of his faults, is to make him pay first, and then beat him into the bargain." As long as the capitano continued to honour the village with his presence, he and his soldiers lived on the fatness of the land; the poor peasant's flock, poultry-yard, and cellar, daily feeling the effects of their revels.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Cogiabashi-Macri-His character-Description of CerasovoDeath of Draco.

No government would have been, comparatively speaking, more wealthy than the Greek, if its resources had been properly applied. Without entering into minuter details, it will suffice to say, that the richer districts of Morea had not suffered in the least during the war of extermination that succeeded the insurrection in 1822. Dramali devastated only those of Argos, Corinth, and Sycyon; but the province of Gastorini, the fertile plains of Arcadia, Messenia, Mistra, &c., never resounded with the din of war. The Greeks became possessors of every object, belonging to the enemy, as peaceably as if they had been yielded up to them by voluntary concession. The mountain districts were, if possible, still less disturbed: the revolutionary blaze burst out there so suddenly into general conflagration, that, so to say, every Turk was smothered by the flames, before he could think of escape. In the districts of Calavuta, Phanari, Caritena, Leondari, Zakounia, Bardounia, not an armed Mussulman remained alive five days after the unfurling of the standard of the cross. In continental Greece, the insurrection was so sudden and unforeseen, that the Turkish population had no time to take measures, but, like men buried in sleep, were exterminated without resistance.

The produce of the above districts may be valued at twenty millions of francs. Continental Greece and

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the islands might give half that sum. This certainly might have supplied all the wants of the state; and once secured by interior force against every possible aggression of the enemy, the prosperity and wealth of the country would daily have increased to such a degree as to render it an object of envy to the surrounding nations.

A baron, in the feudal ages, could not more absolutely lord it over his vassals, than Gligori, the Cogiabashi of Cerasovo, over the inhabitants of his village. Not satisfied with the tenth of every produce, he obliged the peasants, by turns, to work during a certain number of days in the year, on his properties. Djeremè and angàr (fines, and contributions of labour) were terms hourly in his mouth. In case wood, or materials to build his house, were wanted, he forced as many peasants, as were necessary, to leave off their occupations and go, gratis, with their own beasts of burden, to find and bring whatever he might stand in need of. Every one trembled before him; and sought, by oblations, incense, and the most submissive appearance, to dissipate the frowns of this angry divinity. And unfortunate was he, who unable to satisfy his pride or his avarice, did not succeed in gaining his good graces. He became instantly the object of his constant, petty, vexations.

The cogiabashi of the neighbouring villages once passed through Cerasovo. They remained one day at Gligori's, who regaled them with a splendid picnic entertainment, of which, however, every one but the contributors partook. He knew who had the largest turkeys, kept register of the age of capons, was informed where the fattest lambs, the best honey, the oldest wine, could be had: and, in virtue of an

order published by the crier, all the good things of the village, shortly after, decorated his board. Their revels continued till late in the night; and every time they drained the overflowing goblet, the kettledrum and shrill trumpet of the gipsies (the itinerant musicians of Levant) brayed out the triumph of their pledges.

The capitano of this province (Zvyòs) was the renowned Demetri Macri; a herdsman by birth, who, forced in his youth to fly from his village, where he had perpetrated a murder, volunteered under the orders of Catzantoni, Lepeniolachi, Kleissonra and other kleftes, who, for many years, had been the terror of continental Greece. It has been a very general cant with travellers who have written on Greece, to represent the kleftes as heroic sons of liberty, who, impatient of the Turkish yoke, preferred abandoning their homes, and leading an independent though miserable existence in caverns and on mountain tops, trusting for their subsistence to the spoils of the enemy. In a few rare instances this was the casein that of Bouccovala for instance; but, in general, the Greek kleftes are in their origin and every other respect exactly similar to the banditti, who infest the kingdom of Naples, and almost all the high roads of Italy. In the exercise of their honourable profession, these men spared neither Greek nor Turk. If they lived on good terms with the inhabitants of villages, it arose merely from the circumstance, that their own existence depended on preserving the peasantry's friendship. Unfortunate the village, which failed in punctually remitting the provisions, ammunitions, or other object which their rapacity demanded. It might rely on having its houses, or its harvests, burned, or suffering a thousand vexations. On this account Gli

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gori's father was killed by Macri's band; and, a few days after his death, the house, inhabited by his family, was completely destroyed. Sirsta, a neighbouring hamlet, became, on another occasion, the theatre of their excesses. The situation of the peasantry, already so miserable throughout Greece, was rendered still more so by the kleftes. They were between anvil and hammer; being equally obliged to maintain the thieves and the bands of Armatolis employed in their pursuit; and as much exposed to the vexations of the Turk, if he detected them supplying the thieves with provisions, or sending them information, as to the resentment of the latter, should they omit doing it. In case any depredation was committed in a district, it unavoidably brought loss upon loss; and the contributions, raised to apprehend the robbers, might, many times over, have bought the objects, carried away.

Macri was a man guilty of every crime. Frequently have I heard him relate some of his exploits with the greatest sang-froid; though the slightest word of his bloody narration harrowed up the hearer's soul! Compared to him, Turpin and Cartouche were as innocent as babes. By remaining so many years among the woods, these men had gradually become as savage as the wild beasts, their only companions. Closely pursued by the Armatolis, Macri, as he once related to us, lived during six weeks entirely on raw herbs, and now and then raw meat. He dared not light a fire, lest its smoke or flame should lead to his detection. He at last entered a poor cottage, the tenant of which was an old woman, whom he found busy in preparing a fire to bake some Indian corn bread. His hunger was such, that, unable to stay any longer, he seized the dough out of her hands, and in a few moments