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

356 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
with a view to taking up a position for battle. The
sharp
eye of Miaoulis, accustomed, from the experience of
years of naval warfare, to note the slightest signs of an
enemy's intentions, immediately discovered the object
of this manoeuvre. As the Russian ships sailed toward
their new quarters, two explosions were heard, and
over the brow of the island great columns of smoke ascended.
Admiral Miaoulis had carried out his threat,
and rather than suffer them to be used to coerce the
freedom of the islands, had blown up with his own
hands the magnificent frigate Hellas and the corvette
Hydra. He himself escaped with his men,
in the
ships' boats, to Poros, and thence to Hydra.
On the same day the troops of Niketas and Kallergis
entered the town of Poros, and, though
this had
capitulated freely, it was treated as a hostile city taken
by storm. For hours the unhappy town was given
over to the cruelty and lust of the brutal mercenaries,
who, when they at last desisted from outrage and robbery,
returned to Kauplia laden with booty.
Though
they had not struck a blow in honest fighting, their
zeal was rewarded by a public proclamation, in which
Capodistrias
hailed them as the saviours of their
country.
The affair of Poros was decisive as to the relations
of the representatives of the Powers among themselves