ems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
Karaiskakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
utterly destroyed the besieging force.

They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
were beginning to be in need.

The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
could be entered upo