line of retreat was along the highway from Pristina to
Prisrend. The Bulgarians, pressing on after, took the heights west of
Ferizovitch and also advanced northward toward Ipek, against which
point Koevess had sent a detachment. The retreat to Prisrend was
covered by the Shumadians. On November 27, 1915, 80,000 Serbians stood
at bay in front of this town, but next day, after a few hours'
fighting, and having used up all their ammunition, they unbreeched
their guns and fled across the frontier into Albania, making along the
White Drin for Kula Liuma, while several thousands of them fell
prisoners into the hands of the enemy. Thus was the last shot of the
Serbian resistance in the northern section of the country fired.

[Illustration: Retreat of Serbians.]

The retreat of the Serbian armies through the mountains of Albania was
almost as heartrending as the flight of the civilian population. Day
by day, thousands of men, ill-clad and ill-shod, or with bare and
bleeding feet, so famished that they fed on the flesh of dead horses
by the wayside, stumbled painfully and wretchedly along, over trails
deep in snow, some going west toward Scutari, others attempting to
reach Greece through Elbassan and Dibra. All semblance of military
formation or order was lost; they were now nothing more than a fleeing
mob of disorganized peasants, some unarmed, others with guns but no
ammunition. Officers and men trudged on side by side, on equal
terms. Once an Austrian light mountain battery, following on the
heels of the retreat, had arrived at the mouth of a long defile
through which the last of the retreating Serbians were winding their
way into the mountains, in single file. The Austrian battery
immediately opened fire and swept the defile from end to end of all
human life.

While the main Serbian armies were being driven out of their native
land, the Bulgarians, after taking Babuna Pass and Kitchevo and
Kruchevo, on November 20, 1915, halted on their way to Monastir, now
only a few miles distant. Monastir itself is practically an
unfortified city; it lies on the edge of a broad level plain, offering
not the least advantage to a defending force. A few guns might easily
sweep the city into a heap of ruins. But above Monastir towers a lofty
mountain, so steep that even under peaceful conditions a strong man
finds it hard to climb. A few guns placed in position among the rocks
on top of this mountain could command the city and all of the