No act could have been purer or more free from ulterior views than this of Pym's--an expression of what not only he, but all of his fellow-officers of the English navy whom I saw on the station, with one exception, felt--the compassionate desire to stand between women and children and the devilish policy which butchered them to terrify their husbands and fathers into submission. I saw Pym and his officers on their return from this voyage, and not one of them but would have given a month's pay to have gone on another similar trip. Their Government, in passing judgment on the act, could not condemn it, but to two parties, unfortunately, it was a political movement--the Hellenes, who insisted on considering it an intervention in _their_ favor, and so compelled the English Government to forbid its repetition; and the French, who regarded it as a manœuvre to block the game of the Viceroy. The French agent who afterwards succeeded Derché assured me that they had the most conclusive evidence that Captain Pym had orders from London to give the insurrection a jog, because the annexation to Egypt would have been the result of the failure of the insurrection at this juncture, and that, although Pym was immediately recalled and, to all intents and purposes, disgraced, and I believe retired on account of his venture, he was only so in appearance, and really had been rewarded for his apparent punishment. There were, at this time, two Italian corvettes, an Austrian frigate and gunboat, and a French gunboat, besides the Russian frigate, all of which, except the Frenchman, had, or were reported to have, orders to follow the lead of any other Power in rendering assistance to the non-combatants, and most of the commanders were anxious to follow Pym, but their delay in learning of his venture, and the quick disapproval of it, deterred all from intervention, and while correspondence was going on the war seemed suspended. It appeared finally to be decided that no one should imitate the English commander. The insurrection seemed on the point of collapsing, through the severity of the winter and the discouragement of the Cretans. Volunteers had been coming over from Greece--a motley mass of all nations--many of them from Smyrna and other Turkish parts, who, as soon as they landed, began to breed disaffection and maltreat the Cretans, creating the most angry feeling in the island, which did not stop short of violence. At this time, the whole body were driven into the Sphakian mountains, where, exposed to intense cold, half-fed, and without any discipline, they were dangerous only to the insurrection, and yielded readily to proffers of the Pasha to give them free exit and conveyance to Greece. A portion of them accepted the proposition on condition that they should be sent on European ships, and the Vice-Commissioner called a council of those consuls whose governments had naval representatives in Cretan waters,