The Pasha had, however, failed in getting the moral support of the consular corps to the blow which he had intended to strike, and dared not send the troops out. He made a great blunder in calling the conference, as the consuls had no right of intervention in the affair, but, like all over-cunning people, he caught himself in the trap he set for us. Having invited us not really to get our opinion, though he asked it, but to get our endorsement to his policy, he not only failed in this, but got a rebuff which made the experiment more hazardous than if he had said nothing. It had another bad effect for him in making public the difference between his Excellency and the consular corps, and, as the latter is believed in Turkish countries to be omnipotent, the popular feeling was immensely strengthened.[D] The irritation of the Pasha against the consular corps was unbounded, especially against Colucci and myself; indeed, I may say, peculiarly against myself as an old enemy and the spokesman of the opposition. [D] The real reason for the insistence of the committee on the promise of immunity was this: A daughter of one of the Pasha's council, his _âme damnée_, a Cretan, by the name of Petrides, finding one day a list of persons designated for exile and the bagnio, in which was the name of her lover, a young Cretan, stole the document and gave it to him. It contained the names of all the prominent chiefs of the petition movement, and many in the city who were only known for their liberal opinions. Popular rumor magnified the difference, and myths as wild as those of the day of Minos made the tour of the island; one which I saw in a Greek newspaper represented me as rising in the conference and declaring that, if the Pasha sent troops against the committee, I would go and put myself in front of them, and then we should see if the troops dared fire!