Your arrival in our beloved country," wrote the
primates of Spetzas, "has filled the soul of every inhabitant of our
island with joy, and every one presents his thanks to Heaven for having
at last sent such an one to fight with us and to protect our
fatherland." "You have come to Greece," wrote Konduriottes, "at a moment
when this unfortunate country most needs all that it can hope from the
wisdom and courage of so great a defender. The announcement of your
arrival will form an epoch in the history of our Revolution, and, I dare
to hope, in that of our moral regeneration."

That moral regeneration was needed Lord Cochrane already well knew, and
he had not been a day in Greece before the knowledge was forced upon him
afresh. The unworthy disposition of most of the men in power had never
been more plainly shown, nor threatened more imminent danger to the
independence of Greece, than at the time of Lord Cochrane's arrival.
With a few notable exceptions, of whom Miaoulis was perhaps the chief,
the Greek leaders had forgotten all their national duty in personal
ambition and jealousy. If they united in parties, it was only because
each one hoped that, as soon as his own party was triumphant, he himself
would be able to obtain the mastery over all his associates.

Two factions, especially, prevailed in Greece at this time, which,
partly from the circumstance that they were supported by unwise
Philhellenes of the two nations, partly because their native members
looked for their chief support to those nations, were known as the
French and English parties.

Among Philhellenes the leading promoter of the French party was Colonel
Fabvier, who was now, with some of the troops whom he commanded,
defending the Acropolis from the siege of the Turks. He was an officer
of considerable merit, with the interests of the Greeks at heart, but of
surpassing vanity and ambition. His hope was to become the Napoleon of
the East, to convert the whole male population of Greece into a huge
army, with himself at its head. With him sympathized most of the
military leaders, who, originally little better than brigands, found
everything to gratify their present tastes and their future hopes in a
scheme which would give them endless employment in lawless warfare and
martial dominion. These, coming chiefly from the Morea, caused the
faction also to be known as the Moreot party.

More formidable was the English party, with little that was English
about