Regency of Greece, dated February 15, 1837, upon which he threw up an
engagement he had entered into with General Duff Greene, which secured
him a respectable support, and set about seeing the country; that after
travelling from New York to New Orleans, he returned to the North, and
stopped for a month or two at Bedford Springs, _about a day's journey
from Philadelphia_; that being disappointed in remittances and receipts,
and unable to collect moneys he had lent to his compatriots, he could
not pay his bill for six weeks' board, amounting to fifty dollars, and
went to Philadelphia, leaving with Mr. Brown, the landlord, a part of
his baggage and books, after trying in vain to dispose of a valuable
platina medal; that in Philadelphia, Mr. McIlvaine--notwithstanding the
alleged robbery--lent him one hundred and sixty-five dollars, and was
constituted Vice-Consul of Greece _ad interim_, that is, "until the
pleasure of his Majesty, the king of Greece, should be known."

Here then was the foundation of all the attacks made upon the unhappy
General; but was there not something behind,--something _below_ this
foundation? The extraordinary case of Dr. Follen, who was hunted from
pillar to post, year after year, and wellnigh lied into his grave, shows
what may be done by conspirators and spies and slanderers, when a
respectable man grows obnoxious to a foreign power. If he is at all
headstrong or imprudent, nothing can save him. Oddly enough, it happens
that one of the very papers which followed Dr. Follen whithersoever he
went, like a sleuth-hound,--the Philadelphia Gazette,--was among the
bitterest and most unrelenting, of those that assailed General Bratish.

While pursuing these investigations, I learned from what I regarded as
high authority, that General Bratish had presented an address to Lord
Normanby, at the head of the whole consular body, having been chosen for
that special purpose; and I was referred to the Irish Royal Cork Almanac
for 1835, where, under the head of Foreign Consuls, I read, "Colonel
John Bratish (d'Elias) Eliovich, K. C. C., S. S., L. H., Consul-General
of Greece, Mexico, Buenos Ayres, and Switzerland, Consular Agent of
Turkey."

How were these contradictions to be reconciled,--the facts proved with
the stories told? If General Bratish was the swindler and impostor they
pretended, the sooner he was exposed, and the more publicly, the better.
On the contrary, if he was an honest man--a man greatly