THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

128 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
Botzares himself made straight for the tent of the Bey,
which had been pitched within a small enclosure surrounded
by a wall.
Raising his head above the wall
to see how an entrance could be effected, the Suliot's
head became visible against the sky, and he received a
bullet through the brain. The death of their beloved
leader was a terrible blow to the Suliots, and put a stop
to their proceedings, but not before they had slain some
two thousand of the enemy.
Taking up the body of
Botzares, and laden with an immense booty, they retired
without molestation. Had the ^Etolian Armatoli
taken part in the attack, as had been arranged, the
force of Djelaleddin must have been annihilated;
but
their jealousy of Botzares and his Albanians had kept
them idle spectators; and, as it
was, the Ottoman com-
and Mustai's
mander kept command of the ground,
march was hardly delayed.
At the end of September, the Ottoman commanderin-chief
formed, at Vrachori, a junction with Omer
Vrioni, who commanded an army
of some four thousand
Mussulman Tosks, an Albanian tribe speaking a
dialect distinct from that of the Ghegs, with whom it
was by no means on friendly terms. With this heterogeneous
force Mustai, in October, proceeded to lay
siege to Anatoliko, a small town in the ^Etolian lagoons,
about five miles west of Missolonghi.
The place