ssessions. The other inhabitants of Kardiki, being Mohammedans, and
therefore brothers of Ali, were to be treated as friends and retain their
lives and property. On these conditions a quarter of the town; was to be
occupied by the victorious troops.

One of the principal chiefs, Saleh Bey, and his wife, foreseeing the fate
which awaited their friends, committed suicide at the moment when, in
pursuance of the treaty, Ali's soldiers took possession of the quarter
assigned to them.

Ali received the seventy-two beys with all marks of friendship when they
arrived at Janina. He lodged them in a palace on the lake, and treated
them magnificently for some days. But soon, having contrived on some
pretext to disarm them, he had them conveyed, loaded with chains, to a
Greek convent on an island in the lake, which was converted into a
prison. The day of vengeance not having fully arrived, he explained this
breach of faith by declaring that the hostages had attempted to escape.

The popular credulity was satisfied by this explanation, and no one
doubted the good faith of the pacha when he announced that he was going
to Kardiki to establish a police and fulfil the promises he had made to
the inhabitants. Even the number of soldiers he took excited no
surprise, as Ali was accustomed to travel with a very numerous suite.

After three days' journey, he stopped at Libokhovo, where his sister had
resided since the death of Aden Bey, her second son, cut off recently by
wickness. What passed in the long interview they had no one knew, but it
was observed that Chainitza's tears, which till then had flowed
incessantly, stopped as if by magic, and her women, who were wearing
mourning, received an order to attire themselves as for a festival.
Feasting and dancing, begun in Ali's honour, did not cease after his
departure.

He spent the night at Chenderia, a castle built on a rock, whence the
town of Kardiki was plainly visible. Next day at daybreak Ali despatched
an usher to summon all the male inhabitants of Kardiki to appear before
Chenderia, in order to receive assurances of the pacha's pardon and
friendship.

The Kardikiotes at once divined that this injunction was the precursor of
a terrible vengeance: the whole town echoed with cries and groans, the
mosques were filled with people praying for deliverance. The appointed
time arrived, they embraced each other as if parting for ever, and then
the men, unarmed, in number six hu