ded, walls pulled down, the most unlikely corners examined, and a
skeleton which was discovered still girt with a belt containing Venetian
sequins was gathered up with the utmost care. The archons of the town
were arrested and tortured in the hope of discovering buried treasure,
the clue to which had disappeared along with the owners. One of these
magistrates, accused of having hidden some valuable objects, was plunged
up to his shoulders in a boiler full of melted lead and boiling oil. Old
men, women, children, rich and poor alike, were interrogated, beaten,
and compelled to abandon the last remains of their property in order to
save their lives.

Having thus decimated the few inhabitants remaining to the town,
it became necessary to repeople it. With this object in view, Ali's
emissaries overran the villages of Thessaly, driving before them all the
people they met in flocks, and compelling them to settle in Arta. These
unfortunate colonists were also obliged to find money to pay the pacha
for the houses they were forced to occupy.

This business being settled, Ali turned to another which had long been
on his mind. We have seen how Ismail Pacho Bey escaped the assassins
sent to murder him. A ship, despatched secretly from Prevesa, arrived
at the place of his retreat. The captain, posing as a merchant, invited
Ismail to come on board and inspect his goods. But the latter, guessing
a trap, fled promptly, and for some time all trace of him was lost. Ali,
in revenge, turned his wife out of the palace at Janina which she still
occupied, and placed her in a cottage, where she was obliged to earn a
living by spinning. But he did not stop there, and, learning after some
time that Pacho Bey had sought refuge with the Nazir of Drama, who had
taken him into favour, he resolved to strike a last blow, more sure and
more terrible than the others. Again Ismail's lucky star saved him
from the plots of his enemy. During a hunting party he encountered a
kapidgi-bachi, or messenger from the sultan, who asked him where
he could find the Nazir, to whom he was charged with an important
communication. As kapidgi-bachis are frequently bearers of evil tidings,
which it is well to ascertain at once, and as the Nazir was at some
distance, Pacho Bey assumed the latter's part, and the sultan's
confidential messenger informed him that he was the bearer of a firman
granted at the request of Ali Pacha of Janina.

"Ali of Tepeleni. He is my friend.