Gorge near Rethymno and at Samaria Gorge at Lasithi, the Venetians withdrew to Chania, allowing the new Cretan government free rein over western Crete. Kantanoleon established his headquarters at Meskla at the foot of the Lefka Ori, about 15 kilometres south of Chania, and set up his government including a more acceptable level of taxation. The events that followed are disputed. Zambelios, in his book "The Cretan Weddings", claims that Petros (Kantanoleon's son) fell in love with Sophia (Molino’s daughter) and that Molino conspired with the Duke of Candia to trap and kill all the revolutionaries. Molino's plan was for a marriage between his daughter and Petros in which the invitees would be arrested and the rebels killed. A Venetian historian, however, stated that it was Kantanoleon that tried to impose a reconciliation between Cretans and the noble Venetian families of western Crete by arranging the marriage of his son to Molino's daughter, thus trying to establish a new dynasty to govern western Crete. Both historians agree on the events that transpired at the wedding. The wedding itself had a large number of invited Cretan guests and traditional festivities had large amounts of wine consumed (spiced with opium according to Zambelios). Eventually, all of the guests were surrounded by Venetian troops that came secretly from Chania, Rethymno, and Candia. The troops arrested both Kantanoleon and his son Petros and hanged them on the spot together with more than thirty other Cretan nobles. The rest of the prisoners, ranging in the hundreds, were divided into four groups and one was hanged at the gates of Chania, one at Koutsogerako, one on the road from Chania to Rethymno, and one at Meskla (the headquarters of the rebel government). Yet, the atrocities did not stop there as whole villages were destroyed including Koutsogerako, Meskla, and a few others. The atrocities continued for some time and quite a few Cretan leaders and their families fled up to the mountains and stayed there for some time until eventually an amnesty was issued. Sfakians and the fall of Constantinople In January 1453, Sultan Mehmet II had the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, surrounded. He decided that he was going to take it over either by breaking through the city's defenses or by starving the inhabitants into submission. The sultan had his troops and an enormous fleet at his disposal while the besieged Byzantines (and