CHAPTER XIX
PRISONERS
One day, after cruising along the coast inside the island of Euboeaor Negropont, the _Misericordia_ entered the Gulf of Zeitouni, theSinus Maliacus of the ancients. When they were nearly at the head ofthe gulf Horace asked Captain Martyn to let him go ashore to a littlevillage at the water's edge to get some vegetables and fruit, of whichthe supply had run out.
"Just as you like, Horace. A boat-load of green stuff of some sort orother would be very welcome, and if you can pick up half a dozen kidsso much the better."
"I am thinking I will go with you, Horace," Macfarlane said; "it doesa man good to stretch his legs ashore once in a way."
The gig was at once lowered, and on Horace and the doctor taking theirseats in the stern, four sailors rowed them ashore.
"I sha'n't take the trouble to anchor," Martyn said as they left theship. "I expect you will be back in an hour, and I shall keep herstanding off and on till I see you put out."
Leaving two of the men in charge of the boat, Horace told the othertwo to take some of the baskets they had brought ashore and followhim. Some women looked out timidly at the doors of the houses, but nomen were to be seen about.
"We are friends," Horace said; "do you not see we are flying the Greekflag? Where are all the men?"
"They have gone away with Vriones. He came with an armed band and saidthat 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 wethink it more likely that he is going to fight Rhangos. They are atwar with each other. Oh, these are bad times! What with the war withthe Turks, and the war of one captain with another, and what withbands of klephts who plunder everyone, there is no peace nor quiet.They say Rhangos is going to join the Turks, as many other klephtleaders 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 wantstaxes. These are evil days."
"We want some vegetables and some fruit," Horace said. "We do not wishto 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 haveleft. There are vegetables everywhere, and they are not worthstealing."
The news soon spread, and the women and children of the village weresoon engaged in gathering and tying up vegetables. The sailors madeseveral trips backwards and forwards to the boats with laden baskets,while the doctor and Horace, seated upon a low wall, watched the womenat work in the gardens, and paid the sum agreed upon for eachbasketful that was carried off. Suddenly, without the slightestwarning, there was a rush of men behind them, and before they coulddraw their pistols they were seized, thrown down, and bound.
"What is the meaning of this?" Horace asked indignantly. "We areofficers of that ship there, which is in the service of Greece. As youare Greeks, what do you mean by molesting us?"
No reply was given. There was a sudden outburst of firing down by theboat, and the screams of women rose in the air. The men who had boundthem moved away at the order of an officer, leaving two with musketsstanding over the prisoners.
"This is a nice business, doctor; I expect we have fallen into thehands of Rhangos, the fellow the women were speaking about, and themen 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 intheir absence. She said she heard Rhangos was going to join the Turks;his capturing us certainly looks as if at present he was hostile tothe Greeks. If he takes us away and hands us over to the Turks it is abad look-out."
"He will have to be quick about it," the doctor said, "they are stillfiring occasional shots down by the water. That looks as if the boathas got away, and you may be sure Martyn won't be long before he sendsas many men as he can spare ashore to find us. There, do you hear?"and as he spoke there was the deep boom of a gun, followed by the rushof a shot overhead.
Orders were shouted angrily directly afterwards. Some men ran up, cutthe cords that bound the prisoners' legs, and then, seizing them bythe arms, hurried them away, threatening them with instant death ifthey did not keep up with them. As they mounted the high ground behindthe village Horace glanced round. Three boats were just leaving theschooner. A blow from one of the Greeks that, bound as he was, nearlythrew him down, compelled him to turn his head and hurry forwardagain. For hours they hastened along. When about a mile from thevillage a sharp fire was heard to break out in that direction. As theyhad only eight men with them, they doubted not that Rhangos was withthe main body opposing the landing.
"Our fellows will soon clear them out of the village," Horace said tothe doctor. "I only hope that, as they retire, the Greeks will followus, for you may be sure that Martyn and Miller will press hard onthem, and may perhaps overtake us."
