t the object of Ismail's manoeuvres was to
crush those whom he had promised to help, and unable, on account of the
distance, either to support or to warn them, endeavoured to impede Omar
pacha, hoping still that his Skipetars might either see or hear him. He
encouraged the fugitives, who recognised him from afar by his scarlet
dolman, by the dazzling whiteness of his horse, and by the terrible
cries which he uttered; for, in the heat of battle, this extraordinary
man appeared to have regained the vigour and audacity of his youth.
Twenty times he led his soldiers to the charge, and as often was forced
to recoil towards his castles. He brought up his reserves, but in vain.
Fate had declared against him. His troops which were attacking the
intrenched camp found themselves taken between two fires, and he could
not help them. Foaming with passion, he threatened to rush singly into
the midst of his enemies. His officers besought him to calm himself,
and, receiving only refusals, at last threatened to lay hands upon him
if he persisted in exposing himself like a private soldier. Subdued by
this unaccustomed opposition, Ali allowed himself to be forced back
into the castle by the lake, while his soldiers dispersed in various
directions.

But even this defeat did not discourage the fierce pacha. Reduced to
extremity, he yet entertained the hope of shaking the Ottoman Empire,
and from the recesses of his fortress he agitated the whole of Greece.
The insurrection which he had stirred up, without foreseeing what the
results might be, was spreading with the rapidity of a lighted train of
powder, and the Mohammedans were beginning to tremble, when at length
Kursheed pacha, having crossed the Pindus at the head of an army of
eighty thousand men, arrived before Janina.

His tent had hardly been pitched, when Ali caused a salute of twenty-one
guns to be fired in his honour, and sent a messenger, bearing a
letter of congratulation on his safe arrival. This letter, artful and
insinuating, was calculated to make a deep impression on Kursheed.
Ali wrote that, being driven by the infamous lies of a former servant,
called Pacho Bey, into resisting, not indeed the authority of the
sultan, before whom he humbly bent his head weighed down with years
and grief, but the perfidious plots of His Highness's advisers, he
considered himself happy in his misfortunes to have dealings with a
vizier noted for his lofty qualities. He then added that these