The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of Independence by E. F. Benson
CHAPTER VII
THE PORT DUES OF CORINTH
Nicholas got safely across to Corinth early in the morning after hehad parted from Mitsos, but was obliged to wait there two days for acaique to take him to Patras. The revolution for which the leadingGreeks throughout the Peloponnese were preparing was there in the handsof the Archbishop Germanos. Like Nicholas, he too had felt the cruelappetites of the Turk, and, like Nicholas, he was willing to leaverevenge unplucked until the whole scheme was ripe to the core. An agentof his had met the latter at Corinth, bidding him come, if he had a fewdays to spare, at once; if not, as soon as he could. But as Nicholashad left Nauplia with the idea of proceeding to Patras at once, he sentthe messenger back, saying he was on his way, but that for greatersecurity he would come by sea. That he was suspected of being concernedin intrigue against the Turk he knew, and as his plans were now alreadybeginning to be thoroughly organized, and the club had made him theirprincipal agent in the Morea, he wished to avoid any needless risk inpassing through the garrisoned towns on the gulf.
On the second day, however, a Greek caique laden with figs was startingfrom Corinth, and Nicholas went on board soon after dark, and aboutmidnight they started.
For a few hours an easterly breeze drew up from the narrow end ofthe gulf, but it slackened and dropped between three and four in themorning, and daylight found them becalmed, with slack sails, someeight miles out to sea, and nearly opposite Itea. To the north thetop of Parnassus wore morning on its face, and stood high above themrose-flushed with dawn, while they still lay on a dark, polished plainof water as smooth as glass. On the opposite side of the gulf, butfarther ahead, Cyllene and Helmos, on the north side of which lastwinter's snow still lay heraldically in bars and bezants, had alsocaught the light, which, as the sun rose higher, flowed like someluminous liquid down their slopes, wooded below with great pine forests.
Nicholas had pillowed himself on the deck, and woke when the sun hadrisen high enough to touch the caique. The captain and owner of theboat, who had been all night in the little close cabin below, came upas he roused himself and sat down near him.
"The wind has dropped altogether," he said; "we may be here for hours.Are you in a hurry to get on?"
Nicholas filled his pipe very carefully.
"I am never in a hurry," he said, "if I am going as quick as I can.I would make a wind if I could, but I cannot, and so I am content towait. If swearing would do any good I would even swear, but I find ithas no effect on the elements. You have a good heavy cargo."
"A good, heavy cargo?" said the man. "Yes, and we should have a dippinggunwale if those devils had not seized six crates of figs at Corinth."
"The Turks?" asked Nicholas.
"Who else? Port dues, they call them. Much of a port is Corinth--a heapof stones tumbled into the water, and five rickety steps."
"Harbor dues! They are a new institution, are they not?"
"A month old only," said the man; "but if I hear right they will not bevery much older when they are taken off again."
"Taken off? How is that?" asked Nicholas, blandly.
"They say there will soon be a great cutting of the swines' throats. Ispend my life on the sea, and for the most part my ears are empty ofnews; but surely you know what was being said at Corinth?--that beforea year is out we Greeks shall not have these masters any longer."
One of the crew was standing near, and the captain motioned him to gofarther off.
"I do not like to say this before my own men," he said; "but why shouldI not tell you? you will be landed at Patras, and you will go your wayand I mine. Besides, for all your Turkish clothes you are no Turk,for they are a short-legged folk. I heard it at the cafe last night.Four Turks were talking about the arms which they say the peasantsare collecting. They spoke of one Nicholas Vidalis as a leader--theyexpected to take him, for word had come to them that he was travellingto Corinth."
"Thus there are disappointed men," thought Nicholas. Then aloud, "Whois this Nicholas?"
"Nay, I know him not," said the man. "I am from the islands. I thoughtit might be you could tell me of him."
"From which island?" asked Nicholas.
"From Psara."
Nicholas lit his pipe with a lump of charcoal and inhaled a couple oflong breaths, silent, but with a matter in balance.