Up to nightfall, however, none of the band came up. The country hadbeen getting more and more hilly, and at sunset they halted far up onthe side of a mountain. Here a fire was lit, and some portions of akid that had evidently been part of the plunder of the village wereput over it to roast. The fire was kept blazing, and the doctor andHorace agreed that it was probably intended as a signal to theircomrades. A lump of meat was thrown to each of the captives, theircords being loosed sufficiently to enable them to use their hands,their legs being tightly bound again as soon as they had halted. Ateight o'clock a sound of voices was heard, and presently a party ofGreeks, fully a hundred strong, came up. They were evidently in an illtemper, and replied sulkily to the questions of the guard of theprisoners. Horace gathered from their answers that they had fired avolley upon the boats as they approached; then, seeing they came onwithout 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 allpacked 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 usthat we had to throw everything away, and even then we had a lot ofdifficulty in keeping away from them. I expect they caught some. Itwas lucky we started off when we did; if we had waited till theylanded 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 ashorewithout powder, but from first to last they never fired."
"They knew we had these two in our hands," the guards said, "and theywere afraid if they killed any of us we should take it out of ourprisoners, 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 Isuppose if any of them looked in they would have seen him feeding pigsor 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 fiftyyears 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 hadevidently 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 themhere. Now, then, who are you?" he asked the doctor as the elder of theprisoners.
"My friend does not speak Greek," Horace replied. "As you must be wellaware we are officers of that schooner that was lying off the village.This is the doctor, I am third lieutenant. We are friends of Greece,we have been in action against the Turkish ships of war, we have savedgreat numbers of Greek fugitives from the Turks, now this is thetreatment that we receive at the hands of the Greeks."
Horace's reticence as to the fact that he was the son of the owner ofthe schooner was the result of a conversation with the doctor.
"These scoundrels have no doubt carried us off either for the purposeof getting a ransom for us or of handing us over to the Turks as anacceptable present. I expect the idea of ransom is at the
bottom ofit. We have heard of this fellow Rhangos before. He is a noted klepht,and more Albanian than Greek. Whatever you do, Horace, don't you letout you are the owner's son. If you do there is no saying how muchransom they might ask for you. They think that an Englishman who fitsout a ship at his own expense to come out here must be rolling inmoney. As long as they think that they have only got hold of a doctorand a third lieutenant they cannot ask a high price for them, but foran owner's son there is no saying what figure they might put him at.Have you got a second name?"
"Yes, I am Horace Hendon Beveridge. Hendon was my mother's name."
"That is lucky; you can give them Horace Hendon. It is likely they mayknow your father's name, for the _Misericordia_ and her doings havebeen a good deal talked about. I am not in favour of anyone telling alie, Horace, but as it is no lie to give your two first names withoutgiving your third, I cannot see that there is harm in it."
"The ship belongs to the Lord Beveridge?" Rhangos asked next.
"Yes, that is his name," Horace replied.
"What is your name and that of your companion?"
Horace gave his two Christian names and the name of his companion.
"Have you paper?" the klepht said.
"I have a note-book in my pocket."
"That will do. Now write in Greek: My Lord Beveridge, This is to giveyou notice that--now write the two names--'Donald Macfarlane andHorace Hendon,'" Horace repeated as he wrote them, "surgeon and thirdlieutenant of your ship, are captives in my hands, and that unlessthree hundred pounds in gold are paid to me as ransom for them theywill be put to death. If there is any attempt to rescue the prisonersthey will at once be shot. The messenger will arrange with you how andwhere the ransom is to be paid."
The klepht added his own name in scrawling characters at the bottom ofthe note, then called one of the men and gave him instructions as towhere and how the ransom was to be paid, and then sent him off. Assoon as the band had satisfied their hunger the march among themountains was continued for another two hours. Then they threwthemselves down by the side of a stream in a valley surrounded on allsides with craggy hills, and two men with muskets were placed assentries over the prisoners.
"Well, this is not so bad," Horace said. "It is certainly very luckyyou gave me that hint about my name. Three hundred is not very much topay to get out of such a scrape as this. I suppose there is no fearabout their giving us up when they get the money."
