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Ali had long cherished a
violent passion for Zobeide, the wife of his son Veli Pacha: Having vainly
attempted to gratify it after his son's departure, and being indignantly
repulsed, he had recourse to drugs, and the unhappy Zobeide remained in
ignorance of her misfortune until she found she was pregnant. Then,
half-avowals from her women, compelled to obey the pacha from fear of death,
mixed with confused memories of her own, revealed the whole terrible truth. Not
knowing in her despair which way to turn, she wrote to Ali, entreating him to
visit the harem. As head of the family, he had a right to enter, being supposed
responsible for the conduct of his sons' families, no- law-giver having
hitherto contemplated the possibility of so disgraceful a crime. When he
appeared, Zobeide flung herself at his feet, speechless with grief. Ali
acknowledged his guilt, pleaded the violence of his passion, wept with his
victim, and entreating her to control herself and keep silence, promised that
all should be made right. Neither the prayers nor tears of Zobeide could induce
him to give up the intention of effacing the traces of his first crime by a
second even more horrible.
But the story was already
whispered abroad, and Pacho Bey learnt all its details from the spies he kept
in Janina. Delighted at the prospect of avenging himself on the father, he
hastened with his news to the son. Veli Pacha, furious, vowed vengeance, and
demanded Pacho Bey's help, which was readily promised. But Ali had been warned,
and was not a man to be taken unawares. Pacho Bey, whom Veli had just promoted
to the office of sword-bearer, was attacked in broad daylight by six emissaries
sent from Janina. He obtained timely help, however, and five of the assassins,
taken red-handed, were at once hung without ceremony in the market-place. The
sixth was the messenger whose arrival with the news had caused such dismay at
Ali's banquet.
As Ali reflected how the
storm he had raised could best be laid, he was informed that the ruler of the
marriage feast sent by Moustai, Pacha of Scodra, to receive the young bride who
should reign in his harem, had just arrived in the plain of Janina. He was
Yussuf Bey of the Delres, an old enemy of Ali's, and had encamped with his
escort of eight hundred warriors at the foot of Tomoros of Dodona. Dreading
some treachery, he absolutely refused all entreaties to enter the town, and Ali
seeing that it was useless to insist, and that his adversary for the present
was safe, at once sent his grand-daughter, the Princess of Aulis, out to him.
This matter disposed of,
Ali was able to attend to his hideous family tragedy. He began by effecting the
disappearance of the women whom he had been compelled to make his accomplices;
they were simply sewn up in sacks by gipsies and thrown into the lake. This
done, he himself led the executioners into a subterranean part of the castle,
where they were beheaded by black mutes as a reward for their obedience. He
then sent a doctor to Zobeide; who succeeded in causing a miscarriage, and who,
his work done, was seized and strangled by the black mutes who had just
beheaded the gipsies. Having thus got rid of all who could bear witness to his
crime, he wrote to Veli that he might now send for his wife and two of his
children, hitherto detained as hostages, and that the innocence of Zobeide
would confound a calumniator who had dared to assail him with such injurious
suspicions.
When this letter arrived,
Pacho Bey, distrusting equally the treachery of the father and the weakness of
the son, and content with having sown the seeds of dissension in his enemy's
family, had sufficient wisdom to seek safety in flight. Ali, furious, vowed, on
hearing this, that his vengeance should overtake him even at the ends of the
earth. Meanwhile he fell back on Yussuf Bey of the Debres, whose escape when
lately at Janina still rankled in his mind. As Yussuf was dangerous both from
character and influence, Ali feared to attack him openly, and sought to
assassinate him. This was not precisely easy; for, exposed to a thousand
dangers of this kind, the nobles of that day were on their guard. Steel and
poison were used up, and another way had to be sought. Ali found it.
One of the many adventurers
with whom Janina was filled penetrated to the pacha's presence, and offered to
sell the secret of a powder whereof three grains would suffice to kill a man
with a terrible explosion--explosive powder, in short. Ali heard with delight,
but replied that he must see it in action before purchasing.
