In Greek Waters Part 41

A week later seven Hydriot brigs arrived; the _Misericordia_, which had again mounted all her guns, joined them; but as they approached the port the Turkish vessels got up all sail and made for Patras, and the Greeks entered the port. Missolonghi was protected by a low mud wall, with a ditch six feet deep by sixteen feet wide. It contained but a foot of water, but at the bottom was a deep clay, rendering it quite impa.s.sable. There were eight guns mounted on the ramparts, and Mr. Beveridge landed at once six more of those still lying in the hold, with a supply of ammunition for the whole.

As soon as the port was open a thousand men crossed over from the Morea under the command of partisan chiefs, and from time to time others came in, until the garrison, originally but six hundred strong, was increased to two thousand five hundred. For some weeks nothing was done; but on the eve of the 6th of January, which was the Greek Christmas-day, a Greek fisherman brought in news that the Turks were preparing to a.s.sault the next morning at daylight, when they believed the Christians would generally be in their churches. Forty men were landed from the schooner to take part in the defence. At daybreak the defenders were all in their places, hidden behind the rampart or concealed in the houses near.

The storming party was led by eight hundred Albanian volunteers. One division was intended to scale the wall on its eastern flank, while another was to endeavour to penetrate the town by wading through a shallow lagoon at its eastern extremity. The whole Turkish army turned out, and suddenly opened a tremendous fire of musketry against the ramparts, while the storming parties moved forward. The defenders remained in their concealment until the Albanians were close at hand, and then, leaping up, poured their fire into them. Expecting to take the defenders by surprise, the Albanians were astounded at the sudden and heavy fire poured into them, and at once broke and fled in confusion. For some hours the Turks kept up a heavy fire, but did not renew their attack in earnest. Tons of ammunition were fired away on both sides, and then the Turks fell back to their camps, and on the following day raised the siege.

The wildness of the fire was evidenced by the fact that only four Greeks were killed. The blue-jackets from the schooner joined in the fire upon the storming parties, but when it was evident that the Turks had no idea of renewing the attack they returned on board s.h.i.+p. Their remarks upon the combatants were the reverse of complimentary.

"It is well-nigh enough to make a man sick, Tom," one man said to another in Horace's hearing. "To see them both blazing away good powder and lead like that, I reckon to be downright sinful."

"You are right there, mate. It is a downright waste of the gifts of Providence. Why, there was powder and ball enough to have killed a good five thousand Englishmen and Frenchmen thrown away in accounting for four or five of them yelling fellows. It is more like play-acting than fighting. Why, if you was to arm a couple of gals' schools and put 'em to fire at each other they would do ever so much better than that. And to think them Greeks calls themselves Christians and don't know how to aim a musket no better than that; they might just as well be heathen."

While Missolonghi had been resisting successfully, the Turkish garrison of Nauplia had at last surrendered. After Dramali's army had abandoned it the only hope that remained to them was that the fleet might return. The Greeks retained possession of a small fort that had been given up to them at the time that the first negotiations for surrender were going on. From this fort combustible missiles were fired into the town, and a brisk cannonade kept up with its defences, but without much damage being done on either side. On the 20th of September the Turkish fleet appeared off the entrance to the gulf, and the Greek fleet from the islands of Hydra and Spetzas stood out to meet them.

Unfortunately Admiral Kanaris was not present. For four days the two fleets remained in sight of each other, firing at such distances that no harm was done on either side. There was nothing to have prevented the Turkish admiral relieving Nauplia and landing the troops and provisions in his transports; but he feared to enter the gulf, while the Greeks shrank equally from an attack upon him. After thus exhibiting for four days his cowardice and incapacity, the Turkish capitan-pasha abandoned Nauplia to its fate. The resistance only continued because the Turks could put no reliance upon the oaths of the Greeks. Women and children dropped dead from hunger in the streets; the soldiers were so weak from starvation that but few were able to carry their arms. The citadel was at last abandoned simply because the soldiers who went down into the town to fetch the scanty rations for its defenders were too weak to climb the hill again; and the Greeks, as soon as they learned that it was abandoned, occupied the position. Kolokotronis and a number of other leaders, attracted by the prospect of booty, hurried to the spot like vultures round a carca.s.s.

