Mustapha, after its return and reorganization, as amounting to
6000 men. We saw them as they defiled past Suda coming in, and the
commander of one of the Italian ships took the trouble to count some
of the battalions, one of which, consisting of 900 men when it set
out, returned with only 300. The losses were certainly not less than
10,000 men, not counting the irregulars.




CHAPTER XXII

DIPLOMACY


What had become evident, even at Constantinople, was that Mustapha
and his influence, as well as the policy of repression by cruelty and
devastation, had failed. Barbarities continued, and were met by active
resistance on a small scale wherever the Turks attempted to penetrate.
Small Turkish detachments were beaten here and there, but no general
plan of operation appeared to offer a chance of ultimate success to
either party. The Porte, therefore, sent its best diplomatic agent,
Server Effendi, with a magniloquent and mendacious proclamation and a
summons for the election of a deputation of Cretans of both
religions, to meet at Constantinople to receive the promises of
the well-intentioned Turkish government for their pacification and
contentment. Server Effendi was an intelligent and liberal man, and we
became very good friends, and if he had been permitted to treat on the
basis of accomplished facts he might have attained something. But he
was compelled to assume that the island had been subjected by arms to