egotiating for release, he meditated revenge.

To him the peace arranged through the instrumentality of the Entente
Ministers was but a "_sorte d'armistice_." He had agreed to it only in
order to extricate himself from his present difficulties and to gain
time for resuming hostilities under more favourable conditions. He and
his men, he tells us with an engaging candour, were at the mercy of the
Greeks: had he not accepted the King's offer--outnumbered, surrounded,
and without food or water for more than twenty-four hours--they would
have been ignominiously arrested. Besides, the configuration of the
ground sheltered the Greek troops from the naval fire, while the
Legations both of the Entente and of neutral Powers lay exposed to it.
Lastly, a continued bombardment might have driven the Greeks to
exasperation and perhaps to a massacre of Entente Ministers and
subjects. It was imperative to give the Allies and neutrals time for
flight and himself for serious war preparations. The delivery of the
whole stock of arms had been fixed by his Ultimatum for 15 December.
In that fortnight he proposed to obtain from his Government the forces
necessary {164} for a battle, and permission to bombard Athens in
earnest--with or without notice to its inhabitants, but, of course,
always with due regard for its _monuments historiques_.

Such was his plan. General Sarrail embraced it with ardour; the Paris
Government sanctioned it; troops began to arrive and French and British
residents to flee (3-5 Dec.). But very soon difficulties became
manifest. The transports had brought men and mules, but no provisions
for either. Greek volunteers and regulars mustered in defence of their
capital. The British Admiral declined to take part in any war
operations. The French Minister dreaded open hostilities. In the
circumstances, Admiral Dartige found it expedient to "give proof of his
spirit of self-denial," by renouncing his heroic dream of vengeance
"_immediate, retentissante,_" and by advising Paris not to set up a new
front at Athens: after all, the matter was not really worth a war. He
now proposed, instead, a pacific blockade; and, Paris assenting, he
proclaimed the blockade as from 8 December.[3]

With this act Admiral Dartige du Fournet's career came to a sudden end.
A few days later the French Government deprived him of his command and
placed him on the retired list. After a decent interval, the British
Government decorated h