A RETREAT FROM ADRIANOPLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 8, 10 April 1878, Page 4

A RETREAT FROM ADRIANOPLE.

The following account of personal adventure is extracted from privste letters of Colonel Borthwick (Mahir Bey), who, havinsf come down from the army of the Lorn to join Sulieman Pasha, found himself unable to pet bpyond Adriannple, where the Muchir Ahmpd Eyoub could not acquaint him with the position in which he might find tbe chief to whose staff he was attached. He writes home to Adrianople on the 14th January : — Refugee*, mostly women and children, are leaving this place at tbe rate of from 3000 to 4000 daily. You can scarcely picture to yourself the scene at the station ; thousands waiting ail night in the bitter cold without shelter ; yet, but for the wailing of women and children, one would scarcely appreciate their sufferings, so patent are they. Dead soldiers, and many women and children have been taken out of the waggons and quietly buried in the fields close by." Soon after this — on the 18th — a retreat was beat from Adrianople, where Colonel Borthwick had hoped a defence would have been made, and just bs he left, tbe powder magazines were fired. " Scarcely n window remained in the town ; the effect of the explosion was a weird and regrettable sight." He rereceived orders to make the best of his way to Constantinople, and the following is his account of the journey : — "It was late in the afternoon when we got off, amidst the thousands of refugees that blocked the way, so we fetched no village that night, but plodded on till 2.30 a.m., when I waa fain to break up a waggon and light a fire by which to sleep for a whiles The thermometer was below freezing point, and the ground literally as hard as iron, which precluded the bare possibility of my pitching my tent, so I rolled myself up in my fur-lined great coal, and turned in on mother earth and slept till five, having had a biscuit as hard as the earth, and a cup of chocolate. The scene amongst the poor half-clothed, nearly Btarving refugees was enough to tear stronger hearts than mine. What could one do ? The next day I reached the email village of Hofea, pillaged and partly burnt, only pilgrims like myself in it, and not a morsel of bread to be got. I and my horse fared badly that night. The next day I reached a farmstead, to the greater pa"rt of which the Circassians had put fire. As soon as we arrived here my borße got some corn. I had but a tiny bit of rread and a drop of bad water which was soon expended. In the tmantimo, to make matters worse, in ihe mid<il9 of the night I found that ihe fire Iha lit had coromi/nicated itself to the ceiling, and the upper part of the room was in flames. It took me a couple of hours bard work to clear the burning rafters by climbing on the roof, after which I got an hour or two's sleep, still all dreeeed. In fact I was twelve days without taking off my clothes. The next day I came on for Lule Burgas, and one of the first objects that met my view on the road was a poor frozen refugee woman. She was lying very much in the position of one dead from fire — the knees bent up and fists clenched ; her legs were bare to the knees, and I remarked that the skin was red and raw, as though scalded; the lips and eye's were hideously swollen. It was a ghastly sight to look upou, and heartbreaking. 1 could have cried, but dwelt no longer on it than to make these notes. I had painful reason to know shortly afterwards that such eights are only too common. Hundreds of women, children, and men have remained behind their companions in the aame state. One poor wretch plunged her knife into the hearts of her two infants before her friends could arrest her. She quietly answered, in quite a sensible way, ' Poor things, they are at rest, whereas what have I not to suffer?' On the road from here to Lule Burgas I fell in with a major, Salih Bey, retiring with the remnant of his battalion, viz., 200 men. We marched on together, I having lest my servants and baggage. When we got to Lule Burgas, where we only proposed to spend the night, the Caimakam of the town and the principal inhabitants came to us in tearß to beg that we would remain some time for their protection against Circassian marauders. During tbe first two days, viz., 21st and 22nd, we managed to catch some of these Circassian devils ; about twenty we bastinadoed at the Hukumet or Serai, and some four we sent on ia irons to Constantinople after thrashing them, They ought to have been Bhot, but, being Mussulmans, I doubt whether we should have got our men to pull a trigger against them, and we were far too weak to risk ill blood. The Circassian irregulars are fiends ; they murder for plunder, and, once begun, they murder for fun, without even hopes of loot. While we remained none of them dared show in town, but two or three hundred "committed great and brutal outrages in the district. We recovered a good deal of stolan clothing, &c, and distributed it amongst the most needy of the suffering. A telegram was BBot on pur part to Raul Pasha, Minister of War, to say what was the state of affair b, aßk for orders, and beg for a few cavalry with which we might tackle theße brutes outside. With infantry we were prepared to defend the people in tbeir little town — but what more could we do? We got an answer of thanks for what we had done from Ilaouf, but he said nothing of cavalry, only urged us to Btay till the Rußßi&ns should come out, of AdrittDopb pod iv the meaofcime we

were to keep him informed. We remained till the Ruesions were within an hour of ue, and then started, leaving the people comparatively at ease ; and as the Circasians were off as soon as we had wind of the enemy, the poor people felt relieved, and thanked us with many tears. Ihe rest of the rest of the road was much the same story from day to day, except that the weather became floer and milder, thank God. I by good fortune struck the rail a few miles from Constantinople, and by good luck managed to get myself and horse in for the rest of the way, though, owing to the blocked slate of the road, it took us twentyfour hours to do about as many miles by rail. Above my compartment there were some fifty poor people on tbe roof, and the filth that the doors and sides of the carriage were covered with was pitiful and sickening. Poor things they could not help it — grouped like herrings for days together. To-day (29th January) Raouf Pasha thanked me verbally for the part I had taken in helping and succouring the people of Lule Burgas at my own risk without orders. My servant John turned up last night, thank goodness — two days later than myself, but luckily with all the baggage safe. He wormed his way down to Takei Dagh, and from there came in the Austrian boat. Ozman comes by the road with the other two horses, they not being accepted on board. I hope he will appear to-morrow. Said Paßha this morning sadly regretted to me England's total indifference to the condition of her old ally. What could I say ? I felt for the first time in my life almost ashamed of my country. Heaven grant England herself may not one day have to suffer too keetly for her present conduct,"