"I think not," the doctor replied. "They would never get ransoms ifthey did not keep their word. I only hope that no one may let outbefore the messenger who you are. If they do, there will be a veryserious rise in prices."
"Fortunately none of them speak Greek but my father, and probably hewould read the note before he would ask any questions."
"Maybe yes, and maybe no," the doctor said. "He is as like as not tosay when he sees a messenger, 'Is my son alive and well?' and then thecat would be out of the bag. Still, your father is a prudent man, andmay keep a still tongue in his head, especially when he sees that thenote is in your own handwriting. However, we will hope for the best."
Morning had dawned some time before there was any movement among theband. Then their fires were lighted and breakfast cooked.
"Will the English lord pay the ransom for you, do you think?" Rhangosasked, sauntering up to Horace.
Horace shrugged his shoulders.
"It is a large sum to pay for two officers," he said.
"He is rich, it is nothing to him."
"He is well off, no doubt," Horace said; "but it is not everyone whois well off who is disposed to part with money for other people."
"Well, it will be bad for you if he doesn't pay," the klepht saidsignificantly.
Three hours later the messenger was seen coming up the valley. Horacelooked at him anxiously as he approached, and was pleased to see that,as he spoke to Rhangos, there was no expression of surprise orexultation in the latter's face. He nodded when the other hadfinished, and then went to the fire where two or three of hislieutenants were sitting, saying briefly to Horace as he passed him,"He will pay." Horace could hear what he said to the others.
"Demetri says the Englishman did not like paying the money. There wasa good deal of talk between him and his officers before he came backto him and said, that though the demand was extortionate he would payit. He said he should complain to the central government, and shouldexpect them to refund it and settle with you." There was a generallaugh among his hearers.
"I ought to have asked more," the klepht went on; "but I don't knowthese English. Of course if any of you were taken, my dear friends, Iwould give all I have to ransom you." The assertion was received withmocking laughter, as he went on calmly: "But you see other people arenot animated by the same generous feeling as we Greeks, and I don'tsuppose this milord sets any particular value on the lad, or on thatlong-shanked doctor. He can hire more of them, and I expect he onlyagreed to pay the money because his other officers insisted on it.They are rolling in wealth these English, but they are mean; if not,how is it that our pockets are not filled with English gold when weare fighting for a sacred cause?"
His hearers were highly tickled by this sentiment.
"When are they to be delivered up, Rhangos?"
"At mid-day to-morrow at Pales, the village halfway between the footof the hills and the sea. Four men are to take them down to within aquarter of a mile of the village; then Demetri will go in and get thegold; then when he returns with it to the others the prisoners will befreed."
"I should have thought the matter might have been arranged to-day,"one of the men said.
"So it might have been," the klepht replied; "but I could not tellthat. I thought that Demetri would not be able to go off to the shipthis morning. He had six hours' walking, and would not be there untiltwo hours past midnight; then he would have to rest for an hour or twoafter he had seen them, and then six hours to walk back. It would havebeen too late to deliver them up before dark, and I should never thinkof sending them in the dark--their guards might fall into an ambush.As it was, Demetri found them in the village. They had not returned,as I thought they would do, on board their ship. He walked in,thinking the place was empty, when two of those sailors jumped out onhim with cutlasses. Thinking that they were going to cut his throat heshowed them the letter. They led him to the principal house in thevillage, and one went in while another held him fast outside. He hearda great talking and excitement in the house, and presently he wastaken in. Then, as I told you, there was a great talk, and at lastthey agreed to pay the ransom. As soon as he got his answer he startedon his way back, lay down for an hour or two in an empty cottage, andthen came on here. We will stay where we are until to-morrow morning;then, Kornalis, you shall start with four men, and Demetri and thecaptives, and we will go on our way. We will deal another blow toVriones, and then we will be off. We will fix on some place where youcan join us after you have got the ransom."
