In Greek Waters Part 32

The Greek replied that they were going to run their trenches forward against the citadel from this point.

"Well, then, they are fonder of work than I gave them credit for,"

Miller said when he understood the reply. "If the whole of them were to set to work in earnest, it would take them a month to run their trenches from here up to the citadel, and, at the rate at which they are working now, it would take them a couple of years."

Returning to the town Mr. Beveridge called upon Lykourgos, who had taken up his quarters in the bishop's palace. The Greek received him with an air of much greater pomposity than he had shown at their first meeting. He evidently believed that the work was almost accomplished, and that he was already the conqueror of the island.

"I have been doing some good work this morning," he said. "I have deposed the Demogeronts (the Munic.i.p.al Council). You know they were poor creatures and lukewarm, and I have appointed a Revolutionary Committee."

"Indeed!" Mr. Beveridge said gravely. "And what military work have you in hand? It seems to me that the men would be much better employed in working at the batteries than in idling about the streets."

"The citadel will soon fall," Lykourgos said loftily. "Cut off from all succour and surrounded by my army they must speedily surrender."

"Undoubtedly they must, if they were so situated," Mr. Beveridge said; "but, so far as I see, there is nothing whatever to prevent the Turks from sending reinforcements from the mainland."

"I am writing to ask the government at Corinth to order the fleet here to blockade the island and oppose the Turkish fleet when they come in sight."

"That would be excellent," Mr. Beveridge said; "but the central government are not famous for speed, nor are the s.h.i.+ps of Hydra and Psara very apt to obey orders unless these happen to suit their own views. Could you not send a few of those vessels of yours to prevent the Turks from sending reinforcements?"

"That would be quite impossible," Lykourgos said decidedly. "In the first place, they are mere transports, the greater proportion carrying no guns, and those that do have guns of such light calibre that they could not oppose the Turkish cruisers that would no doubt convoy any vessels bringing Turkish troops across. In the second place, I could not spare a s.h.i.+p, for, were the Turkish fleet to arrive before the Greek fleet comes to my a.s.sistance, I should have to re-embark my army at once. I shall soon be in a position to press the siege more vigorously. I have already received messages saying the peasantry among the hills are about to join me."

Mr. Beveridge, seeing that there was no prospect of any vigorous efforts to restore discipline among the Greeks, returned to the schooner. Day after day pa.s.sed and nothing whatever was done. A few soldiers, when the fancy took them, worked for an hour or two at the batteries, or fired away their ammunition in the direction of the citadel. Neither Lykourgos nor his committee made any attempt to introduce either discipline among the troops or order in the town.

No news came from Corinth as to the movements of the Greek fleet, but a vessel arrived with a few heavy guns for siege purposes, and also brought several Philh.e.l.lenes--as foreigners who had come to a.s.sist the Greeks were called--to direct the service of the guns.

In consequence of the disorder in the town the position of the better cla.s.s of Christians became intolerable. Mr. Beveridge landed but seldom. He saw that nothing could be done, and that the expedition must certainly end in disaster, and accordingly preferred to remain on board and await events.

Two of the officers generally landed every day. Some of the men were also allowed to go on sh.o.r.e, but were forbidden to approach the neighbourhood of the town lest they should become involved in quarrels with the Greeks. One day, when Horace was ash.o.r.e with Tarleton, he spoke sharply to a drunken Greek soldier who ran against him.

Presently Tarleton said:

"There has been a Greek following us since you spoke to that drunken man, Horace. He looks a respectable old card. I fancy he wants to speak to you, having heard you talking Greek."

"Why doesn't he speak then?" Horace said.

"Perhaps he wants to talk to you in quiet, Horace."

"Very well. Let us turn down this narrow street. There is no one about, and that will give him a chance of speaking if he wants to."

The Greek, indeed, quickened his steps as soon as they turned down, and was soon alongside of them.

"You speak Greek, sir?" he said to Horace. "I have been wanting to speak to some of you officers, but this is the first time I have heard one of you speaking Greek."

"Yes, I speak the language. Is there anything I can do for you, sir?"

"Do you belong to an English s.h.i.+p-of-war, may I ask?"

"No; I belong to an armed s.h.i.+p, which is the property of my father, who is a Philh.e.l.lene, and has fitted it out at his own expense for the service of Greece, whose flag we now fly."

"Your sailors are taking no part in the siege of the citadel?"

"No, sir. My father does not think the expedition a useful one, and we are only remaining here to see what takes place, and perhaps to give a.s.sistance to any who may need it."

"We all need it, sir," the man said eagerly. "We have been robbed and plundered by these ruffians, who call themselves our friends, and when they run away, which they will do directly the Turks come, we shall be held responsible for all their misdeeds, and a terrible vengeance will fall upon us. I was a wealthy man, sir, a fortnight ago; now I would give all I possess to save the lives of my family and myself, and there are eight or ten of my friends in the same position. We have jewels and money, and are ready to pay any sum to be taken off the island before the Turks come. You have but to name a price, and if it is within our means we shall be happy to pay it."

"We are not Greeks," Horace said angrily, "to make money out of the miseries of others." And then, seeing the depressed look of the merchant, he went on more mildly: "We do not wish to make money out of your misfortune, sir; but I will speak to my father, and I think I can answer for him that he will be ready to afford you and your friends and families shelter on board his s.h.i.+p. We lately took five hundred Christians off from Cyprus and landed them on the Ionian Isles. We came out to fight, but my father has since named his s.h.i.+p the _Misericordia_, and his desire is to help persons in distress, whether they be Turks or Christians. I will speak to him when I return on board, and if you will be here to-morrow at eleven o'clock in the morning I will give you his answer."

