This business being settled, Ali turned to another which had long been on his mind.  We have seen how Ismail Pacho Bey escaped the assassins sent to murder him.  A ship, despatched secretly from Prevesa, arrived at the place of his retreat.  The captain, posing as a merchant, invited Ismail to come on board and inspect his goods.  But the latter, guessing a trap, fled promptly, and for some time all trace of him was lost.  Ali, in revenge, turned his wife out of the palace at Janina which she still occupied, and placed her in a cottage, where she was obliged to earn a living by spinning.  But he did not stop there, and, learning after some time that Pacho Bey had sought refuge with the Nazir of Drama, who had taken him into favour, he resolved to strike a last blow, more sure and more terrible than the others.  Again Ismail’s lucky star saved him from the plots of his enemy.  During a hunting party he encountered a kapidgi-bachi, or messenger from the sultan, who asked him where he could find the Nazir, to whom he was charged with an important communication.  As kapidgi-bachis are frequently bearers of evil tidings, which it is well to ascertain at once, and as the Nazir was at some distance, Pacho Bey assumed the latter’s part, and the sultan’s confidential messenger informed him that he was the bearer of a firman granted at the request of Ali Pacha of Janina.

“Ali of Tepeleni.  He is my friend.  How can I serve him?”

“By executing the present order, sent you by the Divan, desiring you to behead a traitor, named Pacho Bey, who crept into your service a short time ago.”

“Willingly! but he is not an easy man to seize being brave, vigorous, clever, and cunning.  Craft will be necessary in this case.  He may appear at any moment, and it is advisable that he should not see you.  Let no one suspect who you are, but go to Drama, which is only two hours distant, and await me there.  I shall return this evening, and you can consider your errand as accomplished.”

The kapidgi-bachi made a sign of comprehension, and directed his course towards Drama; while Ismail, fearing that the Nazir, who had only known him a short time, would sacrifice him with the usual Turkish indifference, fled in the opposite direction.  At the end of an hour he encountered a Bulgarian monk, with whom he exchanged clothes—­a disguise which enabled him to traverse Upper Macedonia in safety.  Arriving at the great Servian convent in the mountains whence the Axius takes its rise, he obtained admission under an assumed name.  But feeling sure of the discretion of the monks, after a few days he explained his situation to them.

Ali, learning the ill-success of his latest stratagem, accused the Nazir of conniving at Pacho Bey’s escape.  But the latter easily justified himself with the Divan by giving precise information of what had really occurred.  This was what Ali wanted, who profited thereby in having the fugitive’s track followed up, and soon got wind of his retreat.  As Pacho Bey’s innocence had been proved in the explanations given to the Porte, the death firman obtained against him became useless, and Ali affected to abandon him to his fate, in order the better to conceal the new plot he was conceiving against him.