rtant a government as that of
Thessaly. However, he dissembled so skilfully that everyone was deceived
by his apparent resignation, and applauded his magnanimity, when he
provided his sister with a brilliant escort to conduct her to the capital
of the province of which he had just been deprived in favour of his
nephew. He sent letters of congratulation to the latter as well as
magnificent presents, among them a splendid pelisse of black fox, which
had cost more than a hundred thousand francs of Western money. He
requested Elmas Bey to honour him by wearing this robe on the day when
the sultan's envoy should present him with the firman of investiture, and
Chainitza herself was charged to deliver both gifts and messages.

Chainitza arrived safely at Trikala, and faithfully delivered the
messages with which she had been entrusted. When the ceremony she so
ardently desired took place, she herself took charge of all the
arrangements. Elmas, wearing the black fox pelisse, was proclaimed, and
acknowledged as Governor of Thessaly in her presence. "My son is pacha!"
she cried in the delirium of joy. "My son is pacha! and my nephews will
die of envy!" But her triumph was not to be of long duration. A few
days after his installation, Elmas began to feel strangely languid.
Continual lethargy, convulsive sneezing, feverish eyes, soon betokened a
serious illness. Ali's gift had accomplished its purpose. The pelisse,
carefully impregnated with smallpox germs taken from a young girl
suffering from this malady, had conveyed the dreaded disease to the new
pacha, who, not having been inoculated, died in a few days.

The grief of Chainitza at her son's death displayed itself in sobs,
threats, and curses, but, not knowing whom to blame for her misfortune,
she hastened to leave the scene of it, and returned to Janina, to mingle
her tears with those of her brother. She found Ali apparently in such
depths of grief, that instead of suspecting, she was actually tempted to
pity him, and this seeming sympathy soothed her distress, aided by the
caresses of her second son, Aden Bey. Ali, thoughtful of his own
interests, took care to send one of his own officers to Trikala, to
administer justice in the place of his deceased nephew, and the Porte,
seeing that all attempts against him only caused misfortune, consented to
his resuming the government of Thessaly.

This climax roused the suspicions of many persons. But the public voice,
alr