Negotiations were again opened, and the Turks surrendered on the terms of the Greeks engaging to transport them to Asia Minor, allowing each to retain a single suit of clothes, a quilt for bedding, and a carpet for prayer. As soon as the terms were signed, Kolokotronis and the captains entered the town with their personal followers and prevented all others from entering. The soldiers a.s.sembled before the gates, declaring that they would not allow the chiefs to appropriate to themselves everything valuable, threatening to storm the place, murder the Turks, and sack the town. Greece was saved from fresh dishonour by the timely arrival of the English frigate _Cambrian_, commanded by Captain Hamilton. He was a strong friend of Greece, and was known to many of the Greek leaders.

He at once held a conference with them, and in the strongest language urged upon them the necessity of taking measures for the execution of the capitulation, for that another breach of faith, another foul ma.s.sacre, would render the name of Greece despicable in civilized Europe and ruin the cause of the country. Hamilton's character was greatly respected, and his words had their effect. He insisted upon their chartering s.h.i.+ps to embark the Turks. He himself took five hundred of them on board the _Cambrian_, and nine hundred were embarked in the Greek transports. This interference of Captain Hamilton excited great anger in Greece.

The Turkish fleet did not escape absolutely scathless after its inglorious departure from Nauplia. Although unmolested by the Greeks, it sailed north, and anch.o.r.ed inside the island of Tenedos.

Kanaris persuaded the people of Psara to fit out two fire-s.h.i.+ps. He took the command of one, and both sailed for the Turkish fleet, which they approached at daybreak. Two line-of-battle s.h.i.+ps were anch.o.r.ed to windward of the rest of the fleet. Kanaris undertook the destruction of the s.h.i.+p to leeward, that being the most difficult operation. He succeeded as well as he had done on two previous occasions. He ran the enemy aboard to windward, lashed the fire-s.h.i.+p there, and fired the train. The Turk was at once enveloped in flames, and the whole of the crew, eight hundred in number, perished.

But Kanaris seemed to be the only Greek naval officer who had the necessary courage and coolness to manuvre successfully with fire-s.h.i.+ps. The other captain ran his fire-s.h.i.+p alongside the man-of-war which carried the flag of the capitan-pasha. The position of the fire-s.h.i.+p was, however, ill chosen, and after being set on fire it drifted away without doing injury to the Turk. The rest of the Turkish fleet cut their cables and made for the Dardanelles, while one corvette ran ash.o.r.e on Tenedos. Another was abandoned by her crew.

Kanaris and the crews of the two fire-s.h.i.+ps returned safely to Psara in their boats.

CHAPTER XIX

PRISONERS

One day, after cruising along the coast inside the island of Euba or Negropont, the _Misericordia_ entered the Gulf of Zeitouni, the Sinus Maliacus of the ancients. When they were nearly at the head of the gulf Horace asked Captain Martyn to let him go ash.o.r.e to a little village at the water's edge to get some vegetables and fruit, of which the supply had run out.

"Just as you like, Horace. A boat-load of green stuff of some sort or other would be very welcome, and if you can pick up half a dozen kids so much the better."

"I am thinking I will go with you, Horace," Macfarlane said; "it does a man good to stretch his legs ash.o.r.e once in a way."

The gig was at once lowered, and on Horace and the doctor taking their seats in the stern, four sailors rowed them ash.o.r.e.

"I sha'n't take the trouble to anchor," Martyn said as they left the s.h.i.+p. "I expect you will be back in an hour, and I shall keep her standing off and on till I see you put out."

Leaving two of the men in charge of the boat, Horace told the other two to take some of the baskets they had brought ash.o.r.e and follow him. Some women looked out timidly at the doors of the houses, but no men were to be seen about.

"We are friends," Horace said; "do you not see we are flying the Greek flag? Where are all the men?"

"They have gone away with Vriones. He came with an armed band and said that every man must go with him to fight."

"Who have they gone to fight?"

"Ah! that we don't know. He talked about fighting the Turks, but we think it more likely that he is going to fight Rhangos. They are at war with each other. Oh, these are bad times! What with the war with the Turks, and the war of one captain with another, and what with bands of klephts who plunder everyone, there is no peace nor quiet.

They say Rhangos is going to join the Turks, as many other klepht leaders have done. To us it makes little difference who are masters, so that we know who they are. In the time of the Turks we had peace; we had to pay taxes, but we knew what they were. Now everybody wants taxes. These are evil days."

"We want some vegetables and some fruit," Horace said. "We do not wish to rob you, and are ready to pay a fair price for everything."

