Ali Pacha eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 152 pages of information about Ali Pacha.

Ali Pacha eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 152 pages of information about Ali Pacha.

When the shrieks of death ceased in the enclosure, they began to be heard in the town.  The assassins spread themselves through it, and having violated the women and children, gathered them into a crowd to be driven to Libokovo.  At every halt in this frightful journey fresh marauders fell on the wretched victims, claiming their share in cruelty and debauchery.  At length they arrived at their destination, where the triumphant and implacable Chainitza awaited them.  As after the taking of Kormovo, she compelled the women to cut off their hair and to stuff with it a mattress on which she lay.  She then stripped them, and joyfully narrated to them the massacre of their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, and when she had sufficiently enjoyed their misery they were again handed over to the insults of the soldiery.  Chainitza finally published an edict forbidding either clothes, shelter, or food to be given to the women and children of Kardiki, who were then driven forth into the woods either to die of hunger or to be devoured by wild beasts.  As to the seventy-two hostages, Ali put them all to death when he returned to Janina.  His vengeance was indeed complete.

But as, filled with a horrible satisfaction, the pacha was enjoying the repose of a satiated tiger, an indignant and threatening voice reached him even in the recesses of his palace.  The Sheik Yussuf, governor of the castle of Janina, venerated as a saint by the Mohammedans on account of his piety, and universally beloved and respected for his many virtues, entered Ali’s sumptuous dwelling for the first time.  The guards on beholding him remained stupefied and motionless, then the most devout prostrated themselves, while others went to inform the pacha; but no one dared hinder the venerable man, who walked calmly and solemnly through the astonished attendants.  For him there existed no antechamber, no delay; disdaining the ordinary forms of etiquette, he paced slowly through the various apartments, until, with no usher to announce him, he reached that of Ali.  The latter, whose impiety by no means saved him from superstitious terrors, rose hastily from the divan and advanced to meet the holy sheik, who was followed by a crowd of silent courtiers.  Ali addressed him with the utmost respect, and endeavoured even to kiss his right hand.  Yussuf hastily withdrew it, covered it with his mantle, and signed to the pacha to seat himself.  Ali mechanically obeyed, and waited in solemn silence to hear the reason of this unexpected visit.

Yussuf desired him to listen with all attention, and then reproached him for his injustice and rapine, his treachery and cruelty, with such vivid eloquence that his hearers dissolved in tears.  Ali, though much dejected, alone preserved his equanimity, until at length the sheik accused him of having caused the death of Emineh.  He then grew pale, and rising, cried with terror: 

“Alas! my father, whose name do you now pronounce?  Pray for me, or at least do not sink me to Gehenna with your curses!”

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Project Gutenberg
Ali Pacha from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.