Then, looking straight at the man, he said:
"I am Nicholas Vidalis, the man whom the Turks would dearly liketo catch. But at present they catch me not, for I am a clean andGod-fearing man, and I hate the Turk even as I hate the devil, for thetwo are one. And now there are two ways open to you--one is to giveme up at Patras, the other to try to help me and others in what weare doing. For this will be no time for saying 'I have nothing to dowith this; let those who will fight it out.' You will have to take oneside, and you had better begin at once. See, I have trusted you with mysecret, because you may be of use to me. You come from Psara, and youprobably know the coast of Greece as a man knows the shape of his bootsand gaiters. We have got plenty of men to fight on land, and plenty topay them with; what we want are little ships, which, in case of need,will hang about the Turks if they try to escape from their destruction,and sting them as the mosquito stings the slow cattle in the evening."
Nicholas paused for a moment, and his face lit up with a blaze ofhatred.
"For it is already evening with them," he cried, "and when the daydawns night shall have swallowed them, and they will awake no more. Doyou know what is the strongest feeling that ever grips a man's heart?No, not love, nor yet fear, but revenge. And if you had suffered as Ihave suffered you would know what it is to be filled with one thoughtonly--to see blood in the sunrise and blood in the setting of the sun;to feel that you have ceased to be a man and have become a sword. Thatis what I am, and the hand that holds me is the right hand of God. Andby me He will smite and spare not. And when there are no more to smite,perhaps I shall become a man again, and live to see peace and plentybless a free people. But of that I know nothing, and I do not greatlycare. Come, now, what answer do you give me?"
Nicholas rose to his feet; the other had risen too, and they faced eachother. There was something in the earnestness and intensity of this manwith one idea which could not but be felt, for enthusiasm is the onefact that cannot be gainsaid, a noble disease in which contagion evermakes infection. And his companion felt it.
"Tell me more," he said, eagerly; "but wait a moment--here is the wind."
He hurried aft to give orders to the men. Far away on the polishedsurface of the water behind them, smooth and shining as a sealskin,a line had appeared as if the fur had been stroked the wrong way. Ina couple of minutes the men were busy with the ropes, and two stoodready to slacken the sheets of the heavy square sail if the squall wasviolent, and one stood at the tiller, for some cross-current had turnedthe boat round, and it would be necessary to put about. Meantime therough line had crept nearer, and behind it they could see the tops oflittle waves cut off by the wind and blown about in spray. A couple ofmen had put out the long sweep-oars, and were tugging hurriedly at themto get the head of the boat straight before the wind before it struckthem. But they were not in time; the wind came down with a scream,the boat heeled over till the leeward gunwale touched the water, andthe mast bent; then, and with a perfect precision, the sheets wereslackened for a moment to let her right herself; and, braced again, shebegan to make way, and in a few seconds they were scudding straightdown the gulf almost directly before the wind, till, with theirincreasing speed, it seemed to die down again. The water all round themwas broken up into an infinite number of little green foam-embroideredwave troughs, through which, at the pace they were going, they moved asquietly as a skater over smooth ice.
Nicholas had a careful eye to the handling of the boat during theseoperations, and he saw that the little crew of six men knew their workperfectly, and that they were quick and prompt at the moment when amishap might easily have occurred. He never let slip the smallestopportunity which might some day pr
Half an hour later he and Kanaris, the captain of the boat, werebreakfasting together, and Nicholas was explaining to him exactly whatthe weakness of the movement was, and the necessity for conjunctionbetween the sea and land forces. He wished him, he said, to continue toexercise his trade for the sake of appearances, but always to be readyat a moment's notice. When the outbreak took place it was quite certainthat many of the Turks, especially those on the sea-coast, would tryto escape by sea. That must not be; it was no polite or diplomatic waron which they were to embark; their aim from the first must be theannihilation of the Turks. He told him in detail how this means ofescape was to be cut off, as will appear later, and as he unfolded hisbloody plan Kanaris's heart burned within him, and he promised, in thename of God, to help him gather that red vintage.
About mid-day the wind went down, and they lay becalmed again; butNicholas, who, as he had said, was never in a hurry when he was goingas quick as he could, felt that his time could hardly have been betteremployed. Kanaris, it appeared, was of a large Psarian clan; forgenerations he and his had been seafaring folk, men of the wind andwave, whose help Nicholas knew to be so essential. He promised, ifpossible, to come to Psara himself before the year was out; but he saidthat his hands were very full, and he could pledge no certainty.
