As Ali reflected how the storm he had raised could best be laid, he was informed that the ruler of the marriage feast sent by Moustai, Pacha of Scodra, to receive the young bride who should reign in his harem, had just arrived in the plain of Janina.  He was Yussuf Bey of the Delres, an old enemy of Ali’s, and had encamped with his escort of eight hundred warriors at the foot of Tomoros of Dodona.  Dreading some treachery, he absolutely refused all entreaties to enter the town, and Ali seeing that it was useless to insist, and that his adversary for the present was safe, at once sent his grand-daughter, the Princess of Aulis, out to him.

This matter disposed of, Ali was able to attend to his hideous family tragedy.  He began by effecting the disappearance of the women whom he had been compelled to make his accomplices; they were simply sewn up in sacks by gipsies and thrown into the lake.  This done, he himself led the executioners into a subterranean part of the castle, where they were beheaded by black mutes as a reward for their obedience.  He then sent a doctor to Zobeide; who succeeded in causing a miscarriage, and who, his work done, was seized and strangled by the black mutes who had just beheaded the gipsies.  Having thus got rid of all who could bear witness to his crime, he wrote to Veli that he might now send for his wife and two of his children, hitherto detained as hostages, and that the innocence of Zobeide would confound a calumniator who had dared to assail him with such injurious suspicions.

When this letter arrived, Pacho Bey, distrusting equally the treachery of the father and the weakness of the son, and content with having sown the seeds of dissension in his enemy’s family, had sufficient wisdom to seek safety in flight.  Ali, furious, vowed, on hearing this, that his vengeance should overtake him even at the ends of the earth.  Meanwhile he fell back on Yussuf Bey of the Debres, whose escape when lately at Janina still rankled in his mind.  As Yussuf was dangerous both from character and influence, Ali feared to attack him openly, and sought to assassinate him.  This was not precisely easy, for, exposed to a thousand dangers of this kind, the nobles of that day were on their guard.  Steel and poison were used up, and another way had to be sought.  Ali found it.

One of the many adventurers with whom Janina was filled penetrated to the pacha’s presence, and offered to sell the secret of a powder whereof three grains would suffice to kill a man with a terrible explosion—­explosive powder, in short.  Ali heard with delight, but replied that he must see it in action before purchasing.