f a
French brig named _La Gazelle_, the real inducement thereto being in
the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
the same month.

Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,--it was
always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
whom he had to deal. "The _Perseverance_," he wrote of the largest of
the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks--Mr. Galloway has said three
weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
not for a