of Italy; sometimes he had eluded the vigilance of all the police, and had betaken himself to Corfu, in the wilds of the Albanian mountains, rugged and bleak, only a few hours' sail from Cephalonia. Many said he had found shelter, and that like the great Ali Pasha, he was occupying a mountain fastness, behind whose natural barriers, with a few followers, he might bid defiance to the attempts of the forces, however numerous, which should be sent against him. Scarcely a doubt could exist that all these reports, which rumour

Monstrum horrendum,

Tot linguæ totidem ora sonant tot subrigit aures

had spread so widely and diffused so generally, had been first propagated by the friends of Vlako, with the intention of deceiving the authorities, and endeavouring to place them on a wrong scent. The crafty dissimu lation and the wily art of the Greek character was quite congenial to the plot of assuming the guise of a friendly spy, and volunteering the information for the purpose of misleading those so interested in the inquiry. The offers from Sir H. Ward of a large sum of money to any one who would bring this man in a prisoner, or of a smaller sum to any one who should bring his head, or give the information necessary to his detention, were for a long time of no avail. The natural animosity to the British, and the hope of being finally able to meet the British force with a corresponding adequate number of patriots, either from Greece or from the islands, were strong enough to overcome the great cupidity which the islanders were remarkable for. Meantime, the informers and the police, the military patrols and the courts-martial, proceeded in all directions of the island with their work of detection, examination, trial, and summary punishment. The Greek papers were long and loud in their descriptions of the tyranny and the violence which was displayed everywhere throughout the country, ports, farm-houses, and small villages of Cephalonia. I recollect being actually at the house of Sir H. Ward, paying a morning visit, when a Greek gentleman, an inhabitant of Corfu, came in. The ladies of the family were seated in different parts of the room, conversing. The Greek count addressed me in Italian, and asked me in that language if I had lately been in Cephalonia, to which I answered him in the same language that I had not been there for some months. He then said that he should think it was an agreeable reflection to me, as a humane man, that I had not been there lately, as "I had not then the pain of being cognisant of the cruelties which were daily being committed there." This dialogue was only partially understood by the family who were present, but it showed the strong impression which existed in the mind of the man, he not being able even to hide his feelings in the place and in the presence of those who surrounded him. If such were the sentiments of those living far away in Corfu, and close in proximity of the seat of government, what must have been the animus of the inhabitants of the island itself, goaded on by the every day's proceeding of the British? I have often thought, in reading over the description of any deed of agrarian outrage, or commotion of a general character, which has been detailed, for the information of the general public, in the newspapers that borrow their information from the acting authorities or police-and with regard especially to those horrors which take place so frequently in Ire

land-that we hear only the half of the story; that however horrid, repulsive, and barbarous be the conduct of the ignorant and deluded perpetrators of the outrage, yet still we are not in possession of the facts which have stimulated their animosity, which have goaded them to frenzy, and which have worked upon their deluded and benighted minds to excite them to the awful resort of lawless violence. Again, the wretches, ignorant and debased, who have been led to the commission of such crimes, have generally no spokesman who could advocate their cause, or state the real nature of their feelings of hostility. I recollect living in the vicinity of the property of a nobleman who was landlord to vast tracts of land in Ireland, and 'who had unroofed and depopulated whole villages and homesteads in many parts. This nobleman used to ride out frequently, and pass through the country near where his tenantry resided. He would frequently call one of the settlers to him, and ask him in a patronising way if he had a lease for the house he was in. The man would answer him, "No, your lordship," and then commence heaping prayers and blessings upon him for a good, kind gentleman. He would answer him by saying instantly, "I'll take it away from you take it away to-morrow," and leave the man confounded and dismayed. The next day the unfortunate settler would be visited by a bailiff, and find himself obliged to leave instantly. This occurred in numberless instances, and knowing that such was the case, I ceased to wonder at the frequent instances of such men in other parts of the country taking the law into their own hands, and was even surprised, when I considered the violent and passionate nature of the Irish character, that some of these hapless victims had not waylaid or fired at this nobleman. But the provocation of offence, the stinging sense of oppression, which works on the minds of men ignorant and misguided, would never have been taken into consideration even if they had done so. Far, indeed, would it be from justice to seek to palliate or to extenuate their revenge, but to find a cause for it would not be difficult. Neither was it difficult to trace the vindictive feeling which now pervaded the minds of the Cephaloniotes, when they saw their priests exposed to the degrading and ignoble punishment of the lash, and many of their countrymen hanged, after having undergone a short trial at Argostoli. The short, dry, summary, and careless mode of trial which is pursued at a court-martial was a very unsatisfactory process to those who are lovers of justice, and for the purpose of meeting the sort of misdemeanours which the Greeks were accused of, was very inadequate. The witnesses were by no means trustworthy; not knowing the Greek language, the officers were compelled to rely upon the version given by a Greek interpreter to the evidence of a native, in words whose truth was very problematical. The hold which the chief had over the minds of the people was similar to that which a captain of a band of robbers has over his gang, and such was the state of the mainland of Greece, and some of the adjacent islands, particularly Cephalonia, that these bandits were numerous, powerful, and generally feared throughout the country.

