the confirmation of certain Turkish employees and submitted Christians residing at Retimo, was in the main accepted by most of my colleagues of the consular corps as the nearest to the truth which had been obtained; and, though in these lands of fable and myth no exact history can well be written, I believe that this is substantially the truth as to Arkadi. [I] The few men who were spared from this massacre were those who were able to appeal to Mustapha Pasha, or some of his suite, on the ground of ancient personal relations, or who succeeded in obtaining his clemency by some sufficient plea, after surrender. That all the butchery was not due to the heat of assault is shown by this and by several incidents reported to me. One of the latest parties of the combatants who surrendered on a promise of their lives was passed in review before the Pasha himself, and all who wore European clothing passed under the sword at once, as volunteers, though amongst them were several Cretans from the adjacent villages, whose relatives attested their nativity. When the refectory surrendered, the Pasha swore on the head of the Sultan to spare its inmates, who were required to hand out all their arms, and were afterwards butchered, even to the women. Mr. Skinner, in his "Roughing it in Crete," gives an account of his visit to Arkadi some months later, when he found the bodies still unburied, and describes the scene in the refectory with ghastly verity. After the fighting was all over, a party of irregulars went round with lighted candles, and, holding them to the noses of the corpses, gave the _coup de grace_ to all who breathed. Two Cretans had managed to hide on the roof of one of the buildings, where they remained till the next day, when, as the Albanians were leaving, one of them shot a pigeon which fell on the roof where the Cretans had hid, and, going up to secure his game, discovered the unfortunates, who were put to death in cold blood. On the march back to Retimo, all who could not keep up were at once killed, and those who reached the city were kept for months in prison and in extreme misery. CHAPTER VII.