watching them all the while.  Their correspondence was intercepted, and he endeavoured by means of his agents to rouse the Parganiotes against them.  The latter lamented bitterly, and appealed to Christian Europe, which remained deaf to their cries.  In the name of their ancestors, they demanded the rights which had been guaranteed them.  “They will buy our lands,” they said; “have we asked to sell them?  And even if we received their value, can gold give us a country and the tombs of our ancestors?”

Ali Pacha invited the Lord High Commissioner of Great Britain, Sir Thomas Maitland, to a conference at Prevesa, and complained of the exorbitant price of 1,500,000, at which the commissioners had estimated Parga and its territory, including private property and church furniture.  It had been hoped that Ali’s avarice would hesitate at this high price, but he was not so easily discouraged.  He give a banquet for the Lord High Commissioner, which degenerated into a shameless orgy.  In the midst of this drunken hilarity the Turk and the Englishman disposed of the territory of Parga; agreeing that a fresh estimate should be made on the spot by experts chosen by both English and Turks.  The result of this valuation was that the indemnity granted to the Christians was reduced by the English to the sum of 276,075 sterling, instead of the original 500,000.  And as Ali’s agents only arrived at the sum of 56,750, a final conference was held at Buthrotum between Ali and the Lord High Commissioner.  The latter then informed the Parganiotes that the indemnity allowed them was irrevocably fixed at 150,000!  The transaction is a disgrace to the egotistical and venal nation which thus allowed the life and liberty of a people to be trifled with, a lasting blot on the honour of England!

The Parganiotes at first could believe neither in the infamy of their protectors nor in their own misfortune; but both were soon confirmed by a proclamation of the Lord High Commissioner, informing them that the pacha’s army was marching to take possession of the territory which, by May 10th, must be abandoned for ever.

The fields were then in full bearing.  In the midst of plains ripening for a rich harvest were 80,000 square feet of olive trees, alone estimated at two hundred thousand guineas.  The sun shone in cloudless azure, the air was balmy with the scent of orange trees, of pomegranates and citrons.  But the lovely country might have been inhabited by phantoms; only hands raised to heaven and brows bent to the dust met one’s eye.  Even the very dust belonged no more to the wretched inhabitants; they were forbidden to take a fruit or a flower, the priests might not remove either relics or sacred images.  Church, ornaments, torches, tapers, pyxes, had by this treaty all become Mahommedan property.  The English had sold everything, even to the Host!  Two days more, and all must be left.  Each was silently marking the door of the dwelling destined so soon to shelter an enemy,