ion, Ali succeeded in withdrawing his men to the shelter of
the guns of his castle of Litharitza, where he continued the fight in
order to give time to the fugitives to rally, and to give the support he
had promised to those fighting on the other slope; who, in the meantime,
had carried the second battery and were attacking the fortified camp.
Here the Seraskier Ismail met them with a resistance so well managed,
that he was able to conceal the attack he was preparing to make on their
rear. Ali, guessing that the object of Ismail's manoeuvres was to crush
those whom he had promised to help, and unable, on account of the
distance, either to support or to warn them, endeavoured to impede Omar
Pasha, hoping still that his Skipetars might either see or hear him. He
encouraged the fugitives, who recognised him from afar by his scarlet
dolman, by the dazzling whiteness of his horse, and by the terrible cries
which he uttered; for, in the heat of battle, this extraordinary man
appeared to have regained the vigour and audacity, of his youth. Twenty
times he led his soldiers to the charge, and as often was forced to
recoil towards his castles. He brought up his reserves, but in vain.
Fate had declared against him. His troops which were attacking the
intrenched camp found themselves taken between two fires, and he could
not help them. Foaming with passion, he threatened to rush singly into
the midst of his enemies. His officers besought him to calm himself,
and, receiving only refusals, at last threatened to lay hands upon him if
he persisted in exposing himself like a private soldier. Subdued by this
unaccustomed opposition, Ali allowed himself to be forced back into the
castle by the lake, while his soldiers dispersed in various directions.

But even this defeat did not discourage the fierce pasha. Reduced to
extremity, he yet entertained the hope of shaking the Ottoman Empire, and
from the recesses of his fortress he agitated the whole of Greece. The
insurrection which he had stirred up, without foreseeing what the results
might be, was spreading with the rapidity of a lighted train of powder,
and the Mohammedans were beginning to tremble, when at length Kursheed
Pasha, having crossed the Pindus at the head of an army of eighty
thousand men, arrived before Janina.

His tent had hardly been pitched, when Ali caused a salute of twenty-one
guns to be fired in his honour, and sent a messenger, bearing a letter of
congratul