There was one captain of a gang of Kleptees, as they are called there, named Greevas, who, with his followers, had been in the habit of resorting sometimes to Santa-Maura, sometimes to Ithaca, and to other haunts which he had on the mainland contiguous to these islands, and who kept

the countries which he visited constantly under contribution. He was not inimical to the English government directly, but this man Vlakovwas well known to be the deadly enemy of the British, and his life was consequently held by a very precarious tenure. The delinquents, who had been seized through the exertions of the military and the police, had been those implicated in the murder of Parker and the burning of Metaxa's house, but all of them who had given king's evidence spoke as to their being instigated by this Vlako, and through their means guilt had been brought home to several, who had accordingly been brought to trial and hanged. The men who were flogged were the culprits who had transgressed in the way of exciting the populace to disturbance. It would be tiresome and useless to enter into detail of the different facts, and to enumerate the different individuals who were implicated in these transgressions, but the incessant vigilance and the harassing nature of the service which the troops endured were such as would remain indelibly imprinted in the memory of those who underwent them. The privations which they suffered were many, the provisions very meagre which they could procure. However, they were generally able to get country wine, and this beverage there is no place in the islands which one finds unprovided with. The heat of the weather rendered it comparatively of little consequence either to health or to comfort being housed in the dilapidated and comfortless farm-houses of the landholders throughout the country, but the incessant change, and the marching about from one locality to another, was most wearing to the minds and spirits, and also destructive to the clothes, which the soldiers had no means of changing.

Oftentimes after a long march, when they had just sat down to enjoy a meal, they were hurried away eighteen miles farther in pursuit of some of the rebels, whose steps the authorities had got trace of. Several ludicrous mistakes and disappointments occurred to the officers who were engaged in the pursuit of those rebels. One young man, who had been informed by a Greek of the circumstance that a rebel had taken refuge in a cave adjacent to a convent where he was stationed with his men, went out with three or four soldiers in pursuit of him. The Greek led him on forward through dells and mountain roads, by glens and stony passes of a moonlight night, and preceded him and his party for a journey of about four miles, when they lost sight of him; but thinking that they might have some chance of coming up with the rebel, they still pushed their course onward, and, seeing a dark object in the distance turning into a recess in the mountain, they hurried on to the direction where they saw it. When they got up to the mouth of the cavern, they found they had succeeded in coming in contact with a donkey. The " parturiunt montes nascitur ridiculus mus" was instant to the minds of the brother-officers to whom this young officer told this story when he returned to the convent which he had left that night on this strange wild-goose chase. The cowardly, sneaking, and unmanly manner in which the Greek islanders had acted, holding themselves off, and hiding when any military force made its appearance, and at the same time taking opportunities of wreaking their revenge when they were in overpowering numbers, exasperated the minds of the British against them. There was one young officer of a violent temper, who was stationed in a remote village of the interior, and his party consisted of his captain, a doctor, and himself, together

