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

FLIGHT OF HYPSILANTI 41
he invented a last lie to secure his retreat. Pretending
that Austria had just declared war on Turkey, he
caused a Te Deum to be sung in the church of Kosia
to celebrate the event; and, on pretext of arranging
co-operative measures with the Austrian Commander-
1
in-Chief, crossed the frontier.
His fate could hardly have been worse had he fallen
into the hands of the Turks;
for Austria, under the
rule of Metternich, had little
sympathy with leaders of
revolts. For upwards of seven years Hypsilanti was
kept in close confinement;
and when, at the instance
of the Czar Nicholas, he was at last released, it was only
to die shortly afterwards of a broken heart.
The fate of the remaining leaders is
better worth
following, and throws a halo of glory over the end of
an enterprise which had begun in such pitiful disgrace.
Georgaki, who was joined by the Albanian
chief Pharmaki and some two hundred and fifty men,
made a bold attempt to fight his way through to the
frontier of Russia.
Their fate was accelerated by the
hostility of the justly enraged peasantry.
in by the Ottoman forces,
Hemmed
their whereabouts was always
betrayed to the enemy, while they themselves
could obtain neither guides nor information. At last
they found themselves surrounded in the monastery of
i Pouqueville, Regeneration de la Grece, ii. 489.