At the moment when it seemed impossible that confusion should not end in universal anarchy and massacre, the Imperial Commissioner arrived. Mustapha Kiritli Pasha had, by an impartial and energetic, if barbarous, administration of the affairs of the island, secured the respect and even esteem of the Christians, while his merciless repression of previous insurrections had inspired the strongest belief in his military capacity. As he entered the town, a Christian was shot down in the road behind him, one of the few who, influenced by the old regard for the Pasha, ventured to follow in his train; and, at the same moment, another was stabbed to death within a few hundred yards--a well-known employee of one of the principal Turkish beys, whose position had hitherto been his protection. The installation of Mustapha checked these disorders, and, investigation being ordered into them, the Governor-General, whose incapacity and malevolence became apparent, was peremptorily ordered to leave for Constantinople, not even being allowed time to pack his household furniture. The Commissioner at once commenced organizing and preparing expeditions to attack the Christians and relieve the troops cooped up at Candanos. The Cretan Mohammedans, to the number of 5,000, were regularly enrolled as volunteers. Strict orders were given in every direction for the protection of unarmed individuals, and in all the villages within the power of the government forces the option was given to the inhabitants of inscribing themselves as friends of the government and taking written protection--a course which would expose them to the hostility of the insurgent forces--or of joining their co-religionists in the mountains. A proclamation was issued, directed to the committee, in which the insurgents were summoned instantly to submit and give up their arms. No concessions were made, none even promised; the purport of the firman was, "Submit, be good children, and you shall see what you shall see!" As was to be expected, the committee, flushed by its recent successes and encouraged by the promise of succor from Greece, where committees had been formed at the first news of hostilities having commenced, rejected the proclamation contemptuously, and issued a counter-proclamation, which was forwarded to all the consuls and to the ministers at Constantinople. As I shall have, in the course of this history, to make serious question of the conduct of the Greek government, I shall do it the justice to say that, to the best of my information, it had up to this time utterly discouraged the insurrection as injudicious and ill-timed. But the affair of Vrysis had so great an effect on public opinion in Greece that the government was obliged to make concessions to it.