olt of 1770.[26] He himself had grown up amidst vivid echoes of the
Cretan Rebellion of 1866. While contact with the frock-coated world of
{134} modern Europe during the latter period of his career had clothed
him with a statesman's proper external circumstance, it had not
eradicated the primitive instincts implanted in him by heredity and
fostered by environment. Sedition was in his blood, which perhaps
explains the _flair_--the almost uncanny _flair_--he had for the business.

Nor did he lack experience. After sharing in one Cretan insurrection
against the Sultan in 1896, he led another against Prince George in 1905.
This exploit--known as the Therisos Movement--deserves special notice,
for it bears a curious and most instructive analogy to the enterprise
with which we are now dealing.

In 1899 M. Venizelos became a member of the first Cretan Administration
appointed by the High Commissioner, Prince George--King Constantine's
brother. The status of the island was provisional, and the fulfilment of
the national desire for union with Greece depended partly on the policy
of the Powers which had combined to act as its Protectors, partly on the
prudence of the islanders themselves and of their continental kinsmen.
Such was the situation when, in 1901, M. Venizelos suddenly conceived
the idea of turning Crete into an autonomous principality. Prince George
objected to the proposal, arguing that neither in Crete nor in Greece
would public opinion approve it. M. Venizelos sounded the Hellenic
Government and the Opposition, and was told by both that, from the
standpoint of national interest and sentiment, his scheme was absolutely
unacceptable. Nevertheless, he persevered and succeeded in forming a
party to support his views. It may be, as he affirmed, that his scheme
was a merely temporary expedient intended to pave the way to ultimate
union. But the Greeks, interpreting it as a proposal for perpetual
separation, remained bitterly hostile, and the fact that autonomy was
known to be favoured in certain foreign quarters deepened their
resentment. M. Venizelos was roundly denounced as a tool of foreign
Powers, and Prince George was accused of complicity, and threatened with
the lot of a traitor unless he dismissed him. The High Commissioner made
use of the right which the Constitution of the island gave him, and M.
Venizelos was dismissed (March, 1901).

A truceless war against the Administration and everyone {135}