volunteers, recruited by Czajkowski and Zygmunt Miłkowski, and Romanian regulars, who had orders to stop their advance into Russia. After Miłkowski's subsequent arrest, Cuza's men speculated that the Beizadea had a part to play in the affair. The rumor was partly validated by Gorchakov, who spoke of Sturdza as leading a "common action of the Polish and Romanian revolutionaries." During November 1863, Sturdza and George Barbu Știrbei welcomed in Bucharest Panu, the chief of Moldavia's anti-Cuza movement, who was to supervise their "monstrous coalition". At around that time, a French diplomat, Pierre Baragnon, had contacted Miłkowski, prodding him to form a Polish Ottoman army that would depose Cuza and redivide the country, placing the Beizadea on the throne in Iași. Miłkowski dismissed the offer, later clarifying that he wanted no part in "dissolving the unity of Romania". The Panu group publicized a program which incorporated most of the "Red" agenda, endorsing decentralization, press freedoms, and an extension of voting rights with literacy tests; it also provided for a selective land reform with the full abolition of the corvée. In January 1864, Cuza responded to Sturdza's maneuvers by calling on Ilfov County's "peasant militia" to deploy in the city's streets. Reportedly, this caused both Sturdza and Știrbei to end their conspiracy and leave the country. "Before they left for Paris," they reportedly sent a letter to Cuza's left-wing adversary, C. A. Rosetti, demanding to know why he, as leader of the "Reds", could not prevent the hostile alliance between the urban masses and the armed peasants. During February, however, Sturdza acquiesced to Cuza's projected land reform, offering to contribute money for the compensated dispossession of monastery estates. Returning from Paris later in 1864, he approached the "Red" politico Dimitrie Brătianu, who may have acted as a liaison between anti-Cuza conservatives and Polish revolutionaries. Others however knew him as a partner in Moldavia's Russophile circles. In May 1864, Ioan Dabija claimed to speak for the Bessarabian Romanians as loyal subjects of the Russian Emperor. He rejected reunification with the Principalities, on the grounds that Romanian politicians were incompetent and evil. The few exceptions, Dabija argued, were "good patriots" like Sturdza, Lascăr Catargiu, and Dimitrie Ghica. The political unrest was briefly ended that same month by Cuza's self-coup. In August 1865, at a time of mounting discontent, representatives of this regime allegedly raided Sturdza's home in Perieni, "but without success." Cuza's reign was