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

DEMETRIUS HYPSILANTI 83
ence, he was bitterly opposed ;
and his arrival was followed
by a war of intrigues
last,
and recriminations. At
he made a bold move to induce the people
to declare
actively in his favour. He suddenly left the
camp before Tripolitza, and issued a proclamation
stating that all his efforts on behalf of Greece had
been rendered nugatory by the selfish opposition of
the primates and senators. The stratagem was successful.
On the news of his departure,
rose in arms;
the soldiers
and for awhile the lives of some of the
oligarchs were in danger. Order was only restored
by their promising to submit to the authority of Prince
Demetrius, who was now brought back in triumph
from Leondari, and established in undisputed power.
Had he possessed the abilitv,
IT i/7
he was now in the
position to have become ' the Washington of Greece ;
but he was, in fact, too incompetent to retain the authority
he had won. Bit by bit this was usurped by his
lieutenants, or resumed by the primates; and since
he was in the eyes of the common people supreme,
'
the misdeeds of his supposed agents
were laid at his
door, and so, with the gradual decline of his power,
his popularity also waned.
In the midst of the confusion caused by these quarrels
and intrigues, on the 3rd of August, another
Phanariot Greek, Alexander Mavrocordatos, also ar-