The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of IndependenceBenson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
History
The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of Independence
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Greece -- History -- War of Independence, 1821-1829 -- Fiction
For two days longer the army remained at Kalamata in an ecstasy of
success. Petrobey posted several companies of men on the lower hills
of Taygetus and at the top of the plain, from which a pass led into
Arcadia, in ambush for any relieving force from Tripoli, should such
be sent. Flushed with victory as they were, nothing seemed impossible,
and the spirit of the men was to march straight on that stronghold of
the Turkish power. But Petrobey was wiser; he knew that this affair at
Kalamata had been no real test of the army's capacity; they had stood
with folded arms, and the prey had dropped at their feet. To attack a
strongly fortified place, competently held, was to adventure far more
seriously. At present he had neither men nor arms enough, and the only
sane course was to wait, embarking, it might be, on enterprises of the
smaller sort, till with the news of their exploit the rising became
more general. In the mean time he remained at Kalamata in order to get
tidings from the north of the Morea as to the sequel of the beacon
there, and, if expedient, to unite his troops with the contingent from
Patras and Megaspelaion. As commander-in-chief of the first army in
the field, he issued a proclamation, declaring that the Greeks were
determined to throw off the yoke of the Turk, and asking for the aid
of Christians in giving liberty to those who were enslaved to the
worshippers of an alien god.
The primates and principal clergy of the Morea, it will be remembered,
had been summoned to Tripoli for the meeting at the end of March, and
the scheme that the wisdom of Mitsos had hatched, to give them an
excuse for their disobedience, had met with entire success. Germanos,
who both spoke and wrote Turkish, forged a letter, purporting to come
from a friendly Mussulman at Tripoli, warning him to beware, for
Mehemet Salik, thinking that a rising of the Greeks was imminent, had
determined to put one or two of the principal men to death in order to
terrorize the people, and with the same stone to deprive them of their
leaders. With this in his pocket, he set out and travelled quietly to
Kalavryta, where he found other of the principal clergy assembled at
the house of Zaimes, the primate of the place. Germanos arrived there
in the evening, and before going to bed gave the forged letter to
Lambros, his servant, telling him to start early next morning, ride in
the direction of Tripoli, then turn back and meet the party at their
mid-day halt. He was then to give the letter to his master, saying that
he had received it from a Turk on the road, who hearing that he was
Germanos's servant, told him, as he valued his life and the life of his
master, not to spare spur till he had given it him, and on no account
to hint a word of the matter to any one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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