The political intervention of Russia commenced at this juncture by the negotiation of a secret arrangement with the Viceroy, by which he engaged to withdraw his troops from Crete, and a division was actually embarked for Egypt before the Serdar Ekrem succeeded in arresting the defection, which was completed on his return from the campaign, seven months later, when a number, which, with the previous departure, amounted to about 10,000 men, the remainder of a total of 24,000 Egyptians landed in Crete, returned to Egypt. The change in French policy was also marked by the recall of the slavishly pro-Turkish consul Derché, incapable either of honesty or good policy, and whose demoralization had made him worthless even to his own government, and the replacing of him by M. Tricou, a clever, quick-witted Parisian, but long in the service, and lately stationed at Alexandria. There seems to be little doubt that he was authorized to use his eyes to the disadvantage of Omar Pasha if possible. [Tricou arrived just too late to be received by Omar before setting out, and followed him to Candia with the intention, if not the order, to follow him through his campaign; a surveillance which Omar bluntly declined, to his cost, as events proved.] He occupied about two weeks in organizing his troops, receiving heavy reinforcements from Turkey, including some splendid-looking regiments with full ranks, and then, with about 15,000 men, set out for the conquest of Sphakia. The Cretans, as if to reply to the new manifesto of the Porte, formed a provisional government, and chose Mavrocordato, an able Greek administrator, and most trustworthy and patriotic man, as president, decreeing at the same time that all authority should be exercised in the name of the King of the Hellenes. But the difficulty, not to say impossibility, of reconciling the claims of the rival chieftains, and of enforcing any kind of administrative system in the island, deterred Mavrocordato from assuming his post, though the _brutum fulmen_ of proclamation on both sides still continued, the only practical question being which side would stand most killing. Strategy on either side was of trivial importance, tactics of none. The Cretans rolled stones and felled trees into the passes, already nearly impassable, and Omar and his staff planned, on the chart, a campaign for a country none of them had ever seen, and with the greatest contempt for the judgment of those who knew it. Mehmet Pasha, who still retained command in the Apokorona, though he had been obliged to retreat to the seaside, advanced anew, and formed an entrenched camp near Vrysses, while Omar, with the bulk of the army, moved on to Episkopi, and waited there the arrival of the troops at Retimo. When all were ready, a joint attack was made, by Mehmet on Krapi and the Serdar Ekrem on Kallikrati, a much longer but less precipitous pass, which led into Askyfó from the east.