"Those we can sell you," the woman said, "it is nearly all we have left. There are vegetables everywhere, and they are not worth stealing."

The news soon spread, and the women and children of the village were soon engaged in gathering and tying up vegetables. The sailors made several trips backwards and forwards to the boats with laden baskets, while the doctor and Horace, seated upon a low wall, watched the women at work in the gardens, and paid the sum agreed upon for each basketful that was carried off. Suddenly, without the slightest warning, there was a rush of men behind them, and before they could draw their pistols they were seized, thrown down, and bound.

"What is the meaning of this?" Horace asked indignantly. "We are officers of that s.h.i.+p there, which is in the service of Greece. As you are Greeks, what do you mean by molesting us?"

No reply was given. There was a sudden outburst of firing down by the boat, and the screams of women rose in the air. The men who had bound them moved away at the order of an officer, leaving two with muskets standing over the prisoners.

"This is a nice business, doctor; I expect we have fallen into the hands of Rhangos, the fellow the women were speaking about, and the men of this village have gone out with some other scoundrel to fight.

I suppose he had spies about, and came down to plunder the place in their absence. She said she heard Rhangos was going to join the Turks; his capturing us certainly looks as if at present he was hostile to the Greeks. If he takes us away and hands us over to the Turks it is a bad look-out."

"He will have to be quick about it," the doctor said, "they are still firing occasional shots down by the water. That looks as if the boat has got away, and you may be sure Martyn won't be long before he sends as many men as he can spare ash.o.r.e to find us. There, do you hear?"

and as he spoke there was the deep boom of a gun, followed by the rush of a shot overhead.

Orders were shouted angrily directly afterwards. Some men ran up, cut the cords that bound the prisoners' legs, and then, seizing them by the arms, hurried them away, threatening them with instant death if they did not keep up with them. As they mounted the high ground behind the village Horace glanced round. Three boats were just leaving the schooner. A blow from one of the Greeks that, bound as he was, nearly threw him down, compelled him to turn his head and hurry forward again. For hours they hastened along. When about a mile from the village a sharp fire was heard to break out in that direction. As they had only eight men with them, they doubted not that Rhangos was with the main body opposing the landing.

"Our fellows will soon clear them out of the village," Horace said to the doctor. "I only hope that, as they retire, the Greeks will follow us, for you may be sure that Martyn and Miller will press hard on them, and may perhaps overtake us."

Up to nightfall, however, none of the band came up. The country had been getting more and more hilly, and at sunset they halted far up on the side of a mountain. Here a fire was lit, and some portions of a kid that had evidently been part of the plunder of the village were put over it to roast. The fire was kept blazing, and the doctor and Horace agreed that it was probably intended as a signal to their comrades. A lump of meat was thrown to each of the captives, their cords being loosed sufficiently to enable them to use their hands, their legs being tightly bound again as soon as they had halted. At eight o'clock a sound of voices was heard, and presently a party of Greeks, fully a hundred strong, came up. They were evidently in an ill temper, and replied sulkily to the questions of the guard of the prisoners. Horace gathered from their answers that they had fired a volley upon the boats as they approached; then, seeing they came on without a pause, had at once run from the village and scattered, reuniting some miles on.

"We lost everything we had taken," one of the men said. "We had it all packed and ready to carry away, when those confounded sailors came.

Some of us did start with our bundles, but they came so fast up to us that we had to throw everything away, and even then we had a lot of difficulty in keeping away from them. I expect they caught some. It was lucky we started off when we did; if we had waited till they landed very few would have got away."

"Didn't they shoot?" one of the guards asked.

"No, they never fired a shot. I don't know whether they came ash.o.r.e without powder, but from first to last they never fired."

"They knew we had these two in our hands," the guards said, "and they were afraid if they killed any of us we should take it out of our prisoners, and I think they were about right. Ah! here comes Rhangos.

He had to take to a farmhouse before he had gone half a mile, and I suppose if any of them looked in they would have seen him feeding pigs or something of that sort, with his finery and arms hidden away."

The klepht had now come up to the fire. He was a spare man, some fifty years old, with a keen hungry face.

"Are all here?" he asked briefly.

"We are six short of our number," a man, who by his dress had evidently the rank of an officer among them, replied.

"Killed?"

"No, there was no firing; I expect those sailors ran them down."

"Then we must march in half-an-hour, they will make them lead them here. Now, then, who are you?" he asked the doctor as the elder of the prisoners.