capturing the guilty, took advantage of the
opportunity to torture all the burnt–out
people who voted with the opposition.
They sent neither magistrates nor soldiers
to the spot; they simply sent executioners.
This statement is not declamation, but fact.

A deputy of the Left Centre, M. Chourmouzis,
a man of firm and moderate temper
and related to a deputy devoted to the
king, had put questions to the minister of
war, M. Spiro Milio. Questions about what?
About a brigand named Sigditza, whom
the said minister of war retained in the
ranks of the army, despite the judicial
authorities, who had issued against him ten
warrants of arrest.

In answer to these questions, the government
sent to Phthiotis, M. Chourmouzis's
province, a number of soldiers who were
doubtless devoted to their comrade Sigditza;
for they put to the torture all the
deputy's partisans, asking, "Why doesn't
your friend Chourmouzis come and deliver
you?" And Greek tortures are almost
as ingenious as they are varied. Among
them, are, a horse's bit inserted into the
mouth, large stones laid on the chest, burning–hot
eggs fastened under the arm–pits,
frictions with oil preparatory to beatings,
salt food to excite thirst, privation of sleep
during several days, and thorns thrust
tinder the finger–nails. People in England
will not believe such atrocities possible,
until experience demonstrates their existence;
as when the unhappy Times Correspondent
and others were captured and
tortured, in the Chinese war. Of the exploits
of the Greeks in Thessaly, the Moniteur
of May 14, 1854, says: "There is not
a horror which has not been committed by
these pretended heroes of the Cross. For
having refused to give up their money, pregnant
women have been ripped up, and their
infants cut to pieces." King Otho's ministers,
instead of proving that M. Chourmouzis
had calumniated the government,
shifted the responsibility of those crimes
from one to another. The minister of war,
who had sent the wretches, said: " If there
be disturbances in the interior, apply to the
minister of the interior."

It is not asserted that King Otho commanded
these atrocities; but he was aware
of them: and he neither punished the
guilty, nor dismissed his ministers. He
readily pardoned crimes which did not
touch himself; and when any one
denounced to him a robber or a murderer,
he thought it a sufficient justification to
say: "He is a devoted partisan of my
throne:" forgetting that by partisans of
this kind, thrones are rather apt (and most
righteously) to be upset.

Brigands in Greece are not, as in other
countries still cursed with brigands, a class
completely cut off from society. Each
troop had then, and probably has still, its
director, its impresario, in a town, sometimes
in the capital, sometimes at Court.
The subalterns often return to civil life;
often also the peasant turns brigand for a
few weeks, when he knows that a good
haul is to be made. The job finished, he
returns to his tillage. Of all the countries
in the world, Greece is the country in which
opportunity has called forth the greatest
number of highwaymen.

A Frenchman, residing in Athens, has told
how his servant one day timidly accosted
him, twisting his cap between his fingers:

"You have something to ask me?"

"Yes, effendi, but I dare not."

"Dare, nevertheless."

"Effendi, I want to spend a month on
the mountain."

"On the mountain! What for?"

"To stretch my limbs, saving your respect,
eflendi. I get rusty here. In Athens,
you are a heap of civilisés (I have no intention
of offending you), and I am afraid
of catching your complaint."

The master, touched by such valid reasons,
allowed his valet to take a month's
man–shooting. He returned at the expiration
of his leave of absence, and never
touched so much as a pin of his master's
property.

There was a poor gendarme who, for long,
long years, aspired after the rank of corporal.
He was a good soldier, brave enough,
and the least refractory in his company;
but his only patron was himself. So he
deserted, and turned brigand. Here, he
was able to display his talents. He was
soon well known to all the heads of the
gendarmerie. They tried to catch him, and
missed catching him five or six times.

Giving up that game, they sent a friend
to treat with him. "You shall have your
pardon, and, to make up for your trouble,
you shall be made a corporal to–morrow,
and a sergeant in the coarse of the year."

His ambition was satisfied. He consented
to be made corporal, awaiting patiently
his sergeant's stripes. He had
long to wait for them. One day, his
patience was worn out, and he returned to
the mountain. He had not killed three
men, before they made haste to make him
a sergeant. He afterwards rose to be an
officer, with no other patrons than the
persons he had put underground.