He had, however, made certain on his last journey to England that Lord Palmerston was aware of the many coups that Lord Castleford had brought off.

The Great Elchi could not help feeling a tremendous satisfaction that his pupil in following his own methods in dealing with foreign powers was in many ways a replica of himself when young.

Lord Castleford put the letter from the Prime Minister down on the Ambassador’s desk and Lord Stratford read it carefully before he said,

“Greece is going to be difficult, you know that!”

“You have always told me that she is the enfant terrible of Europe,” Lord Castleford replied, “but as you were instrumental in creating the Kingdom of the Hellenes, you are responsible.”

“It is not a child whose antics last year I can commend,” Lord Stratford said. “And certainly not the behaviour of her King.”

“I imagine His Majesty has been a disappointment,” Lord Castleford remarked.

“We can only deprecate the manner in which he is supporting Russia against the Allied Powers,” the Ambassador replied.

“It was to be expected,” Lord Castleford murmured to himself. “The Greeks and Russians are co-religionists and, of course, Greece has been under the brutal domination of Turkey for three hundred years until Independence in 1829 and the Queen, although she is a daughter of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, has Russian blood in her veins.”

“That does not excuse King Otho for choosing the moment when we had a war on our hands to make a bid for popular support in an attempt to enlarge Greece’s territory!”

Lord Stratford’s voice sharpened as he went on,

“Until now there has been no major breach of the peace between Greece and Turkey for twenty-five years with the exception of certain frontier incidents in 1847.”

“Then last year, while they invaded Epirus and were defeated by the Turks at Péta,” Lord Castleford said reflectively, “they had no success in Thessaly.”

“Nevertheless we were right in landing British and French troops at Piraeus to enforce Greek neutrality,” Lord Stratford said, “and we shall keep a force there so that Greece’s frontiers will remain unchanged.”

“I understand the people applauded their King’s aggressive attitude,” Lord Castleford said with a slight touch of sarcasm in his voice.

“They only applaud him when he is trying to make fresh conquests. At home he is considered a tyrant and the country has seething pockets of resentment which sooner or later will end in revolution,” Lord Stratford prophesied.

“That is something I must obviously try to prevent,” Lord Castleford remarked, “at least until the War is at an end.”

“The War!” Lord Stratford gave a little sigh.

“How is it progressing?” Lord Castleford enquired. “Have you any definite news of the siege?”