For three hours or so they lay on a tossing water, for the wind of themorning had roughened the narrow sea, which so quickly gets up under asquall from the mountains, and great green billows came chasing eachother down from the east beneath the brilliant noonday sun, whichturned them into a jubilant company of living things. The boat, lyinglow in the water with its heavy cargo, reeled and rolled with a jovialboisterousness, alternately lifting up sides all ashine with the seaover the crest of a wave, and burying itself again with a chokinghiccough in its trough. The sun drew out from the crates of figs theirodor of mellow luxuriance, which hung heavy round the boat, dispersedevery now and then by a puff of wind which blew in the salt freshnessof the sea.
By four o'clock, however, the wind, still favorable, sprang up again,and on they went into the sunset, the black nose of the boat pushingand burrowing through the waves, and throwing off from its sidessheets of spent foam. As the hours passed Kanaris felt ever more keenlythe fascination and strength of this strange man, and after supper theysat together in the stern watching the heavens reel and roll abovethem, and the top of the mast striking wildly right and left across ahundred stars. Nicholas, perched on the taffrail, balancing himselfwith an exquisite precision to every movement of the boat, talked inhis deep low voice of a thousand schemes, all blood-stirring, withthe Turk for target. For no one knew better than himself the value ofpersonal power, and the success of his proselytizing had been to alarge extent, even as in the case of Mitsos, the outcome of his ownindividuality, which could so stir the minds of men, and fan to a flamethe smouldering hatred against the Turks, and cause it to leap up infire.
Germanos, the Metropolitan Bishop of Patras, had only just risen nextmorning when his messenger came back, having travelled through thenight to announce Nicholas's coming, and also report the same talk inthe cafes which Kanaris had heard. The bishop smiled to himself atthe idea of any untoward fate laying hands on Nicholas, and told hisservant to let it be widely known that Nicholas had been taken andkilled.
"For," as he said, "the Turks will be delighted to believe that (andmen always succeed in believing what they wish), and all Greeks to whomNicholas is more than a name will know that this is one of those thingswhich do not occur. I am ready for breakfast, and let a room for mypoor dead friend be got ready, and also a bath in which the body may bewashed."
Germanos was a splendid specimen of a Greek of unmixed blood, nownearly or quite extinct. His family came from the island Delos,still unviolated by the unspeakable race, and from generation togeneration they had only married with islanders. He was rather abovethe middle height, and his long black cassock made him appear taller.In accordance with Greek rite, neither his hair nor beard had everbeen cut, and the former flowed black and thick onto his shoulders,and his beard fell in full rippling lines down as far as his waist.Though for three or four years his life had been one long effort oforganizing his countrymen against the Turks, the latter had neversuspected his complicity, and he intended to take the fullest advantageof their misplaced confidence in him. Though Germanos had not troddenthe world so widely as Nicholas had done, he was nevertheless a manof culture--shrewd, witty, and educated. And Nicholas too, though forthe sake of the great cause he would have condemned himself cheerfullynever to speak to a man of his own rank and breeding again, found ita pleasant change, after his incessant wanderings among peasants, tomix with his own kind again. His few days with Constantine at Nauplia,it is true, he had much enjoyed, for it was impossible not to behappy when that apostle of happiness, the little Mitsos, was by; andConstantine, too, was of the salt of the earth. He only arrived in theevening, just before dinner, and they sat down together as soon as hehad washed.
"There is a good man to hand, I think, to-day--the captain of the boatI came by," said he. "I suggested he should come and talk with usto-morrow. I would have brought him with me, but he was busy with hisfig cargo."
"My dear Nicholas, you are indefatigable. I do not believe there isa man in the world but you who would wake at dawn on the gulf andinstantly set about making a proselyte. You should have been a priest.What made you see a patriot in him?"
"It was a long shot," said Nicholas. "He spoke without sympathy ofthe new Turkish harbor dues at Corinth, and told me my capture wasimminent. I risked it on that."
The archbishop frowned.
"New harbor dues? It is time to think of harbor dues when there is aharbor."
"So he said," answered Nicholas. "Their methods have simplicity. Theyseized six crates of his figs."
"We are commanded," remarked Germanos, "to love all men. I hope Ilove the Turk, but I am certain that I do not like him. And I desirethat it will please God to remove as many as possible of his kind tothe kingdom of the blest or elsewhere without delay. I say so in myprayers."
Nicholas smiled.
"That gives a double sound," said he; "you pray not for theirdestruction, but for their speedy salvation. Is that it?"
