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

60 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
siegers.
A force had been sent by Khurshid Pasha to
its relief, but this had been defeated by Kolokotrones
at Yaltetsi, and the place, which had waited in vain
for the arrival of the Ottoman fleet with supplies, was
reduced to the last stage of starvation.
September
At the end of
it was obvious that the fall of the town
could not be postponed for many days.
At this time the command-in-chief of the army
was held by Prince Demetrius Hypsilanti; and had
he remained before Tripolitza, it is possible that the
horrors which followed might have been avoided, and
the Greek cause saved from an indelible disgrace.
Unfortunately, however, the Greek leaders, for their
own purposes, wanted him out of the way; and he
allowed himself to be persuaded to go to the north of
the Morea, to prevent the Turks landing troops from
the Gulf of Corinth.
The insurgent chiefs took advantage
of his absence to prepare for the surrender of
the town by selling promises of protection to the richer
inhabitants, and by opening, during the negotiations,
a brisk trade in provisions, at exorbitant prices, with
the starving townspeople. Meanwhile, also, Elmas
Bey, who commanded the Albanian garrison,
terms with Kolokotrones for himself
was arranging
special
and his men.
The cupidity of the chiefs dragged on
the negotiations, till the soldiers, suspecting that they