The finale of the Theriso campaign was marked by the appearance of the great _Deus ex machinâ_ of the insurrection, the Russian frigate _Grand Admiral_, and the commencement of the real moral intervention of Russia in the already complicated affair. The Russian commander, Boutakoff, was too fit a selection for the rôle which events compelled (or permitted) him to play to have been intentionally chosen by any government. In the three years subsequent to his arrival, I saw him often, and knew as much of his opinions and feelings as it is permitted an outsider to know of a Russian official, and both his acts and language have always confirmed my impression that the Russian Government did not influence the turn events took, and anticipated only a speedy and disastrous end to the insurrection, while entertaining the most cordial sympathy and good wishes for a more prosperous end than any sane man would have expected. In fact, with the exception of the boldest of the insurgents and some harebrained Greeks, no one in the island anticipated anything but ruin from the movement. Captain Boutakoff was a devout and liberal Christian, a type of all that is most chivalric, patriotic, and compassionate in manhood, large-brained, prudent, and, if zealous enough to merit all the honors then and since conferred on him by his sovereign, he was never capable of any patriotic vice worse than the most profound reticence. To know him as I knew him was to conceive a better opinion of his country. I am morally certain that Boutakoff never said or did anything to encourage in any way the hopes of the Cretans, or lead them to indulge in dreams of European intervention in their favor. His position was that of a humane observer, and with all the sympathy which existed between him and myself, and the mutual confidence in our personal intercourse, I could find in his language and acts no trace of _arrière-pensée_ in favor of any other interest than the real good of the Cretans. My own strong sympathy with the unhappy islanders made me the ally and co-operator with whoever gave them any help, and placed me, I have good reason to believe, high in the confidence of the Russian authorities in Crete and Constantinople; and, with no political interest in the matter other than Cretan, I am free to confess that, while I believed Russian policy in Crete to be the good of Crete, I was willing to aid in carrying out any plans that policy might point out. If, then, these plans had pointed out the secret encouragement of the insurrection as desirable, I am certain that I should have been influenced in that direction. It will be seen before I have finished that I am no apologist for the Russian conduct of this affair when it had become a matter of European interest and action; but I must do the Russian Government the justice to declare that it is in no wise responsible for the disaster and carnage which the war brought on, and that it was not until several