The Free Besieged

However, the defenders managed to keep the city for almost one year, but a number of factors like the numerically superior strength of the Ottomans, the continuous assaults and the lack of food and other supplies led them to decide a heroic sortie on the night of 10 April 1826.

[3] The siege and the subsequent sortie were one of the most stirring events of the Greek Revolution (1821–1830) and in fact the besieging forces were so overwhelming that there was no doubt about the result of the struggle.

It is not only their physical condition of starvation and destitution, but also the far more subtle and insidious effect on them of the spell cast by nature itself: the work is set in the last days of the siege, just before the Easter of 1826, during springtime, and two of its sections are dedicated to the beauty of spring.

[6] Thus, at one time the poet describes pastoral scenes of peace which are suddenly disrupted by a bugle call, faintly blown by one of the defending soldiers, to waken and rescue their souls from 'enchantment'.

On the other hand, memories of past happiness and love also provide a poignant background to their sufferings, as in a scene where a soldier recalls his last meeting with his girlfriend, who died during the siege.