
very disastrous affair.

The Greeks appear to have behaved in a very cowardly, rebellious way, and
the whole story is very discouraging.

A battle was fought at Mati, and the Turks, who had swarmed through the
pass, were victorious, and the Greeks were forced to retreat.

Unfortunately there was no good general to manage the movement, and
instead of falling back in an orderly manner, they seem to have hurried
away from the battle in a mob.

A newspaper correspondent who was present says that the men straggled
along sullenly: the soldiers, mule-trains, carts, wagons, guns, and crying
villagers, women, and children in a panic-stricken crowd.

A few officers tried to restore order and to make the soldiers re-form
their ranks; but their efforts were already hopeless, when a cry arose:

"The Turks are upon us!"

At this, the mob began to run for life, helter-skelter, pell-mell,
trampling each other under foot, the soldiers actually shooting any one
who barred their way.

To make things still worse, the retreat had begun at nightfall, and it was
in the darkness of night that the cry, "The Turks are upon us!" was
raised.

As a matter of fact, there were no Turks in sight, and nobody quite knows
how the scare was started.

In their mad rush the people at last reached Larissa, leaving the road
they had travelled strewn with guns and baggage, and dead and dying
comrades.

Arrived in Larissa, the soldiers threw themselves on the ground, taking no
heed of the trumpets calling them to rejoin their regiments.

When morning came the officers collected their men, and formed them into
companies in marching order.

Then the news crept out that Larissa was to be abandoned; and another
scene of confusion followed, the people fighting each other in their mad
endeavors to escape.

Special trains moved out of the city for Volo; the people crowded the
platforms, and even climbed on the roofs of the cars in their eagerness to
get away.

The Greek army retreated to Pharsala, without so much as striking a blow
for Larissa!

So wild a rush was made when Larissa was abandoned, that the soldiers did
not even fold their tents or carry away their baggage.

When the Turks arrived before Larissa, they occupied the very tents left
by the fugitive Greek army.

You may imagine how angry Gre