Mustapha immediately retraced his steps to Canéa, and, housing himself outside the walls, having sworn not to re-enter his capital until the insurgents had been subdued, called a council to plan measures to strike a quick blow at the insurrection before the effect of Arkadi should be felt in the public opinion of Europe. Up to that time the struggle had seemed to me a hopeless and insane one, and though my warmest sympathies had been, of course, with the Cretans, as victims of a monstrous injustice--a sequence of crimes--I had not dared utter a word of hope or encouragement in reply to all the earnest appeals to me by the friends of the insurrection. Now, seeing the enthusiasm that Arkadi excited amongst the insurgents and even the mutis (submitted Christians), I felt that there was a hope that Christendom would be compelled to listen to the history being enacted before it on this sea-girt mountain ridge. That the Pasha also felt this was evident both from his words and acts. He made new and more tempting offers to the Sphakiote chiefs, and employed the well-known appliances of Eastern politics to make friends amongst the insurgents, but with only partial success. At the same time, he made preparations for another attack on Sphakia, but this time from the west via Selinos. He, therefore, leaving Mehmet Pasha to guard Krapi with four or five battalions, concentrated all his available forces besides, at Alikianu, his _point de départ_ for the first Theriso campaign. All this country had been abandoned, and had to be reconquered, particularly Theriso, which, if unoccupied, would be a menace to his communications with Canéa. At the same time, a concentration of the volunteers and insurgents took place in the plain of Omalos, by which alone access is had to Sphakia from this side. A force of volunteers recently landed were engaged in a foolish siege of Kissamos, a worthless position to either side, as it was commanded by the men-of-war, and could not be held if taken; and the different chiefs of the volunteers were kept ineffective by dissensions and jealousies amongst themselves, each refusing to obey any other. Coroneos and Zimbrakakis, however, united their forces to resist the attack on Omalos. The volunteers, under the command of Soliotis, a Hellenic officer, made a gallant defence of the position of Lakus, but were compelled to retreat to the upper ridges which border Omalos, while Theriso was abandoned before a flank movement of Mehmet Pasha, obliged temporarily to leave the Apokorona undefended. Omalos, however, resisted direct attack, and the Pasha moved round by the passes of Kissamos to the west of the mountains, devastating as he went, and driving before him all the non-combatants of the country he passed through. By this time the snow had fallen with unusual severity of cold for that climate, and the insurgents, although ill-provided against an inclemency they usually escaped from in the plains below,