The quiet town in the mountains was shaken by gun shots and the alarm of ringing church bells. The streets were filled with young men in insurgents' uniforms. The police headquarters were taken by storm and soon the red and green banner of the insurgents with an enraged lion embroidered on it with the words 'Freedom or Death' underneath was fluttering over it. A messenger was sent immediately on horseback to Panagyurishte carrying the celebrated 'letter signed in blood' from the insurgents in Koprivshtitsa to the com-mittee in Panagyurishte.
The letter gave rise to indescribable enthusiasm in Panagyurishte. Benkovski gave out the order to start the uprising immediately. In only several minutes power passed over into the hands of the insurgents. The detachment of Turkish gendarmes sent to Panagyurishte to arrest the revolutionary committee was put to flight. The local schoolmistress Raina Popgeorgieva, whom the people called Princess Raina, joined the insurgents dressed in their uniform, on horseback, holding aloft the banner she herself had sewn and embroidered.
Benkovski's fiery speech
The whole town gathered in the square to listen to Benkovski's fiery speech. A provisional government was formed with the prominent citizen of Panagyurishte Pavel Bobekov at the head. Couriers set out from the centre of the uprising, Panagyurishte, for all the villages in the district and for the other revolutionary districts with the long-awaited news and appeal to rise at once in an armed uprising. Benkovski himself assembled some 200 armed mounted insurgents who formed his legendary 'flying detachment' and led them on a tour of the villages to inspire and organize the people.
The fire of the uprising spread to almost all towns and villages in the district and in the cities of Plovdiv and Pazardjik, where numerous Turkish garrisons were stationed. The insurgents fought bravely but the forces of the enemy were superior. The entire might of the Empire was sent against their old rifles and wooden cannons made of cherry-tree trunks. The insurgent towns and villages fell one after another into the hands of the bashibozouks (irregular armed Turkish hordes) and of the regular forces, armed with most up-to-date weapons.
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