it in action before very long, and if you do, you will need no further
assurance of the way in which we shall make our honor white before our
Allies and all the world."

[Sidenote: Unenviable position of the Venizelists.]

[Sidenote: Elaborate precautions against treachery.]

The Serbian and two or three other Armies have been worse off in a
physical way, but no national force since the outbreak of the war has
been in so thoroughly an unenviable position on every other score as was
that of the Venizelists at this time. The Serbs and the Belgians had at
least the knowledge that the confidence and the sympathy of the Allies
were theirs. Also, they had chances to fight to their hearts' content.
The Venizelists had scant measure of sympathy, and still less of
confidence; and when their first chance to fight was at last given them,
they were allowed to face the foe only after elaborate precautions had
been taken against everything, from incompetence and cowardice on their
part to open treachery. That this was the fault neither of themselves
nor of their Allies, and had only come about through the perfidy of a
King to whom they no longer swore fealty, did not make the shame of it
much easier to bear for an army of spirited volunteers who had risked
their all for a chance to wipe out the dishonor of their country.

[Sidenote: Spies sent in the guise of deserters.]

The thing that for a while made it so difficult for the Allies to know
what to do with the Venizelist army was the almost ridiculous ease with
which, under the peculiar circumstances of its recruitment, it lent
itself to spying purposes. All the Royalists, or their German