is plans of vengeance, assuring him that before long Ali
would certainly fall a victim to them. Thus left alone, Pacho, before
taking any active steps in his work of vengeance, affected to give
himself up to the strictest observances of the Mohammedan religion. Ali,
who had established a most minute surveillance over his actions, finding
that his time was spent with ulemas and dervishes, imagined that he had
ceased to be dangerous, and took no further trouble about him.

CHAPTER VIII

A career of successful crime had established Ali's rule over a population
equal to that of the two kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. But his ambition
was not yet satisfied. The occupation of Parga did not crown his
desires, and the delight which it caused him was much tempered by the
escape of the Parganiotes, who found in exile a safe refuge from his
persecution. Scarcely had he finished the conquest of Middle Albania
before he was exciting a faction against the young Moustai Pacha in
Scodra, a new object of greed. He also kept an army of spies in
Wallachia, Moldavia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and, thanks to them, he
appeared to be everywhere present, and was mixed up in every intrigue,
private or political, throughout the empire. He had paid the English
agents the price agreed on for Parga, but he repaid himself five times
over, by gifts extorted from his vassals, and by the value of the Parga
lands, now become his property. His palace of Tepelen had been rebuilt
at the public expense, and was larger and more magnificent than before;
Janina was embellished with new buildings; elegant pavilions rose on the
shores of the lake; in short, Ali's luxury was on a level with his vast
riches. His sons and grandsons were provided for by important positions,
and Ali himself was sovereign prince in everything but the name.

There was no lack of flattery, even from literary persons. At Vienna a
poem was pointed in his honour, and a French-Greek Grammar was dedicated
to him, and such titles as "Most Illustrious," "Most Powerful," and "Most
Clement," were showered upon him, as upon a man whose lofty virtues and
great exploits echoed through the world. A native of Bergamo, learned in
heraldry, provided him with a coat of arms, representing, on a field
gules, a lion, embracing three cubs, emblematic of the Tepelenian
dynasty. Already he had a consul at Leucadia accepted by the English,
who, it is said, encouraged him to declare himself heredit