ng the seamen's wages.

Unexpected boldness was forced upon them on the 25th of April. "I am now
in a position," wrote Lord Cochrane to General Church at eight o'clock
in the morning from the Piraeus, "to carry you all over to the rear of
the enemy, if Karaiskakes's army have the courage to walk to this point,
which is in their own possession, in order to land on the opposite shore
at two hundred yards distance, and whereon is not a living soul. I can
make such a diversion by means of the seamen at night as would enable
Karaiskakes's army to move on by land towards the Phalerum, whilst those
on the Phalerum, with the exception of a few, might take up a position
near Athens or in the town. I can embark you and yours, and leave
Karaiskakes's men without food, taking all the provisions to the
advanced post, leaving him to starve or come on."

That desperate expedient was averted. Two or three hours after
suggesting it, Lord Cochrane was superintending the debarkation of some
thirty soldiers, under cover of two gunboats. A party of Ottomans,
seeing the operation, hurried down with the intention of harassing the
new comers. Lord Cochrane's Hydriots, however, rushed to the rescue.
Other Turkish troops came up, to be met by other Greeks, and the battle
became general. Lord Cochrane, with nothing but his telescope in his
hand, gathered the Christian troops round him, and, with encouraging
words, led them on in an orderly attack upon the entrenchments about the
monastery of Saint Spiridion. Within an hour, nine entrenchments were in
the hands of the Greeks, who lost only eight men. Sixty Turks were
slain, and then their comrades fled, most of them hurrying up to the
camp of Athens, a few betaking themselves to the convent.

"The Greeks," wrote Lord Cochrane to the Government, "have this day done
as their forefathers were wont to do. Henceforth commences a new era in
the system of modern Grecian warfare. If every one behaves to-morrow as
all, without exception, have behaved to-day, the siege of the Acropolis
will be raised and the liberty of Greece secured."

By this success the Turks, with exception of the garrison in the
convent, were driven back to the neighbourhood of Athens, and
Karaiskakes was encouraged to remove his camp from Keratsina to the
Piraeus. At a council of war held the same evening Lord Cochrane urged a
sudden and united attack upon the Turkish camp on the morrow.
Karaiskakes, however, declined to move a ste