us
plots, an order to get rid of the pacha. At the receipt of the firman of
execution he leaped with joy, and flew to Delvino to seize the prey which
was abandoned to him.

The noble Selim, little suspecting that his protege had become his
accuser and was preparing to become his executioner, received him with
more tenderness than ever, and lodged him, as heretofore, in his palace.
Under the shadow of this hospitable roof, Ali skilfully prepared the
consummation of the crime which was for ever to draw him out of
obscurity. He went every morning to pay his court to the pacha, whose
confidence he doubted; then, one day, feigning illness, he sent excuses
for inability to pay his respects to a man whom he was accustomed to
regard as his father, and begged him to come for a moment into his
apartment. The invitation being accepted, he concealed assassins in one
of the cupboards without shelves, so common in the East, which contain by
day the mattresses spread by night on the floor for the slaves to sleep
upon. At the hour fixed, the old man arrived. Ali rose from his sofa
with a depressed air, met him, kissed the hem of his robe, and, after
seating him in his place, himself offered him a pipe-and coffee, which
were accepted. But instead of putting the cup in the hand stretched to
receive it, he let it fall on the floor, where it broke into a thousand
pieces. This was the signal. The assassins sprang from their retreat and
darted upon Selim, who fell, exclaiming, like Caesar, "And it is thou, my
son, who takest my life!"

At the sound of the tumult which followed the assassination, Selim's
bodyguard, running up, found Ali erect, covered with blood, surrounded by
assassins, holding in his hand the firman displayed, and crying with a
menacing voice, "I have killed the traitor Selim by the order of our
glorious sultan; here is his imperial command." At these words, and the
sight of the fatal diploma, all prostrated themselves terror-stricken.
Ali, after ordering the decapitation of Selim, whose head he seized as a
trophy, ordered the cadi, the beys, and the Greek archons to meet at the
palace, to prepare the official account of the execution of the sentence.
They assembled, trembling; the sacred hymn of the Fatahat was sung, and
the murder declared legal, in the name of the merciful and compassionate
God, Lord of the world.

When they had sealed up the effects of the victim, the murderer left the
palace, taking with him,