1770. A.D. in the North: the Montenegrins and Chimariots had by no means abandoned their enthusiasm in the cause; and a body of pallikaris, amounting to three or four hundred men, were already on their march to his assistance, under the command of Androuzos, one of the most distinguished Klefts of Livadia. When this gallant little band, after braving all perils, had gained the south of the Morea, they were thunderstruck to find the Russians departed, the Mainotes dispersed, the Greeks in despair, and the Albanians masters of every fortress and defile.* Androuzos had no other resource than to force a passage through the midst of these miscreants back to his native mountains. He returned boldly to Tripolizza, and, presuming on the fact of his having taken no active part in the revolt, he demanded a passport from the Pacha for himself and his companions. His request was granted, but not till precautions had been taken to prevent his ever reaching Livadia. Constantly on his guard, and alive to suspicion, he arrived, after encountering numerous dangers, by circuitous routes, at the Isthmus of Corinth, where an ambuscade of several thousand Turks were stationed to intercept his farther progress. Attacked unawares 1770. by these, he succeeded in retreating to a fa- A.D. vourable position, and suddenly wheeling round upon his pursuers, he drove them again to their concealment. He next shaped his course to the west, along the shores of the Gulf of Lepanto, in the hope of reaching Patras, and effecting his escape to the Ionian Islands: but the continued assaults and harassment of his enemies rendered his march one protracted combat. Night and day his sufferings were unremitting; sleep was impossible; and the only provisions of his famishing followers were the precarious forage of their route, or such as they could wrest immediately from their discomfited foes. At length, after nine days of unparalleled endurance, his band arrived, exhausted and perishing, in the vicinity of the little town of Vostizza. Here they were surrounded by their pursuers, and, in spite of their weakness, they maintained their position for three successive days, without rest, food, or sleep. On the fourth, by the advice of Androuzos, they mustered their remaining energies for one final and decisive effort; they burst upon the Ottomans, ere they were aware of their movements, with all the impetuosity derivable from a desperate resolution, to force their passage or fall in the attempt. The contest was brief and bloody. Androuzos lost one half his little 1770. A.D. band, but led the remainder triumphantly over the bodies of three thousand Albanians, and, having procured shipping at Vostizza, retired laden with booty to Preveza, which was then under the protection of Venice. This gallant exploit, worthy the best days of Ancient Greece, and that of Mauro Michali at Nisi, are the only glorious incidents of the insurrection of 1770; but they are of themselves sufficient to show, that in any other hands than those of the Russians, its event might have proved eminently advantageous to the unfortunate Moreots. His Immediately on the departure of Orloff, the Pacha issued throughout the Peloponnesus a proclamation of general amnesty and pardon; the families of the fugitive Greeks were treated with kindness and humanity, and every exertion was made to restore tranquillity and confidence, and to obliterate the horrid traces of war. efforts were counteracted, however, in a great degree, by the savage excesses of the Albanians, who continued, even after the restoration of peace, to pursue their career of bloodshed and plunder. The Porte was long unable to suppress their enormities; nor was it till nine years had elapsed, that the resolution and bravery of Hassan Pacha succeeded in totally rooting out those ruthless devastators, and re 1770. storing peace to the peninsula. Such was the A.D. gloomy termination of this romantic project of establishing a republic in Greece. That the idea was never cordially entertained by the Russian cabinet, I have already endeavoured to show; and their acquiescence in the attempt at a particular juncture of their affairs, was evidently an unwilling compliance with the importunities of the Empress, half disguised under the plea of temporary expediency. The merit of the project belongs exclusively to the aspiring imagination of Orloff; and its support by Catharine may be safely attributed to her desire to gratify the wishes of her favourite paramour, not to any speculations either of ambition or classical enthusiasm. This is sufficiently evinced by the evidence of her own private correspondence, in which, even in her highest anticipations of its success, she seldom speaks of it with warmth, and treats it with the vilest contempt on the first reverse of fortune and its abandonment by Orloff.* Its prepara In the correspondence of Catharine with Voltaire, the subject of the Grecian expedition is frequently introduced. At first, she speaks of it with considerable doubt, seems fully sensible of its romantic character, and anxious that its success should justify it in the eyes of Europe. "Il faudra voir ce qu'il fera," says she, "c'est un spectacle nouveau que cette flotte dans la Méditerranée. La sage 2 A VOL. II. 1770. A.D. tions, as far as they regarded the interior of Greece, were injudicious and imperfect, and its first explosion was in every way premature. Instead of attempting a partial insurrection, supported by a handful of foreign troops, its developement should have been simultaneous and unanimous, and the whole force of the Russians should have been on the spot, to aid and intimidate. Its entire conduct was cha 29 9 Nov. Europe n'en jugera que par l'évènement." (Voltaire Cor- |