g their country and
enjoying the fruit of their rapine. But they were assailed on the way by
peasants covetous of their booty, and by those of Janina who had sought
refuge with them. The roads and passes were strewn with corpses, and the
trees by the roadside converted into gibbets. The murderers did not long
survive their victims.

The ruins of Janina were still smoking when, on the 19th August, Pacho
Bey made his entry. Having pitched his tent out of range of Ali's
cannon, he proclaimed aloud the firman which inaugurated him as Pacha
of Janina and Delvino, and then raised the tails, emblem of his dignity.
Ali heard on the summit of his keep the acclamations of the Turks who
saluted Pacho Bey, his former servant with the titles of Vali of Epirus,
and Ghazi of Victorius. After this ceremony, the cadi read the sentence,
confirmed by the Mufti, which declared Tepeleni Veli-Zade to have
forfeited his dignities and to be excommunicated, adding an injunction
to all the faithful that henceforth his name was not to be pronounced
except with the addition of "Kara," or "black," which is bestowed
on those cut off from the congregation of Sunnites, or Orthodox
Mohammedans. A Marabout then cast a stone towards the castle, and the
anathema upon "Kara Ali" was repeated by the whole Turkish army, ending
with the cry of "Long live the sultan! So be it!"

But it was not by ecclesiastical thunders that three fortresses could
be reduced, which were defended by artillerymen drawn from different
European armies, who had established an excellent school for gunners and
bombardiers. The besieged, having replied with hootings of contempt to
the acclamations of the besiegers, proceeded to enforce their scorn with
well-aimed cannon shots, while the rebel flotilla, dressed as if for a
fete-day, passed slowly before the Turks, saluting them with cannon-shot
if they ventured near the edge of the lake.

This noisy rhodomontade did not prevent Ali from being consumed with
grief and anxiety. The sight of his own troops, now in the camp of Pacho
Bey, the fear of being for ever separated from his sons, the thought
of his grandson in the enemy's hands, all threw him into the deepest
melancholy, and his sleepless eyes were constantly drowned in tears. He
refused his food, and sat for seven days with untrimmed beard, clad in
mourning, on a mat at the door of his antechamber, extending his hands
to his soldiers, and imploring them to slay him rather than a