Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/232

210 lenic provinces of Turkey. Epiros and Thessaly broke into insurrection at the beginning of 1854. Greek volunteers went to the Crimea. At home the prospect of another struggle to complete the work of independence was received with enthusiasm. Armed bands crossed the frontier to join their insurgent fellow-countrymen. The people, the army, and the court all gave themselves up to the most brilliant dreams. Hellas was soon undeceived. The allies, France and England, would not tolerate a diversion in favor of Russia.

France occupied the Piraeus from May 26th, 1854, till February 27th, 1857; the Greeks found themselves reduced to absolute powerlessness, and the insurrection in the border provinces was soon crushed by the arms of the Turks. The history of this Greek inactivity in the Russo-Turkish war is still a mystery. At the moment when this war broke out Hellas possessed an army of between 35,000 and 40,000 men.' If she had interfered in the struggle, the result would have been a general rising in Turkey and the radical and definitive solution of the Greco-Turkish difficulties. The states of Epiros, Thessaly, and Crete urged the Greeks to interfere. Hellas, knowing the complications which the