with the company of soldiers. The officers' party were much in want of provisions, and one of the soldiers who had been given charge of the mess, and providing for the rationing to it in the country, brought back word one day that the villagers in the adjacent town refused to sell him any live stock; that he had seen pigs there, and that they would not part with them for money. The young officer, hearing this, issued forth alone, and, going to the village, seized on a pig, which was the first one that he had seen, and telling the householder at whose house he found it to follow him into his quarters, and that he would be paid for it, he cut the pig's throat and carried him into the house where the officers were staying. The captain, who was a strict disciplinarian, was so irate at such an undignified proceeding, that he spoke severely to the officer on his return with this singular spoil. The officer retorted upon him in the same sort of language, and the captain then not only put him in arrest, but sent charges against him. Even the doctor, whose risible muscles were not proof against the comic character of the scene, and who laughed and partially applauded the young officer, was involved in the misdemeanour, and charges were sent in against him as well as the young officer. They were both tried by different courts-martial. The severe and touchy character of the commandant of the garrison was such as to render it far from his disposition to afford any escape for a youth who had implicated himself in any tours de jeunesse; and, incredible as it may appear, the two courts of military officers were occupied for a period of upwards of two months in examining and trying, deciding and writing upon, these two cases of misdemeanour. Even then the result was not known of the fate which awaited the officers until the proceedings had been sent home; and so it was not till after three months had elapsed subsequent to the transaction that the young officer who had been found guilty of a degree of insubordination was aware that he was reprimanded for the same, and obliged to go into another regiment, and the doctor was allowed to resume the course of his medical duties, the charge which was brought against him being insufficiently proved. It was manifest that a little judicious management and some wholesome admonition would have been more beneficial to the service, and more effective in forwarding the purposes for which officers' services are required, than the undue and extreme severity which prompted the resorting to the measure of bringing these two young men to trial.

The grand object, also, of the military force being employed was marred in a great measure by the officers comprising the court being taken away from their active employment to officiate on the tiresome courts-martial, and the only person benefited was the acting judgeadvocate-general, who earned a guinea for every day that the courtsmartial were sitting. If the temper of the military commandant had been less implacable, and his judgment had been more subjected to the influence which lays down the precept―

Nimirum sapere est abjectis utile nugis

the misfortune to the officers and the detriment to the service would have been avoided. But what did it signify? No regard was paid to these two considerations! They were light as compared with the important point of soothing the offended dignity of the military com

mandant! As to the prospects of the two officers, "their miseries were to be smiled at, their offences being so capital."

About the middle of the summer of 1849, the efforts of the government, the exertions of the soldiers, and the love of money, which the Greek partisans possess as much as any people on the face of the earth, were all conducive to the great end which was so ardently desirednamely, the capture of the arch-traitor Vlako. It was very remarkable that, during the whole course of the transactions which occurred in Cephalonia either in 1848 or 1849, there had been nothing like a fair stand-up fight between the Greeks and the military. The timid and faint-hearted natives had invariably lain concealed and secluded when any force had marched out against them, and, after their repulse at the bridge of Argostoli, had never dared to appear in force as opposing the police or the soldiers. It seems as if the undaunted character which belonged to the Achaians of old had completely deserted their successors in the present day, and nothing, save the duplicity and treachery which the ancient Greeks had been so much famed for, was still left to these sons of the same soil to indicate that they belonged to the race of which so many valiant deeds are recorded. As the poet says:

The hearts within thy valleys bred,

The fiery souls that might have led
Thy sons to deeds sublime,

Now crawl from cradle to the grave

Slaves, nay, the bondsmen of a slave,
And callous save to crime;

Without one savage virtue blest,

Without one free or valiant breast,

Still to the neighbouring ports they waft
Proverbial wiles and ancient craft.

Even when the malcontents who had made themselves obnoxious to the ruling government were seized upon by the military or by the police, no attempt at resistance had ever been shown. It was thus also when the capture of Vlako took place. A large party of police, under charge of an English officer, received intimation of his being in the neighbourhood of one of the villages. He had been incessant in his different flights from village to village, and, wearied and faint from want of rest and perpetual fatigue, he had sought shelter in a house which some spies had tracked him to. There, in a corner of the cottage, which, like most of the Greek houses, had all rooms comprised under one roof without a partition, he lay down and fell fast asleep. The spies came up to the police, and told them of what they had seen. The commandant of the party, with ten of the men, with their arms concealed under their capotes, came stealthfully up to the cottage door. It was eight o'clock in the evening. They opened the door with a push, and rushing straight to the pallet upon which the man was lying, to which they were directed by the spies, they stood by his side. When Vlako opened his eyes, he found himself seized by three men, and looked for his firelock, which lay beside the pallet, but he saw that it was now no use to attempt resistance. He did not show, however, the least remorse or compunction for the number of atrocious crimes which he had perpetrated, but even pointed to three rings which he had fixed round the barrel of his firelock, aud said that he had done so to commemorate its