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GREECE 147
the domestic, in French more broken than my own, that
twenty of the most august Nauplians were waiting in the
dining-room to present us with an address, and that I
should have to reply in a French speech I · Que! tableau I
In sorry garb, hungry, tired, and, I fear, bored, we four
confronted the elite of the Nauplian democracy, and my
acknowledgment of their very kindly welcome was the
most halting utterance imaginable, marred, moreover, by
Apostolos being noisily busied with the lean fowl and
extemporized crockery in the background. Later on, we
invaded the primitive shrine of Bellas, Delphi itself,
when, minished and brought low by an unlooked-for
ground-swell in the Gulf of Corinth, we mounted nondescript
quadrupeds, in appearance something mulish, with our
fives-shoes lodged in loops of twine doing duty for stirrups,
and the only way of guiding the beasts being to haul the
whole head and neck to starboard oi port by a stout
rope on one side only of the cheek, this being the substitute
for a rein. The way, however, was easy to find, as
the squalid cavalcade proceeded up the only road from
the coast, flanked by the whole popula'llon lining the path
for some hundreds of yards and the schoolchildren cracking
their throats with cheers for the distinguished representatives
of the British Empire. A curious difference
between the young Greek and the Anglo-Saxon was disclosed
that evening. Primed with Public School traditions,
we requested a half-holiday for the children. Such
a thing apparently had never been heard of. Our words,
interpreted by Apostolos, were received in solemn silence,
and nothing happened.
Apostolos, this reminds me, was in his English idiom
more venturesome than accurate. On this occasion. as
we composed our visages..to a becoming gravity, he trans·
lated the florid opening of the Greek address, presumably,
like our first sonneteers, under Italian influence, with the
words " Illustrious Foresters." Battered and dispirited
by the transit of the angry little sea, we maintained due
decorum ; but thought-not for the first time-" forso.a