"It could not have happened better for us," Horace said to hiscompanion after he had translated the klepht's story. "As it turnedout, you see, my father got the note before he could say a word to themessenger. That was a capital move their pretending to hesitate aboutpaying the ransom. If they had jumped at it this scoundrel isperfectly capable of raising his terms. As it is, he thinks he wasclever enough to hit upon just the maximum sum that could be got forus. Well, it is all right now."
"It will be all right when we are among the others, Horace; there isnever any saying what may happen in this country. Some of the peasantsthese fellows have been robbing may fall on us, seeing we are but asmall party. This Vriones with his bandits, who I daresay are just asbad as these fellows, may happen to meet us. No, we won't calculatetoo confidently. Things have gone on very well so far. We will justhope they will go on to the end."
Now that the affair was considered to be settled, but little attentionwas paid to the prisoners. Their cords were taken off, and they werepermitted to move about, two men keeping an eye upon them, but notfollowin
g them closely. They congratulated themselves that the sailorshad withheld their fire, for undoubtedly their position would havebeen very different had some of the brigands been killed. So far frombearing any animosity now, the men chatted with them in a friendlymanner, asked questions about their ship, and their encounters withthe Turks.
"We would rather fight for the Greeks than the Turks," one said: "butwe follow our captains. There is neither pay nor plunder to beobtained with the Greeks; and as Odysseus and all the other chiefsplay their own game, and think only of making money, why should poordevils like us be particular? All Albanian tribes have had their warsagainst each other as long as we or our fathers can remember. We knownothing about the Greece that they talk so much of now. There were theMorea and other provinces, and so there have always been so far as weknow, and it is nothing to us whether they are ruled by Turks or bytheir own captains. As to religion, many of our tribes are Mussulmans,many are Christians. We do not see that it makes any difference.
"Everyone plunders when he gets a chance. Why should I want to cut aman's throat because he is a Mussulman? His father was a Christianbefore him; my son may be a Mussulman after me. What does it matter?Since the fight at Petta many chiefs have gone over to the Turks, andif the Greeks win a battle most of them will go back again. The affairis nothing to us. On the mountains we hunt where we are most likely toget game. You like to hunt for amusement, and so you have come outhere on a matter which does not at all concern you. We hunt to live,and don't much care whether we take a sheep out of one flock oranother."
Horace smiled at the man's avowal of the want of any principlewhatever.
"I was a schoolmaster," one of the lieutenants of the band, who wasstretched at full length smoking and listening to the conversation,remarked. "I know about the old time, but I don't know anything ofthis Greece you speak of. Where was it? What did it do? It was justthen as it is now. There were a number of little tribes under theirown captains. Athens, and Corinth, and Sparta, and Argos, and Thebes,and the rest of them always fighting against each other just as ourAlbanian clans do; not even ready to put aside their own quarrels tofight against an invader. Pooh! There never was a Greece, and Ineither know nor care whether there ever will be. Why should we throwaway our lives for a dream?"
"Yes; but at any rate the Greeks have a common language, which showsthey are one people."
"Families fall out more than strangers," the man replied with a laugh."You English and the Americans have a common language, and yet youhave been fighting against each other, and they refuse to remain onenation with you. These things signify no more than the smoke of mypipe. A Christian's money, and a Christian's goods and cattle, areworth just as much to me as a Turk's; and my captain, who pays me, ismore to me than either Mavrocordatos or the Sultan. I daresay thatEnglish milord is a worthy man, though he must be a fool, and yet thewine I shall buy out of my share of his money will be just as good asif it had grown in my father's vineyard."
Horace laughed. He was not skilled in argument, even had he anyinclination to indulge in it at the present time; and he sauntered offand sat down by the doctor, who, not being able to talk with theGreeks, found the time hang heavy on hand. Horace repeated to him hisconversation with the two brigands.
"I own I did not know how to answer the last fellow, doctor."
