He soon saw an earnest of his misgivings in the sacking of isolated Armenian villages, and in renewed outbreaks of the feuds which were perpetually simmering on the Persian border between the Begzade Kurds and the Assyrians of Mergawar and Tergawar. A general massacre of all Christians began to be openly talked about; and when (in November) the expected happened, and Turkey entered the lists as a combatant, that event was signalised by the pillaging of all the Christian villages near Bashkala with the practically open approval of the local Ottoman authority. The first open fighting, however, occurred in neutral Persia--a country which should (theoretically) have been out of bounds to both sides. But Urmi, though nominally Persian, had for years been practically administered by the resident Russian "consul," and the Turks were not altogether unjustified in electing to regard it as enemy territory. A mixed force of Turks and Kurds swept down from the mountains upon Urmi, massacring the wretched Armenians, and driving before them the struggling Assyrians from the villages of Mergawar and Tergawar. They felt so confident of victory that, when within a mile or two of the city, they flung away the reserves of bread that they had brought with them, relying on the promise of their leaders that next day they would be sacking the bazaars. And, verily, it looked as if they would be; for Urmi is only defended by a ruinous mud wall, and its sole effective garrison (apart from the Assyrian auxiliaries) was the Russian consular guard. But it was now discovered that the consul had also in reserve a considerable stock of arms and ammunition, and with these the clansmen were rearmed. An opportune Russian reinforcement arrived in the nick of time from Tabriz, and the great assault on the morrow was decisively and bloodily repulsed. The invaders recoiled to the mountains, where their ill-disciplined Kurdish levies dispersed; and soon another defeat of a second Kurdish force near Suj Bulak rendered the position at Urmi, at all events, temporarily secure. But the Russian commanders were uneasy. Enver Pasha's invasion of Transcaucasia was by now beginning to make headway, and the Russians were recalling their detachments in Azerbaijan to meet the threat to Batum. They told the American missionaries that the utmost they could promise them was not to withdraw without full notice; and even this guarded promise proved illusory, for the very next morning brought them imperative orders from headquarters directing immediate evacuation. The whole Russian force marched off instantly--and in their train some 10,000 of the Christian population of Urmi, taking with them such scanty provision as they were able at the moment to collect. They saved their bare lives by their flight, and eventually the greater part of them found a miserable asylum at Tiflis; but the hardships of their journey, and of their prolonged exile, exacted a terrible toll.