THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. I93 speedily regretted, neutralized, and lamented as an untoward event. Finally the Cretans, who had practically conquered their freedom, were ordered back to the old servitude. In the first chapter the name of the Klephts is mentioned. Since the newspapers during the recent war translated this word as bandit or brig- and, it may be well to state here who these men really were. The Klephts of old defied their oppressors; they kept the tradition of their nationality vivid, and the love for their freedom burning, until the time arrived when these bands became the chief instrument of their country's libera- tion. Their life was a wild and lawless one, but there was an element of chivalrous nobility and simple grandeur about them that was admired even by their enemies. The attacks and depre- dations of the Klephts were directed against the Turks alone, upon whom they retaliated for every wrong inflicted upon their countrymen of the towns and villages. A raya family which had a son in the mountains was far more secure from the exactions and insults of the Turks than one whose submission was complete. The halo of a national glory encircled, therefore, the exis- tence of these men, who were looked upon as 13
