THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

190 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
the sore.
*
'
What
'
! he cried, when he saw Missolonghi,
were you kept out eight months by this fence ?
Why,
I took Navarino in eight days!
' *
He boasted that,
within a fortnight, he would reduce the town, without
Reshid's assistance.
Kiutayeh accepted the offer,
and vented his ill-humour on some wretched Greek
women and boys, whom he impaled, as spies, before
the walls.
The appearance of Ibrahim before Missolonghi
threw the Greek Government into the greatest state
of alarm.
With the fate of the gallant Missolonghiots
that of Greece seemed now to be inextricably involved,
and it became urgently necessary to take measures to
relieve the town;
but the treasury was empty,
attempts to float a new loan failed. It
and all
was proposed
to sell the public lands, already pledged as security for
the national debt; but the suggestion merely destroyed
the last vestiges
of the Government credit. Personal
patriotism now came to the rescue, and by private
subscription
a sufficient sum was raised to enable
Miaoulis to fit out a fleet for the relief of Missolonghi.
On the 21st of January he arrived off the beleaguered
town, and succeeded in lauding some stores on
the island of Vasiladi. Here, however, he was attacked
by the combined Turkish and Egyptian fleets, and
i
Mendelssohn, i. 370.