In the dungeons of the
castle by the lake, a poor monk of the order of St. Basil was slowly dying, for
having boldly refused a sacrilegious simony proposed to him by Ali. He was a
fit subject for the experiment, and was successfully blown to pieces, to the
great satisfaction of Ali, who concluded his bargain, and hastened to make use
of it. He prepared a false firman, which, according to custom, was enclosed and
sealed in a cylindrical case, and sent to Yussuf Bey by a Greek, wholly
ignorant of the real object of his mission. Opening it without suspicion,
Yussuf had his arm blown off, and died in consequence, but found time to
despatch a message to Moustai Pacha of Scodra, informing him of the catastrophe,
and warning him to keep good guard.
Yussuf's letter was
received by Moustai just as a similar infernal machine was placed in his hands
under cover to his young wife. The packet was seized, and a careful examination
disclosed its nature. The mother of Moustai, a jealous and cruel woman, accused
her daughter-in-law of complicity, and the unfortunate Ayesha, though shortly
to become a mother, expired in agony from the effects of poison, only guilty of
being the innocent instrument of her grandfather's treachery.
Fortune having frustrated
Ali's schemes concerning Moustai Pacha, offered him as consolation a chance of
invading the territory of Parga, the only place in Epirus which had hitherto
escaped his rule, and which he greedily coveted. Agia, a small Christian town
on the coast, had rebelled against him and allied itself to Parga. It provided
an excuse for hostilities, and Ali's troops, under his son Mouktar, first
seized Agia, where they only found a few old men to massacre, and then marched
on Parga, where the rebels had taken refuge. After a few skirmishes, Mouktar
entered the town, and though the Parganiotes fought bravely, they must
inevitably have surrendered had they been left to themselves. But they had
sought protection from the French, who had garrisoned the citadel, and the
French grenadiers descending rapidly from the height, charged the Turks with so
much fury that they fled in all directions, leaving on the field four
"bimbashis," or captains of a thousand, and a considerable number of
killed and wounded.
The pacha's fleet succeeded
no better than his army. Issuing from the Gulf of Ambracia, it was intended to
attack Parga from the sea, joining in the massacre, and cutting off all hope of
escape from that side, Ali meaning to spare neither the garrison nor any male
inhabitants over twelve years of age. But a few shots fired from a small fort
dispersed the ships, and a barque manned by sailors from Paxos pursued them, a
shot from which killed Ali's admiral on his quarter-deck. He was a Greek of
Galaxidi, Athanasius Macrys by name.
Filled with anxiety, Ali
awaited news at Prevesa, where a courier, sent off at the beginning of the
action, had brought him oranges gathered in the orchards of Parga. Ali gave him
a purse of gold, and publicly proclaimed his success. His joy was redoubled
when a second messenger presented two heads of French soldiers, and announced
that his troops were in possession of the lower part of Parga. Without further
delay he ordered his attendants to mount, entered his carriage, and started
triumphantly on the Roman road to Nicopolis. He sent messengers to his
generals, ordering them to spare the women and children of Parga, intended for
his harem, and above all to take strict charge of the plunder. He was approaching
the arena of Nicopolis when a third Tartar messenger informed him of the defeat
of his army. Ali changed countenance, and could scarcely articulate the order
to return to Prevesa. Once in his palace, he gave way to such fury that all
around him trembled, demanding frequently if it could be true that his troops
were beaten. "May your misfortune be upon us!" his attendants
answered, prostrating themselves. All at once, looking out on the calm blue sea
which lay before his windows, he perceived his fleet doubling Cape Pancrator
and re-entering the Ambracian Gulf under full sail; it anchored close by the
palace, and on hailing the leading ship a speaking trumpet announced to Ali the
death of his admiral, Athanasius Macrys.
"But Parga,
Parga!" cried Ali.
"May Allah grant the
pacha long life! The Parganiotes have escaped the sword of His Highness."
"It is the will of
Allah!" murmured the pacha; whose head sank upon his breast in dejection.
Arms having failed, Ali, as
usual, took refuge in plots and treachery, but this time, instead of corrupting
his enemies with gold, he sought to weaken them by division.
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