l rising of Greece and the Archipelago, "It is
enough! two men have ruined Turkey!" He then remained silent, and
vouchsafed no explanation of this prophetic sentence.

Ali did not on this occasion manifest his usual delight on having gained
a success. As soon as he was alone with Basilissa, he informed her with
tears of the death of Chainitza. A sudden apoplexy had stricken this
beloved sister, the life of his councils, in her palace of Libokovo,
where she remained undisturbed until her death. She owed this special
favour to her riches and to the intercession of her nephew, Djiladin
Pacha of Ochcrida, who was reserved by fate to perform the funeral
obsequies of the guilty race of Tepelen.

A few months afterwards, Ibrahim Pacha of Berat died of poison, being the
last victim whom Chainitza had demanded from her brother.

Ali's position was becoming daily more difficult, when the time of
Ramadan arrived, during which the Turks relax hostilities, and a species
of truce ensued. Ali himself appeared to respect the old popular
customs, and allowed his Mohammedan soldiers to visit the enemy's
outposts and confer on the subject of various religious ceremonies.
Discipline was relaxed in Kursheed's camp, and Ali profited thereby to
ascertain the smallest details of all that passed.

He learned from his spies that the general's staff, counting on the
"Truce of God," a tacit suspension of all hostilities during the feast of
Bairam, the Mohammedan Easter, intended to repair to the chief mosque, in
the quarter of Loutcha. This building, spared by the bombs, had until
now been respected by both sides. Ali, according to reports spread by
himself, was supposed to be ill, weakened by fasting, and terrified into
a renewal of devotion, and not likely to give trouble on so sacred a day.
Nevertheless he ordered Caretto to turn thirty guns against the mosque,
cannon, mortars and howitzers, intending, he said, to solemnise Bairam by
discharges of artillery. As soon as he was sure that the whole of the
staff had entered the mosque, he gave the signal.

Instantly, from the assembled thirty pieces, there issued a storm of
shells, grenades and cannon-balls. With a terrific noise, the mosque
crumbled together, amid the cries of pain and rage of the crowd inside
crushed in the ruins. At the end of a quarter of an hour the wind
dispersed the smoke, and disclosed a burning crater, with the large
cypresses which surrounded the building bla