in Greece then prepared for action, and entered
into negotiations, in which the opinions of the constitutionalists
prevailed, because they were actively supported by the great body of the
people.

In order to prevent the country from becoming a scene of anarchy, in
case a civil war proved unavoidable, it was necessary to employ all the
regular authorities who could be induced to join the national cause, in
their actual functions, without any reference to party feelings. This
was done; and the fact that it was so, proves the intenseness of the
public feeling. The constitutional party decided that the recognition of
Greece as a constitutional state, and the immediate convocation of a
national assembly, were to be the demands made on King Otho. The Russian
party allowed these two questions to be first mooted in the firm
persuasion that the king would be induced by his own pride, his despotic
principles, and the mistaken views of several of the foreign ministers
at Athens, to refuse these demands; and, in that case, the throne would
infallibly have been declared vacant.

About midnight, on the 14th of September, the _gendarmes_ were ordered
to surround the house of General Makriyani, an officer of irregulars on
half-pay, and to arrest him on a charge of treason. On approaching the
house they were warned off; but pressing forward they were fired on, and
one _gendarme_ was killed and one or two wounded. In consequence of the
alarm given by the minister of war, for the purpose of supporting the
arrests to be made, the garrison was all in readiness. In the mean time
the greater part of the officers had been admitted into the secret, that
a general movement of all Greece was to be made that night, and that
their duty would be to maintain the strictest order and enforce the
severest discipline.

Kalergy, therefore, as soon as he was informed that the movement had
been made to arrest Makriyani, assembled all the officers, and, in a few
words, declared to them that the moment for saving their country from
the Bavarian yoke had arrived; and that they must now, if they wished to
be free, call on the king to adopt a constitutional system of
government. The importance of this step, which Kalergy adopted with his
usual decision, can only be understood when it is recollected, that
there existed a strong party determined to avail itself of every
opportunity of driving King Otho from the throne. Had Kalergy,
therefore, delayed pledging