"To love all men is a hard saying; for, indeed, I love my nation, and Iam sure that the removal of the Turks will be for their permanent good.What does the psalmist say, though he was not acquainted with the Turk,'I will wash my footsteps in the blood of the ungodly'?"
"As far as I can learn the ungodly were expecting to wash theirfootsteps in my blood at Corinth," said Nicholas; "but they behaved asit is only granted to Turks to behave. They expected me twenty-fourhours after I had gone away."
"How did things go at Nauplia?"
"Better than I could possibly have expected. I found the very man, orrather the boy, I wanted in my young nephew."
"The little Mitsos? How old is he?"
"Eighteen, but six feet high, and with the foot of a roe-deer on themountains. Moreover, I can trust him to the death."
"Eighteen is too young, surely," said Germanos. "Again, you cantrust many people to just short of that point, and they are the mostdangerous of all to work with. I could sooner work with a man I couldnot trust as far as a toothache!"
In answer Nicholas told him of that midnight test, and Germanoslistened with interest and horror.
"You are probably right then, and I am wrong," he said; "and a boy canmove about the country without suspicion w
"Yes, it was horrible!" said Nicholas; "but I want none but those whoare made of steel. I knew by it that he was one in a thousand. Heclinched his teeth, and never a word."
"What do you propose to do with him now?"
"That is what I came to talk to you about. It is time to set to work inearnest. The Club, as you know, have given me a free hand and an openpurse. Mitsos must go from village to village, especially round Sparta,and tell them to begin what I told them and to be ready. The Turks are,I am afraid, on the lookout for me, and I cannot travel, as you say, inthe way he can without suspicion."
"What did you tell them to begin?" asked Germanos.
"Can you ask? Surely to grind black corn for the Turk. It must be donevery quickly and quietly, and chiefly up in the villages there inMaina. You say you are collecting arms here?"
"Not here, at the monastery at Megaspelaion. Many of them have beenbought from the Turks themselves. There lies a sting. The monks carrythem in among the maize and reed stalks. Father Priketes was met theother day by a couple of their little Turkish soldiers, who asked whythey were carrying so many reeds, and he said it was to mend the roof.Reeds make a capital roof."
"Yes, the monastery roof will want many mules' loads of mending," saidNicholas. "Do you suppose they suspect anything?"
"Certainly, but they have nothing to act on; besides, I would bewilling to let them search the monastery from top to bottom. Do youremember the chapel there, and the great altar?"
"Surely."
"The flag-stone under the altar has been taken up and a hole made intothe crypt. The door into the crypt, which opens from the passage in thefloor below, has been boarded over and whitewashed, so that it looksexactly like the rest of the passage wall. It is impossible to detectit. Mehemet Salik, the new governor in Tripoli, appointed only thismonth from Nauplia, was there last week and examined the whole place.He is a young man, though suspicious for his age."
"That is good," said Nicholas. "Your doing, I suppose. How many gunshave you?"
"About a thousand, and twice as many swords. In another month we shallbe ready. Megaspelaion makes a far better centre than Patras would, asit is so much nearer Tripoli. That is where the struggle will begin."
"Who knows?" said Nicholas. "When we are ready we will begin just whereit suits us. Personally, I should prefer--" He stopped.
"Well?"
"It is this," said Nicholas. "It is no gallant and polite war wewant; we do not want to make terms, or treaties, or threats. We wantto strike and have done with it; to exterminate. I should prefer, ifpossible, striking the first blow either at Kalamata or Nauplia. Thenthe dogs from all round would run yelping into Tripoli, as it is theirstrongest place, and so at the end there would be none left."
"Exterminate is no Christian word, Nicholas. The women and thechildren--"
"The women and children," said Nicholas, rising and pacing up and downthe room; "what are they to me? Once when I was an outlaw I sparedthem--yes, and spared the men, too, only sending them riding back faceto the horse's tail. But did they spare my wife and my child? If thereis a God in heaven I will show them the mercy they showed me!"
Germanos was silent a few moments, and waited till Nicholas had satdown again.
"Will you drink more wine?" he asked; "if not, we will sit on thebalcony; it is hot to-night. I think you are right about striking thefirst blow somewhere in the south, so that they shall go to Tripoli. Ihad thought before that it would be better to strike at the centre. Butyour plan seems to me the wiser. Come outside, Nicholas."
