The Mirdite chief, he who had
refused to slaughter the Kardikiotes, declared that neither he nor any
Skipetar of the Latin communion would bear arms against their legitimate
sovereign the sultan. But his words were drowned by cries of "Long live
Ali Pasha! Long live the restorer of liberty!" uttered by some chiefs of
adventurers and brigands.

CHAPTER IX

Yet next day, May 24th, 1820, Ali addressed a circular letter to his
brothers the Christians, announcing that in future he would consider them
as his most faithful subjects, and that henceforth he remitted the taxes
paid to his own family. He wound up by asking for soldiers, but the
Greeks having learnt the instability of his promises, remained deaf to
his invitations. At the same time he sent messengers to the Montenegrins
and the Servians, inciting them to revolt, and organised insurrections in
Wallachia and Moldavia to the very environs of Constantinople.

Whilst the Ottoman vassals assembled only in small numbers and very
slowly under their respective standards, every day there collected round
the castle of Janina whole companies of Toxidae, of Tapazetae, and of
Chamidae; so that Ali, knowing that Ismail Pacho Bey had boasted that he
could arrive in sight of Janina without firing a gun, said in his turn
that he would not treat with the Porte until he and his troops should be
within eight leagues of Constantinople.

He had fortified and supplied with munitions of war Ochrida, Avlone,
Cannia, Berat, Cleisoura, Premiti, the port of Panormus, Santi-Quaranta,
Buthrotum, Delvino, Argyro-Castron, Tepelen, Parga, Prevesa, Sderli,
Paramythia, Arta, the post of the Five Wells, Janina and its castles.
These places contained four hundred and twenty cannons of all sizes, for
the most part in bronze, mounted on siege-carriages, and seventy mortars.
Besides these, there were in the castle by the lake, independently of the
guns in position, forty field-pieces, sixty mountain guns, a number of
Congreve rockets, formerly given him by the English, and an enormous
quantity of munitions of war. Finally, he endeavoured to establish a
line of semaphores between Janina and Prevesa, in order to have prompt
news of the Turkish fleet, which was expected to appear on this coast.

Ali, whose strength seemed to increase with age, saw to everything and
appeared everywhere; sometimes in a litter borne by his Albanians,
sometimes in a carriage raised into a kind of platform, but it