The convent was a hollow square of buildings, with a large court, in the centre of which stood the church. The inner and outer walls were equally solid, and the cells and rooms opening into the court were garrisoned with bodies of the insurgents, who poured a hail of bullets into the mass of Ottomans entering, but, the entrance once made, defence and submission were alike fruitless. The troops killed all who fell into their hands, fighting their way from cell to cell, and bringing even their artillery into the rooms to penetrate the partition walls. And so the struggle of extermination was fought out, until one of the priests, who had previously expressed to his companions the determination to blow up the magazine if the convent were entered, finding death inevitable, fulfilled his threat, and changed what was before but a profitless butchery into a deed of heroism, which again saved the insurrection from the jaws of failure. The result of the explosion was very limited so far as the combatants were concerned, and probably did not kill a hundred Turks. But even this catastrophe did not stop the carnage. The troops recoiled, but again returned, and the last of the combatants defending themselves in the refectory, having exhausted their bullets, surrendered on the faith of an oath that their lives should be spared, and were at once put to death. At the end, thirty-three men and sixty-one women and children were spared.[I] Of the pandemonium that the walls of Arkadi enclosed, I have heard many and ghastly hints, and have in vain asked eye-witnesses to tell me what they saw; they all said it was too horrible to be recalled or spoken of. One of the most violent of the Mussulman fanatics of Crete, who had performed all the pilgrimages and holy works required by the Koran, and earnestly desired as the last grace of this life to die in the holy war against the infidels, and had fought recklessly in all the battles he had been able to participate in, went home after Arkadi in despair, declaring that destiny forbade his dying the holy death. Mustapha was a general of the old type, and did not care to win bloodless victories or spare the lives of his troops, and the result, apart from the moral effect, was far more disastrous to the Porte than to the insurrection. The losses in killed and wounded were certainly not less than 1,500, and were estimated at a much higher figure. The army was occupied thirty-six hours in bringing the wounded into Retimo, and nearly 500, unable to find place there, were brought on to Canéa (480 was the number given me by a European surgeon in the Ottoman service). The Pasha himself saw that he had made a blunder, and everything which the local administration could effect to disguise and conceal the nature of the event was done. I had, however, fortunately sent a trusty man to Retimo on the first intimation of the movement, with orders to get me the most minute and exact information possible, and his report, with