May, "and so have I. The soldiers will not embark without the
entrenching tools. All we could collect do not amount to two hundred and
fifty. I would have gone without one, but no one will follow me. I
cannot say more; but to-morrow we may be more fortunate. I cannot say to
you stay or otherwise. If you go, I cannot deplore it more than
yourself."

Lord Cochrane consented to wait till the morrow, and on the morrow an
incident occurred which caused a little further delay. On the 4th of May
a small body of Greeks, chiefly Hydriots, went on a skirmishing
expedition. At first they were successful, and they had nearly won a
redoubt, when a large force of Turks suddenly assailed them on the
flank, and drove them back to Phalerum with a loss of nearly a hundred
men. Karaiskakes, hearing of this reverse, hurried to the rescue, and
with the bravery which was never wanting to him when in actual battle,
sought to rally the fugitives. He was on the point of leading them back,
when a ball from a pistol struck him in the belly. He was conveyed, in a
dying state, to General Church's schooner. Regret at his previous
vacillations seems to have filled his mind. "Where is Cochrane? Bring
Cochrane to me!" he exclaimed over and over again. Lord Cochrane soon
arrived. Karaiskakes, on seeing him, murmured repeated thanks to him for
his forbearance towards himself and his devotion to the cause of the
Greeks. In his eagerness, he seized the interpreter, Mr. Masson, by the
beard, and, pointing towards Cape Colias, said, with all the strength he
could muster, "Tell them to be sure to land the division over there
to-morrow." Then, not doubting that the expedition would be successful,
he uttered solemn thanks to Heaven that he was dying in the moment of
victory. Then he made his will--a soldier's will. "I leave my sword and
my gun to my son. Tell him to remember they belonged to Karaiskakes." He
had little else to leave, having always been free from the avarice by
which many of his countrymen were disgraced. He died in the night, and
in him Greece lost the worthiest of her native warriors. His faults were
the faults of his nation. Many of his virtues were his own. Had his
followers been as brave and honest as he was in his best moments, he
might have led them on to easy victory. But they wavered and
procrastinated, and, in listening to their excuses, he lost his chance
of triumph and subjected himself to blame, for which his brave death
only half