rcession of her nephew, Djiladin
Pacha of Ochcrida, who was reserved by fate to perform the funeral
obsequies of the guilty race of Tepelen.

A few months afterwards, Ibrahim Pacha of Berat died of poison, being
the last victim whom Chainitza had demanded from her brother.

Ali's position was becoming daily more difficult, when the time of
Ramadan arrived, during which the Turks relax hostilities, and a
species of truce ensued. Ali himself appeared to respect the old popular
customs, and allowed his Mohammedan soldiers to visit the enemy's
outposts and confer on the subject of various religious ceremonies.
Discipline was relaxed in Kursheed's camp, and Ali profited thereby to
ascertain the smallest details of all that passed.

He learned from his spies that the general's staff, counting on the
"Truce of God," a tacit suspension of all hostilities during the feast
of Bairam, the Mohammedan Easter, intended to repair to the chief
mosque, in the quarter of Loutcha. This building, spared by the bombs,
had until now been respected by both sides. Ali, according to reports
spread by himself, was supposed to be ill, weakened by fasting, and
terrified into a renewal of devotion, and not likely to give trouble
on so sacred a day. Nevertheless he ordered Caretto to turn thirty guns
against the mosque, cannon, mortars and howitzers, intending, he said,
to solemnise Bairam by discharges of artillery. As soon as he was sure
that the whole of the staff had entered the mosque, he gave the signal.

Instantly, from the assembled thirty pieces, there issued a storm of
shells, grenades and cannon-balls. With a terrific noise, the mosque
crumbled together, amid the cries of pain and rage of the crowd inside
crushed in the ruins. At the end of a quarter of an hour the wind
dispersed the smoke, and disclosed a burning crater, with the large
cypresses which surrounded the building blazing as if they had been
torches lighted for the funeral ceremonies of sixty captains and two
hundred soldiers.

"Ali Pacha is yet alive!" cried the old Homeric hero of Janina, leaping
with joy; and his words, passing from mouth to mouth, spread yet more
terror amid Kursheed's soldiers, already overwhelmed by the horrible
spectacle passing before their eyes.

Almost on the same day, Ali from the height of his keep beheld the
standard of the Cross waving in the distance. The rebellious Greeks were
bent on attacking Kursheed. The insurrection promoted by the V