t
warrior, and had never said a single word to his discredit.

Nevertheless, the two assassins not only stuck to their confession,
but maintained that besides themselves eight and thirty other soldiers
had been sent to Stambul by Ali on the self-same mission.

Ciauses were immediately sent to every quarter of the city to seize
the described Albanians. Five or six of them hid or escaped, but the
rest were captured.

The confessions of these men were practically unanimous. Every
circumstance of the affair, the amount of the promised reward, the
words spoken on the occasion--everything, in fact, corresponded so
exactly that no doubt could possibly remain that Tepelenti had
actually sent them out to murder Gaskho Bey.

The affair made a great stir everywhere. Ali Pasha was as well known
in Stambul as Gaskho Bey. The former was as famous for his power and
riches, his envy and revengefulness, as was the latter for his
strength and gentleness, his sympathy and tenderness.

The great men of the palace, jealous for a long time of Ali's
greatness, brought the matter before the Divan, and great debates
ensued as to what course should be taken against this mighty protector
of hired assassins. And for a long time the opinions of the
counsellors of the cupolaed chamber were divided. Some were for taking
Ali by the beard and despatching him there and then. Others were for
advising Gaskho Bey to be content with seeing the heads of the Arnaut
assassins rolling in the dust before the Pavilion of Justice, and at
the same time privately informing Ali that if he were wise he would
waste neither his money nor his powder on such quiet, harmless men as
Gaskho Bey, who had never done, and never meant in future to do, him
any harm.

The latter alternative was the opinion of the wiser heads, and among
these wiser ones was the Sultan himself.

"Ali is my sharp sword," said Mahmud. "If my sword wounds any one
accidentally, and without my consent, is that any reason for snapping
it in twain?"

Nevertheless, the enemies of the pasha kept goading Gaskho on to
demand satisfaction of Ali personally. The worthy giant, hearing his
own name on everybody's lips for weeks together, grew as wild as a
baited heifer, and began to believe that he was a famous man, that he
alone was ordained to clip the wings of the tyrant of Epirus, and at
last was so absorbed by his dreams of greatness that when he had to
give the usual lessons to the youths of the S