The commander of the British fleet sent a formal protest to the Greeks against this action, and again ordered them to stop attacking the Turks.

No attention was paid to this request.

The Powers are, however, so afraid of war, that they are doing all that is possible to prevent Greece from taking any action that will make war inevitable.

Russia, Great Britain, France, and Italy have all sent warships to Crete, with orders to enforce peace between Greece and Turkey.

The combined fleets of these great nations have formed a cordon around the harbor of Canea, and have blockaded the port, to prevent the Greek squadron, under Prince George, from entering the harbor.

A cordon is a line of men, ships, or forts, so stationed as to prevent people from going into, or coming out of the place.

Having done this, the four great Powers proceeded to take possession of the island, and intend to try and hold it until some settlement is made between Greece and Turkey.

One hundred men from each of the four fleets have been landed at Canea, and, with the consent of the Turkish authorities, have raised their flags over the fortress of the city, as a sign that Crete is under their protection.

Greece, in the mean while, has sent word to the Powers that she intends to occupy Crete.  She is sending troops there, and raising volunteers and filling out her reserve force, to be ready for war, if war comes.

This defiance on the part of Greece is worrying the rest of the Powers.  She is too small and insignificant to attempt to brave the wrath of Europe alone, and there is an uneasy feeling that some one of the great nations must be secretly backing her.

As usual, when anything goes wrong in Europe, Russia is blamed.  Russia has so long been the naughty girl of Dame Europa’s school, that the moment mischief is in the air Russia is suspected.

If she is in this new trouble, she will have hard work to escape punishment.  She has been posing as the dear friend and protector of Turkey for the last few weeks, and has put stumbling-blocks in the way of the other Powers when they have attempted to force the Sultan of Turkey to do as they wished.

If she has suddenly veered round, and is now encouraging Greece against Turkey, her conduct will be hard to explain.

It will be interesting to watch what comes of this, for it seems that the Bismarck revelations, about which you can read in No. 4 of the great round World, have brought many strange things to light in European politics.

You will remember that it was found that Germany had a secret understanding with Russia, which quite undid her open agreement with Austria and Italy—­the Triple Alliance, as it was called.

Now it appears that nearly all the European nations have been playing the same sly game.

It would seem that most of them have secret, underhand agreements to play false to their best friends, whenever it suits their purpose.