"There is no answer to be made, Horace. To argue, men must have acommon ground to start from. There is no common ground between you andhim. His argument is the argument of the materialist everywhere,whether he is Briton, Frenchman, or Greek. To a man who has neitherreligion nor principles there remains only self-interest, and fromthat point of view there is no gainsaying the arguments of thatAlbanian scamp any more than it would have been of use for a lowlandmerchant carried off by Highland caterans to urge upon them that theirconduct was contrary to the laws both of morality and politicaleconomy. They would have said that they knew nothing about either, andcared less, and that unless his goodwife or fellow citizens put theirhands in their pockets and sent the ransom they demanded, his headwould be despatched to them in a hamper with small delay. He certainlyhad you on the hip with what he said about ancient Greece, for a morequarrelsome, cantankerous, waspish set of little communities the worldnever saw, unless it were the cities of Italy in the middle ages,which at any rate were of a respectable size, which was, by the way,the only respectable thing about them. Religion and principle andpatriotism are the three things that keep men and nations straight,and neither the Greek nor Italian communities had the least glimmeringof an idea of either of them, except a love for their own petty statesmay be called patriotism."
"A good deal like your Highland clansmen, I should say, doctor,"Horace laughed. "The head of the clan was a much greater man in theeyes of his followers than the King of Scotland."
"That is so, Horace; and the consequence was, that while there waspeace and order and prosperity in the lowlands, the Highlands scarcelymade a step forward until the clans were pretty well broken up afterCulloden. It was a sore business at the time, but no one can doubtthat it did good in the long run. And now, lad, I think that I willjust take a sleep. It was not many hours we got of it last night, andyou see most of these fellows have set us an example."
The next morning they started at daybreak. The main body of the bandhad moved off hours before, leaving the Lieutenant Kornalis, Demetri,and four of the men. Three hours' walking took them out of themountains. There was little talking. The Greeks would have preferredgoing with their leader to plunder another village, for although thebooty taken was supposed to be all handed over to the chief for fairdistribution, there were few who did not conceal some trinket or moneyas their own special share of the plunder. They were but a mile ortwo beyond the hills, when, from a wood skirting the road, four orfive shots rang out.
Two of the Greeks fell; the rest, throwing away their guns, fled atthe top of their speed. Before the prisoners had time to recover fromtheir surprise a number of men rushed out, and with the butts of theirmuskets and pistols struck them to the ground. When they recoveredtheir senses a group of men were standing round them, while at somelittle distance they could hear the sound of firing, showing that thepursuit of their late captors was being closely maintained. By thistime they had become sufficiently accustomed to the various costumesto know that they had now fallen into the hands of men of one of theAlbanian tribes, probably Mussulmans acting as irregulars with theTurkish army, engaged upon a raiding expedition. One of them askedHorace a question, but the dialect was so different to that of theGreeks of Athens and the Morea that he was unable to understand it.Presently the men who had gone in pursuit returned, and the wholeparty set off to the north, placing their prisoners in their midst,and warning them by pointing significantly to their knives and pistolsthat they had better keep up with them.
"Eh! man," the doctor said; "but it is dreadful. Just as we thoughtthat everything was settled, and that in another couple of hours weshould be with our own people, here we are in the hands of a pack ofvillains even worse than the others."
"You said that we should not shout until we were out of the wood,doctor, and you have turned out a true prophet; but at present I amthinking more of my head than of anything else, I am sure I have got acouple of lumps on it as big as eggs."
"It shows the folly of man," the doctor said philosophically. "Whatgood could they expect to get from knocking us down? We were neitherfighting nor running away. We had not our wits about us, lad, or weshould have just taken to our heels."
"I expect they would have caught us if we had. We have neither of ushad much walking lately, and those fellows are always climbing amongtheir mountains. Do you think it is of any use trying to make themunderstand that if they will take us a few miles farther they willfind three hundred pounds waiting for them?"
"You might try, Horace; but I don't think that it will be of any use.I expect they are just skirting along at the foot of the hills to seewhat they can pick up. There are not above thirty of them, and theywould not li
ke to go far out upon the plains; besides, I don't knowthat it would turn out well. If they were to go on in a body, Martynwould as likely as not fire at them, and then they would think that wehad led them into an ambush, and shoot us without waiting to ask anyquestion. Still, you can try if you like; we might be sorry afterwardsif we didn't."
