after all, to succeed no better than
Admiral Dartige du Fournet? The ex-Governor of Algeria, put on his
mettle, acted promptly. He sent word to M. Zaimis that the King's
departure should not be any longer delayed: if the Greek police were
unable to disperse the crowd, the High Commissioner was ready to send
from the Piraeus some companies of machine-guns.[29]

Then, at 5 p.m., a last attempt was made by the royal family to leave
the Palace. It succeeded, thanks to a feint which decoyed the crowd to
a side door, while the fugitives escaped by the main entrance.

The day, in spite of all forebodings, ended without a disturbance. The
parade of overwhelming force by M. Jonnart and his unmistakable
determination to use it mercilessly had, no doubt, convinced a populace
quick to grasp a situation that opposition spelt suicide. But it was
mainly the example and exhortations of their King that compelled them
to suppress their rage and resign themselves to the inevitable.
For--Greece is a land of paradoxes--no full-blooded Greek, whether
statesman or soldier, was ever clothed with the same amplitude of
authority over his countrymen as this simple, upright, {199} kindly son
of a Danish father and a Russian mother, in whom the subtle Hellenes
found their ideal _Basileus_.

And so the drama which had been staged for more than a year by French
diplomacy was satisfactorily wound up; and the curtain fell, amid the
applause of the spectators.[30]

[1] Jonnart, pp. 60-67.

[2] _Ibid_, pp. 109-10.

[3] Nouveau Recueil General des Traites. By Ch. Samwer, Vol. XVII,
Part ii.

[4] _Ibid._

[5] _Papers re Affairs of Greece_, 1830-32.

[6] _Papers re Affairs of Greece_, 1826-30.

[7] Wellington to Prince Leopold, 10 Feb., 1830. _State Papers_,
1820-30.

[8] Duc de Broglie's Speech, 18 May, 1833. _Ecrits et Discours_, Vol.
II, pp. 415 foll.

[9] Communique of the Russian Government, Reuter, Petrograd, 7 July,
1917.

[10] Jonnart, pp. 70-95.

[11] Jonnart, pp. 102-4.

[12] See Art. 45.

[13] Jonnart, pp. 109-12.

[14] When the Greek Premier did so, M. Jonnart repudiated it as "a
mistake of M. Zaimis."--See _The Times_, 11 July, 1917.

[15] _Le Depart du Roi Constantin_, Geneva, 1917, pp. 13, 14.

[16] Jonnart, p. 113.

[17] _The Times_, 11 July, 1917.

[18] Even as it was, General Sarrail lamented the advent of M.
Venizelos at Salonica as "a Greek master-stroke" calculated "to keep
'the coveted city' G