ents. He opened it.
"Euphrosyne!" he cried, and, seizing one of his pistols, fired it at the
messenger, who fell dead at his feet,--"Euphrosyne, behold thy first
victim!" Springing on his horse, he galloped towards Janina. His guards
followed at a distance, and the inhabitants of all the villages he passed
fled at his approach. He paid no attention to them, but rode till his
horse fell dead by the lake which had engulfed Euphrosyne, and then,
taking a boat, he went to hide his grief and rage in his own palace.

Ali, caring little for passion which evaporated in tears and cries, sent
an order to Mouktar to appear before him at once. "He will not kill
you," he remarked to his messenger, with a bitter smile. And, in fact,
the man who a moment before was furiously raging and storming against his
father, as if overwhelmed by this imperious message, calmed down, and
obeyed.

"Come hither, Mouktar," said the pacha, extending his murderous hand to
be kissed as soon as his son appeared. "I shall take no notice of your
anger, but in future never forget that a man who braves public opinion as
I do fears nothing in the world. You can go now; when your troops have
rested from their march, you can come and ask for orders. Go, remember
what I have said."

Mouktar retired as submissively as if he had just received pardon for
some serious crime, and found no better consolation than to spend the
night with Veli in drinking and debauchery. But a day was to come when
the brothers, alike outraged by their father, would plot and carry out a
terrible vengeance.

However, the Porte began to take umbrage at the continual aggrandisement
of the Pacha of Janina. Not daring openly to attack so formidable a
vassal, the sultan sought by underhand means to diminish his power, and
under the pretext that Ali was becoming too old for the labour of so many
offices, the government of Thessaly was withdrawn from him, but, to show
that this was not done in enmity, the province was entrusted to his
nephew, Elmas Bey, son of Suleiman and Chainitza.

Chainitza, fully as ambitious as her brother, could not contain her
delight at the idea of governing in the name of her son, who was weak and
gentle in character and accustomed to obey her implicitly. She asked her
brother's permission to go to Trikala to be present at the installation,
and obtained it, to everybody's astonishment; for no one could imagine
that Ali would peacefully renounce so impo