Germanos's house stood just out of the town, high up on the hill, whichwas crowned by the castle, and from his balcony they could see thetwinkling lights in the fort below like holes bored in the dark, andbeyond the stretch of starlit water, and dimly on the other side ofthe gulf the hill above Missolonghi shouldering itself up in the faintblack distance. Before long the moon rose above the castle behindthem, and turned the whole world to silver and ebony. Cicalas chirpedin the bushes, and the fragrance of the southern night came drowsilyalong the wind. Every now and then a noise would rise up for a momentin the town, shrill to its highest, and die away again.
A boy brought them out coffee, made thick and sweet in the Turkishmanner, and two narghiles with amber mouth-pieces, and brazen bowls forholding the coarse-cut tobacco. On each he placed a glowing charcoalember, and handed the mouth-pieces to the two men. For a long whilethey sat in silence, and then Nicholas spoke:
"It will be no time for mercy--I shall go where my vow leads me, and Ihave vowed to spare neither man, woman, nor child. I will show them themercy they showed me, and no other."
"God make you merciful on that day, as you hope for mercy," saidGermanos. "For me, I shall not be a party to any butchering of thedefenceless. There will be plenty of butchers without me. Blood mustbe shed; it cannot be otherwise. Fight and spare not, but when thefighting is over let the rest go out of the country, for we will nothave them here. But for massacre, I will not make myself no better thana Turk!"
The two narghiles bubbled in silence again for a few minutes, and atlast Germanos broke in with a laugh:
"The Turks all think you are dead," he said. "I told the boy to let itbe widely known that you had been killed at Corinth. It is just as wellthey should believe it. Mehemet Achmet, the sleepiest man God made, washere this afternoon, and he regretted it with deep-seated enjoyment.They seemed to know all about you here!"
"But none in Patras know me by sight," said Nicholas, "and as I am deadthey never will. It is possible that it may prove useful to me. Whatare your plans for to-morrow?"
"We will do what you like. It might be well for you to seeMegaspelaion. We could get there in a day if the wind held to Vostitza.They have, as I said, a curious little crypt there, which is worth avisit."
Nicholas smiled.
"It is impossible for a man to see too much," he said, "just as it isimpossible for a man to pretend to know too little. I would give afortune, if I had one, for a face like my brother-in-law Constantine's,for it is as a mask in carnival time, behind which who knows what maybe? Yet there is force in him, and Mitsos obeys him as--as he obeys me!And yet he is too large a lad to take commands easily."
"Perhaps no other influence has come in yet. To fall in love, forinstance, sometimes makes a good lad less obedient than an orphan tohis parents."
"The little one in love would be fine," said Nicholas. "He would sendthe whole world to the devil. Why, shooting is the strongest passion hehas known yet, and he shoots as if all the saints were watching him."
"I hope some of them are," remarked Germanos, "and that they willespecially watch him when he is inclined to send the whole world to thedevil. I hope Mitsos will not think of including me."
"I will warn him when I see him next. I shall go on there, I think,in November. I must get back to Maina first and see my cousin, PetrosMavromichales, who is the head of the clan, and find out if the clanare prepared to rise in a body. That man Kanaris was handy enough withhis boat, but I would back Mitsos to sail against him in any weather."
"Ah! that fire-ship is a horrible idea of yours, Nicholas."
"Horrible, but necessary. We must not have supplies of arms andgunpowder coming to the Turks by sea, and there must be no escape outof the death-trap which we will snap down on them. And now let me tellyou all that is in my mind, for it may be we shall not meet again tillthe great Vintage is ripe for the gathering."
For an hour or so Nicholas talked eagerly, unfolding his schemes,Germanos listening always attentively, sometimes dissenting, but in themain approving. He spoke of the Club of Patriots in north Greece, whohad given him leave to act in their name until the time came for themto send a delegate who would act openly; for at present if it becameknown that the leading men of Greece, many of whom were in officialpositions under the Turks, were concerned in schemes of revolution, thewhole project would be
And as Nicholas went on another vision rose before the bishop's eyes:the vision of his church, the mother of their hearts, throned not onlythere, but in the glory of an earthly magnificence, in visible splendorthe bride of her Lord. Therein to him was food for hope and aspiration,and his thoughts drifted away from war and bloodshed to that.
And when Nicholas had finished he met an eye that kindled as his own,but with thoughts that were not spoken, but partook of their sweet andsecret food in silence and self-communing.