The merchant overwhelmed Horace with thanks.

"What is the old chap so excited about, Horace?" Tarleton asked as they resumed their walk.

Horace repeated the conversation.

"Poor beggars!" Tarleton said. "A nice position they are in! I wish we had the crew of a man-of-war here; we would clear out the town pretty sharply of these ruffians who call themselves soldiers, and send these peasants who are swarming about the streets back to their mountains. I see they have got the muskets your father sent on sh.o.r.e yesterday. Much good will they do them! The men had far better be at home looking after their vineyards and orchards."

Mr. Beveridge agreed at once to afford shelter to the merchants and their families.

"I thought it would come to this," he said, "and expected some of them would come off and ask to be taken on board before; but I suppose they did not know our real character. We shall have plenty more applying before this matter is concluded; but I doubt whether Lykourgos and his crew will allow them to come on board so long as they have a penny left to be wrung out of them. The scoundrel ought to be hung, if it was only for being named as he is. It is downright profanation to hear such names as Ulysses, Lycurgus, Leonidas, and Miltiades applied to men who do not seem to possess one single good quality, not even that of courage. Tell them, Horace, that we will carry out any arrangements for getting them off that they may suggest, and that at any hour by night or day the boats shall be at the spot they appoint, and that a strong body of men shall be sent on sh.o.r.e to cover their embarkation."

Martyn himself accompanied Horace the next morning to sh.o.r.e, as he thought it would be better that he should hear what were the plans of the merchant, and might be able to make suggestions as to their being carried out. The Christian merchant was awaiting them. When they approached he entered the house by the door of which he was standing, and invited them also to enter.

"I know the owner of this house," he said, "and arranged with him to have a room where we could speak undisturbed. Did any of the officers or soldiers happen to come down the lane when I was speaking to you, suspicion would be at once roused that some plot or other was on foot. Well, sir, what is your father's answer?"

"He cordially invites you and your friends and their families to take refuge on board his vessel, and he will land you at Athens, Corinth, or in the Ionian Isles, as you may desire."

The Greek clasped his hands in delight. "Oh, sir, you cannot tell what a load you have taken off my mind, or what we have been suffering of late, with the certainty that ere long the Turks will return."

"This is Captain Martyn, who commands the vessel," Horace said; "he has come ash.o.r.e to concert measures for getting you on board, that is, if you think that there will be any obstacle in the way of your coming off openly."

"Certainly there will. I am sure they would not allow us to leave.

Three of my friends went to Lykourgos yesterday and said they desired to go with their families on board the Greek s.h.i.+ps. He got into a fury and threatened to have them thrown into prison as traitors, fined them a thousand piastres each, and said that anyone leaving the island would be deemed a traitor to the cause of Greece and all his property confiscated."

Horace translated this to Martyn.

"Then they must get off quietly, Horace; ask him if they have formed any plans. Tell him that I will land thirty men and bring them up close to the town, if they can slip off and join us."

Horace put the question.

"We were talking it over last night," the merchant said; "it is not easy, because we all have men who call themselves officers quartered in our houses. We think that the best way will be for our daughters and servants, with the exception of one or two, to slip off as soon as it becomes dark, going in pairs and carrying with them all the valuables they can. We ourselves and our wives will remain for two or three hours, so that the men seeing us will suspect nothing. Some of our servants, after escorting the ladies and children beyond the town, can return and take with them another load. It would not do to take large bundles, but the men can carry casks or barrels on their shoulders filled with valuable clothes and stuffs, and as there would be nothing unusual in a man carrying a cask of wine or a barrel of flour, they might pa.s.s without exciting suspicion. Then, at the moment agreed, we ourselves might slip away and join the rest."

"That seems a likely plan," Martyn said when he understood the details. "Now it is for them to name some spot where we can be awaiting them."

"We have arranged that," the Chiot said. "One of my friends has a large farm-house where he and his family take up their residence in summer; it stands half a mile from the town, on the brow looking down upon the sea; it is a white house with two large store-houses for wine and produce standing behind it."

"I know the house," Horace said; "the road pa.s.ses a hundred yards behind it."

"That is the house, sir. It will be dark by seven o'clock, and at that hour our servants will begin to start. It is probable that most of the children will be sent on there during the day. This could certainly be done without exciting attention. We ourselves will leave our houses as the clock strikes ten."

"I should think, Martyn," Horace said when he had translated this, "that we might manage to make things more easy for them if we send Marco on sh.o.r.e with half a dozen men directly we get back to the s.h.i.+p.

We can tell him to hire a couple of carts and then to come to these people's houses. At one they could take into the carts a dozen barrels of wine, that is to say, wine barrels filled with valuables; at another a dozen barrels of flour, at another a cask of currants or olives, and so on. I will go round with them, and it will merely seem as if we were buying stores for the s.h.i.+p. These rich merchants are certain to have the best of everything, and it will be natural that we should choose a time like the present to lay in a stock, and that they would be glad to sell cheaply. Marco and half the men could go with one cart and I could go with the rest with the other. That way we should attract less attention than by both going about in a crowd."