But when Horace tried to speak to the men he was threatened roughly,and he lapsed into silence. For three hours they ascended a greatrange of hills running east and west. When they gained the crest theycould see stretched away far in front of them a flat and fertilecountry.
"The plains of Thessaly," the doctor said; "the fairest and richestportion of the Greece of old. There is little chance of its formingpart of the Greece of the future, at least not until a completeoverthrow of the Turkish Empire. If Greece attains her independencethe frontier line will be somewhere along the crest of these hills,for Thessaly, although there was some slight trouble there at first,has not joined the movement. There are no mountains and fortresseswhere they can take refuge, and a troop of Turkish cavalry could scourthe whole country. There is where we are bound for, I expect;" and hepointed to a large clump of white tents far out on the plain. "Iexpect that is the camp of the Pasha of the province. I suppose he isgoing to operate on this side when the main force advances to thewest."
It took them another four hours' walking before they approached thecamp. When within a short distance of it their captors turned off andentered a village where numbers of their countrymen were sitting inthe shade smoking or dozing. The band went on until they reached theprincipal house in the village, and four of them entering took theirprisoners into a room where a tall old chief was sitting on a divan.They talked for some minutes, evidently explaining the circumstancesof their capture. When they had done, the chief asked the prisoners inGreek who they were.
"We are Englishmen," Horace replied; "we belong to a ship lying off avillage whose name I don't know. We had landed to buy fruit andvegetables, and then we were suddenly seized and carried away to themountains by some Greek brigands led by a fellow named Rhangos. We hadarranged for a ransom and were on our way under a guard to the villagewhere the money was to be paid when your band put the Greeks to flightand made us prisoners."
"How much ransom was to be paid?" the Albanian asked.
"Three hundred pounds, and if you will send us there now our friendswill be glad to pay it to your people. I tried to explain that to themon the way, but they would not listen to me."
"They are fools," the chief said decidedly; "and besides, they don'tspeak Greek. It is too late now. I must take you to the Pasha, whowill deal with you as he chooses." Then rising, and followed by agroup of his officers and the prisoners in charge of four men, hewalked across to the Turkish camp.
"They are a picturesque-looking set of cut-throats," Macfarlane said.
"That they are. People at home would stare to see them with theirwhite kilted petticoats and gaudy sashes, with their pistols inlaidwith silver, and their embroidered jackets and white shirt sleeves.Well, what are we to say if we are asked about the ship?"
"We must tell the truth, lad; I doubt not they have had news beforenow that the schooner is cruising about on the coast; and even if wewere disposed to tell a lie, which we are not, they would guess wherewe had come from. No English merchantman would be likely to beanchored off the coast here to buy vegetables; and, indeed, there arevery few British vessels of any sort in these waters now. You need notjust tell them that the schooner is the craft that has been playingthe mischief over on the other coast and robbed them of their Chiotslaves; nor is it precisely necessary to enter into that affair nearCyprus. We need simply say, if we are asked, that we are Englishmen inthe naval service of Greece; I don't expect they will ask manyquestions after that, or that we shall have any occasion to do muchmore talking."
"You think they will hang us, doctor."
"It may be hanging, Horace, or it may be shooting, and for my part Iam not very particular which it is. Shooting is the quickest, but thenhanging is more what I may call my family way of dying. I should saythat as many as a score of my ancestors were one way or another strungup by the Stuarts on one miserable pretence or other, such ascattle-lifting, settling a grudge without bothering the law-courts,and trifles of that sort."
Horace burst into a fit of laughter, which caused the Albanian chiefto look round sharply and inquiringly.
"It is all right, old chap," Macfarlane muttered in English; "we arejust laughing while we can, and there is no contempt of courtintended."
