not these men now have recourse to other
weapons than the vote in order to get even with the bully?

For a moment M. Venizelos felt stupefied: the edifice that had seemed so
solid was collapsing about him, and he was in danger of being buried
under the ruins. Then he wisely stole out of the country he had done his
best to aggrandize and to disintegrate.[8]

The result of the elections was virtually an invitation to King
Constantine to return and resume his crown. But the King, not content
with an indirect verdict, wanted an explicit plebiscite _ad hoc_, clear
of all other issues. The Allies, after a conference in London,
telegraphed (2 Dec.) {227} to M. Rallis, the new Greek Premier, that they
"had no wish to interfere in the internal affairs of Greece, but they
felt bound to declare publicly that the restoration of the throne to a
king whose disloyal attitude and conduct towards the Allies during the
War caused them great embarrassment and loss could only be regarded by
them as a ratification by Greece of his hostile acts." [9] This
message--yet another fruit of Franco-British compromise--was followed up
(6 Dec.) by a second Note, enumerating the consequences, political and
financial, of the Powers' displeasure. But it produced little effect:
out of the 1,013,724 electors who took part in the plebiscite (7 Dec.),
only 10,383 voted against the King.[10] M. Rallis, in acquainting him
with the result, stated that he considered it tantamount to a formal
request from the country to the Sovereign to come into his own again, and
invited him to respond to the clearly expressed wish of the nation.
Which King Constantine did, nothing loth.

Few of those who witnessed the event will ever forget it. On the eve of
the King's return (18 Dec.) Athens could scarcely contain her emotion.
All day long her beflagged streets rang with the cry: "_Erchetai!
Erchetai!_" ("He is coming! He is coming!")--hardly anybody failed to
utter it, and nobody dared to say "_Then erchetai_" ("He is not coming"),
even if referring to an unpunctual friend. At night the song in which
Constantine was alluded to as "The Son of the Eagle" echoed from one end
of the illuminated city to the other. But this was only a preparation
for next morning's welcome.

Owing to stress of weather the cruiser carrying the King and Queen of the
Hellenes was compelled to put in at Corinth, where the exiles landed.
From that point to the capital their journey was a