medes, still carried terror into
the midst of their camp.

Although reduced to the direst misery, Caretto could not forget that he
owed his life to the master who now only repaid his services with
the most sordid ingratitude. When he had first come to Epirus, Ali,
recognising his ability, became anxious to retain him, but without
incurring any expense. He ascertained that the Neapolitan was
passionately in love with a Mohammedan girl named Nekibi, who returned
his affection. Acting under Ali's orders, Tahir Abbas accused the woman
before the cadi of sacrilegious intercourse with an infidel. She could
only escape death by the apostasy of her lover; if he refused to deny
his God, he shared her fate, and both would perish at the stake. Caretto
refused to renounce his religion, but only Nekibi suffered death.
Caretto was withdrawn from execution, and Ali kept him concealed in a
place of safety, whence he produced him in the time of need. No one had
served him with greater zeal; it is even possible that a man of this
type would have died at his post, had his cup not been filled with
mortification and insult.

Eluding the vigilance of Athanasius Vaya, whose charge it was to keep
guard over him, Caretto let himself down by a cord fastened to the end
of a cannon: He fell at the foot of the rampart, and thence dragged
himself, with a broken arm, to the opposite camp. He had become nearly
blind through the explosion of a cartridge which had burnt his face. He
was received as well as a Christian from whom there was now nothing to
fear, could expect. He received the bread of charity, and as a refugee
is only valued in proportion to the use which can be made of him, he was
despised and forgotten.

The desertion of Caretto was soon followed by a defection which
annihilated Ali's last hopes. The garrison which had given him so
many proofs of devotion, discouraged by his avarice, suffering from
a disastrous epidemic, and no longer equal to the necessary labour in
defence of the place, opened all the gates simultaneously to the enemy.
But the besiegers, fearing a trap, advanced very slowly; so that Ali,
who had long prepared against every sort of surprise, had time to gain a
place which he called his "refuge."

It was a sort of fortified enclosure, of solid masonry, bristling with
cannon, which surrounded the private apartments of his seraglio, called
the "Women's Tower." He had taken care to demolish everything which
could be set