The Pasha was in a tent considerably larger than those that surroundedit. The Albanian went in, leaving the prisoners in charge of theirguard. In five minutes he came out and signed to them to follow himin. The Pasha was an elderly man with a snow-white beard. He looked atthe prisoners with some interest.
"I hear that you are Englishmen," he said in Greek.
"That is so, sir."
"And that you are in the Greek service."
"We were in the Greek service, but after being carried off by Greekbrigands I do not know that we shall have any inclination to remain init."
"If you had been taken fighting against us I should have ordered youto be shot," the Pasha said; "but as it is I do not know. Do youbelong to that schooner with white sails that has been cruising offthe coast some days?"
"We do," Horace admitted.
"I am told," the Pasha went on, "that she is the ship that did us muchharm at Chios."
"We were attacked, and we beat off the boats," Horace said. "That isfair warfare. Our principal object has been to rescue people in dangeror distress, whether Christian or Turk. We rescued numbers of Chiotslaves. And on the other hand we saved numbers of Turks at thesurrender of the Acropolis at Athens, and conveyed them safely toTenedos, where we landed them; and the governor there recognized ourservice to his countrymen, and came off to the ship and invited us onshore to dine with him."
"Yes, I have heard about that," the Pasha said. "We have all heard ofthe white schooner. She has been a dangerous enemy to us, and has doneus more harm than the whole of the Greeks together; but after yourhumanity at Athens I cannot feel animosity against you. It was a nobledeed and worthy of brave men. Thus it is that nations should fight,but the Greeks began by massacre, and have been false to the oathsthey swore twenty times. How can you fight for men who have neithercourage nor faith, and who are as cruel as they are cowardly?"
"There have been cruelties on both sides," Horace said, "though I ownthat the Greeks began it; but in England we love freedom, and it isnot long since we drove the French out of Egypt and preserved it foryou. Our sympathies are with the Greeks, because they were oppressed.We have never killed a Turk save in fair fight, and the crews of everyship we have taken we have permitted to return to shore in their boatswithout injuring one of them."
"This also I have heard," the Pasha said, "and therefore I will do youno harm. I will send you to Constantinople, where the Sultan willdecide upon your fate. He has given orders that all foreigners takenin arms against us shall at once be put to death for interfering in amatter in which they have no concern; but as you were not taken inarms I do not feel that the order applies to you, and will thereforetake upon myself to send you to him."
"I thank you, sir," Horace said, "though I fear it will only be areprieve."
"I cannot say," the pasha replied gravely. "The Sultan strikes hardwhen he wishes to give a lesson. You see, his people were massacredwholesale by the Greeks, and at Chios he taught them that he couldretaliate; but he is not cruel by choice. He is unswerving when hismind is made up. Whether he will make an exception in your case or notis more than I can say. I can only send you to him, and hope that hewill be as merciful in your case as I would be had I the power."
Then he ordered one of his officers to take charge of the prisoners,to see that they had a comfortable tent and were well cared for, andthat none molested them. Four soldiers were to be always on guard atthe tent, and to answer for the safety of the prisone
rs with theirlives. In a short time they were placed in a tent among those allottedto the officers, and four sentries were placed round it. After sunsettwo soldiers brought large trays with meat, vegetables, and sweetsfrom the pasha's own table, and also a bottle of raki.
"The Turk is a gentleman, Horace," the doctor said as, after havingfinished dinner, he mixed himself some spirits and water. "I am notsaying, mind you, that I would not have mightily preferred a bottle ofgood whisky; but I am bound to say that when one has once gotaccustomed to it, raki has its virtues. It is an insinuating spirit,cool and mild to the taste, and dangerous to one who is not accustomedto it. What do you think of it, Horace?"
"I don't care for it, but then I don't care for any spirits," Horacesaid; "but I thoroughly agree with you that the pasha is a goodfellow, only I wish he could have seen his way to have let us go. TheSultan is a terrible personage, and the way he has hung up hostages atConstantinople has been awful. If he has made up his mind that he willdeter foreigners from entering the Greek service by showing no mercyto those who fall into his hands, I have no very great hope that hewill make any exception in our case."