in penetrating the
enemy's lines for a distance of two miles, taking Velyselo, and a day
later Baldentsi. At the beginning of this battle, which lasted two
days, the advantage rested with the Bulgarians. They held the higher
line beyond the Cerna River, whose slopes were so steep that they
could roll huge bowlders down on the attacking parties. After a two
hours' artillery preparation early in the morning, the Serbians
suddenly sprang forward with loud cheers and rushed the heights. From
the rear they could be recognized at a great distance, on account of
the large square of white calico which each man had sewn to the back
of his coat, and the leaders carried white and red flags with which to
indicate the farthest point reached, so that the artillery in the rear
could see and avoid shelling them. While the Serbians stormed one
crest, the artillery pounded the crest just beyond. Finally all the
crests were covered by little fluttering red and white flags, while
the Bulgarians fled headlong down the opposite slopes. On the
following day a period of very bad weather set in and drowned further
operations in a deluge of rain.

On the 21st came another report from Rome of some significance. In the
Iskeria Mountains east of Premeti an Italian detachment occupied
Lyaskoviki, on the road from Janina to Koritza. The latter town marks
the racial boundary between the Bulgarian and Albanian countries. To
the eastward was the rough country of Kastoria in which the Russians
were operating. In other words, the Italians were emerging from
Albania and were getting within reach of the Macedonian field of
operations. In fact, on the 29th it was reported that this Italian
expedition had linked up with the extreme left of the Allied wing, but
this report must have been quite premature; it still had some very
rough country to traverse before this could be accomplished. The end
of the month saw a lull in the operations in the entire Macedonian
theater on account of the bad weather.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

SEIZURE OF THE GREEK FLEET

On October 11, 1916, the patience of the Allies seems to have been
again exhausted with the wavering policy of the Greek monarch. On that
date Admiral du Fournier came to Athens and demanded the surrender of
the entire Greek fleet, except the cruiser _Averoff_ and the
battleships _Lemnos_ and _Kilkis_ (the latter two formerly the
American ships _Idaho_ and _Mississippi_). He further demanded the
transfer of