Meanwhile, a "moral intervention" was being prepared, which brought respite to the insurrection and deranged all the plans of the Pasha. The atrocities of Arkadi had finally impressed public opinion with the conviction that the old barbarities of the Greek and Turkish wars were being perpetrated anew; and even the English consul at Canéa became convinced that barbaric massacre and ravage were being employed as the means of subduing the spirit of the islanders, and had reported to his Government certain of these atrocities, remonstrating, at the same time, to the Commissioner. The reports of those consuls who had by this time become characterized as the "friends of the insurrection"--viz., Colucci (Italian), Dendrinos (Russian), Sacopoulos (Greek), and myself--had spread through the European journals the news of these barbarities and excesses to such a degree that remonstrances were made by the ambassadors at Constantinople, while the clear-headed and true-hearted Murray had from the beginning, with great justice and discrimination, measured the facts and manifested the warmest sympathy with the Cretans. At this juncture came H.B.M.'s sloop _Assurance_, Commander Pym, relieving the _Wizard_, ordered to Malta. We parted from our gallant protector with an emotion not easily comprehended by those who do not know the nature and nearness of the dangers of the previous four months, or how the resolute and outspoken manhood of the young officer in his one-gun steamer had stood so long between us and death, as the representative of a power in civilization which subsequent years made me honor more and more--the English navy. Fortunately, Pym had learned from Murray, in the few days which elapsed between the arrival of the _Assurance_ and the departure of the _Wizard_, what was the real position of affairs, and followed the traditions of his predecessor. He had, moreover, a certain defiance of red-tape and a feverishness to distinguish himself which did not always measure carefully the purport of general orders, and which, perhaps, in battle would have made him turn a blind eye to a signal of recall, and now disposed him to abandon on any pretext the cold-blooded neutrality of his government.