When the Ex-Pacha (Ex for the third time) heard that thenceforth he must depend upon his own resources, he requested that he might be taken off in the Constellation, as his life would not be safe when his adherents discovered that his American friends had betrayed him, Eaton took every precaution to keep the embarkation a secret, and succeeded in getting all his men safely on board the frigate.  He then, the last of the party, stepped into a small boat, and had just time to save his distance, when the shore was crowded with the shrieking Arabs.  Finding the Christians out of their reach, they fell upon their tents and horses, and swept away everything of value.

It was a rapid change of scene.  Six hours before, the little American party held Derne triumphantly against all comers from Jusuf’s dominions, and Hamet had prospects of a kingdom.  Now he was a beggar, on his way to Malta, to subsist there for a time on a small allowance from the United States.  Even his wife and children were not to be restored to him; for, in a secret stipulation with the Pacha, Lear had waived for four years the execution of that article of the treaty.  The poor fellow had been taken up as a convenience, and was dropped when no longer wanted.  But he was only an African Turk, and, although not black, was probably dark enough in complexion to weaken his claims upon the good feeling and the good faith of the United States.

Eaton arrived at home in November of the same year,[3] disgusted with the officers, civil and naval, who had cut short his successful campaign, and had disregarded, as of no importance, the engagements he had contracted with his Turkish ally.  His report to the Secretary of the Navy expressed in the most direct language his opinion of the treaty and his contempt for the reasons assigned by Lear and Barron for their sudden action.  The enthusiastic welcome he received from his countrymen encouraged his dissatisfaction.  The American people decreed him a triumph after their fashion,—­public dinners, addresses of congratulation, the title of Hero of Derne.  He had shown just the qualities mankind admire,—­boldness, tenacity, and dashing courage.  Few could be found who did not regret that Preble had not been there to help him onward to Tripoli and to a peace without payments.  And as Eaton was not the man to carry on a war, even of words, without throwing his whole soul into the conflict, he proclaimed to all hearers that the Government was guilty of duplicity and meanness, and that Lear was a compound of envy, treachery, and ignorance.

But this violence of language recoiled upon himself,—­

     “And so much injured more his side,
     The stronger arguments he applied.”