THE FRANK DOCTOll Itf GEEECE. 



it being to put to death two villains, who, although their atrocities 

 were known, had been suffered to walk the streets with impunity. 

 The first was the keepor of the Hamams, or warm baths at Napoli ; 

 he was said to have murdered no fever than seventeen persons for the 

 sake of whatever property they might have had about them, after- 

 wards consuming their bodies in his heating stoves. The trial was an 

 odd one : there was a little conversation, but no witnesses were called 

 on either side ; he was unanimously declared guilty and sentenced to 

 be hung. A rope was fastened round his neck, while a man ascended 

 into a tree with the loose end of it, which he flung across a sub- 

 stantial bough ; the poor wretch was then hauled up and suffered to 

 dangle till life was extinct. The hands of the other, a spy, being 

 unbound, he seized the rope above his head and positively refused to 

 be hung. He was consequently lowered and his head hacked off by 

 repeated blows of an ataghan. 



A few days after Spiridion Tricoupi, the modern Demosthenes, 

 made an oration in the Piazza on the low state of the public purse ; 

 and being, I believe, an honest man, and possessed of considerable 

 eloquence, he excited so much enthusiasm that contributions flocked 

 in from all quarters. The ladies sent their ear-rings and jewels with 

 many patriotic speeches, and those who had it to give gave money. 

 But I was most delighted with the poor but hardy veterans of Rou- 

 melie : they unbuckled from their waists their costly sabres and richly 

 mounted fire-arms, the valued prizes of the hard-fought field, 

 and flung them into the heap, declaring, while tears rolled over 

 their scarred cheeks, that they had nothing else to give save their 

 lives, which, too, were at the service of their country. A sentiment 

 pure as that which animated Curtius when he took his leap, 

 expanded the hearts of these old warriors, annihilating their natural 

 avarice and inborn idolization of richly mounted weapons. For 

 the first time of my life I envied a mountain Klephti his self- 

 esteem. 



Gradually the Missolonghiotes began to drop in by bands of twenty 

 or thirty, and never did I see any thing more truly wretched than 

 the appearance they made. Their shrunken countenances wore that 

 peculiarly livid hue which results from scanty and unwholesome food, 

 and their attire was so filthy as to defy description. It is a practice 

 with the Greek soldiery never to change their linen during a siege or 

 a campaign, and the man who hopes to distinguish himself by a clean 

 shirt is invariably set down for a poltroon. I have myself worn the 

 same linen for four and even five months ; but the fustinellas of the 

 Missolonghiotes had not been changed for more than ten ! However, 

 if they do not wash they have a method of purifying their garments 

 from the myriads of vermin with which all classes in Greece are 

 infested. On Saturday night a fire is made in the open air, of small 

 branches of pine wood and juniper tops, or any combustible that 

 affords a good blaze. The party strips, and his garments are held over 

 the flame till the little colonies, being dislodged by the heat, in 

 newspaper phraseology, fall a prey to the devouring element. 



Having little else to do, I, as the Greeks say, " sat down" in 

 Napoli to practice mine art; and as aU competition with the 



