The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

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Bourne Henry Richard Fox. The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIV

CHAPTER XXV

CHAPTER XXVI

CHAPTER XXVII

CHAPTER XXVIII

CHAPTER XXIX

CHAPTER XXX

APPENDIX

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After the conquest of Missolonghi, by which all Western Greece was brought under Turkish dominion, Reshid Pasha lost no time in proceeding to drive the Greeks from Athens, their chief stronghold in the east. The siege of the town had been begun by Omar Pasha of Negropont, with a small Ottoman force, on the 21st of June, 1826. Reshid arrived on the 11th of July, and, after much previous fighting, stormed Athens so vigorously on the 14th of August, that the inhabitants were forced to abandon it. Many of them, however, took refuge in the Acropolis, where a strong garrison was established under the tyrannical rule of Goura, and in this fortress the defence was maintained for nearly two months. Goura died in October, and the rivalries of the officers whom he had held in awe, now allowed to have free exercise, threatened to make easy the further triumph of the besiegers. The citadel must have surrendered, but for the timely arrival of Karaïskakes and Fabvier, each with a strong body of troops, who diverted the enemy by formidable attacks in the rear. Karaïskakes and his force continued, with various success, to watch and harass the enemy from without. On the 12th of December Fabvier, by a brilliant exploit, forced his way into the Acropolis with about six hundred men. He had intended only to give it temporary relief, but many of the native chiefs, gladly taking advantage of the arrival of a body for which, conjointly with the garrison already established, there was not room in the fortress, hastily departed. Thus the leadership of the garrison, comprising about a thousand soldiers, with whom were four or five hundred women and children, and more than forty Philhellenes from France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, devolved upon Colonel Fabvier. The besiegers numbered about seven thousand picked soldiers, including a regiment of cavalry veterans and a good train of artillery. The Greek regulars and irregulars, including a corps of Philhellenes, commanded by Captain Inglesi, who attempted to raise the siege, varied, at different times, from two or three thousand to seven or eight thousand.

That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane arrived in Greece. That the expulsion of the Turks from Attica and the recovery of Athens was the first great work to be attempted was clear to every one, whether native or Philhellene, who had the welfare of Greece at heart; but opinions varied as to the best mode of procedure. Nearly all previous efforts had been aimed at the direct attack of the besiegers in Athens and its neighbourhood. General Gordon had established a camp of about three thousand men at Munychia, the hill from which, two and twenty centuries before, Thrasybulus had gone down to deliver Athens from the thirty tyrants; and Karaïskakes, with some two thousand five hundred followers, was stationed at Keratsina, on the other side of the Piræus. But the operations of both leaders were restrained by Reshid Pasha's establishment of a garrison in the monastery of Saint Spiridion, midway between the two camps; and, without wiser leaders than the Greeks had hitherto possessed, there seemed small chance of their chasing the enemy from his strong positions. Another plan, feebly recommended and yet more feebly attempted before Lord Cochrane's arrival, was to starve him out by intercepting the supplies of provisions that were brought from Turkey by way of the northern channel of the Negropont, to be sent overland from Oropos, a well-fortified magazine on the northern shore of Attica.

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Karaïskakes and the Greek officers were thus left, at about ten o'clock in the morning of the 28th, to work out their own devices. At eleven, Lord Cochrane received orders to cease the firing which he had reopened from the guns of the Hellas. The movements which, through his telescope, he saw in process within the convent walls and at its gate induced him to send strict orders to Major Urquhart to withdraw his Hydriot marines from their post near the convent, and station them on the summit of Munychia.

The Turks had again sent offers of capitulation, and Karaïskakes, now uncontrolled by Lord Cochrane or General Church, and in contempt of his positive assertion, made two days before, that the garrison had not a ration of provisions left and could easily be starved into utter submission, had acceded to their terms. It was agreed that they were to be allowed to surrender with all the honours of war. Bearing their arms and all their property, they were to pass unmolested into the Turkish camp on the hills. Karaïskakes must be blamed for this excess of generosity; but, to his credit be it stated, that, having agreed to the capitulation, he took all reasonable care to have it honourably observed. Along the road leading from the gate of the convent to the fortifications on the hills he ranged soldiers on either side, in order that the Turks might be protected from the crowd of less disciplined soldiers. All looked well as the two hundred and seventy men, women, and children who had been locked within the shattered building passed out of it and began their march. But no sooner was the convent evacuated than a swarm of Greeks rushed into it, each hoping to seize the largest share of the booty which they expected to find. They found nothing, and then angrily rushed out again to inform their comrades of their disappointment.

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