in my service, should be beheaded, he being the real rebel, and the cause of the public calamities which are afflicting the faithful of Islam.  Thirdly, I require that for the rest of my life I shall retain, without annual re-investiture, my pachalik of Janina, the coast of Epirus, Acarnania and its dependencies, subject to the rights, charges and tribute due now and hereafter to the sultan.  Fourthly, I demand amnesty and oblivion of the past for all those who have served me until now.  And if these conditions are not accepted without modifications, I am prepared to defend myself to the last.

“Given at the castle of Janina, March 7, 1821.”

CHAPTER X

This mixture of arrogance and submission only merited indignation, but it suited Kursheed to dissemble.  He replied that, assenting to such propositions being beyond his powers, he would transmit them to Constantinople, and that hostilities might be suspended, if Ali wished, until the courier could return.

Being quite as cunning as Ali himself, Kursheed profited by the truce to carry on intrigues against him.  He corrupted one of the chiefs of the garrison, Metzo-Abbas by name, who obtained pardon for himself and fifty followers, with permission to return to their homes.  But this clemency appeared to have seduced also four hundred Skipetars who made use of the amnesty and the money with which Ali provided them, to raise Toxis and the Tapygetae in the latter’s favour.  Thus the Seraskier’s scheme turned against himself, and he perceived he had been deceived by Ali’s seeming apathy, which certainly did not mean dread of defection.  In fact, no man worth anything could have abandoned him, supported as he seemed to be by almost supernatural courage.  Suffering from a violent attack of gout, a malady he had never before experienced, the pacha, at the age of eighty-one, was daily carried to the most exposed place on the ramparts of his castle.  There, facing the hostile batteries, he gave audience to whoever wished to see him.  On this exposed platform he held his councils, despatched orders, and indicated to what points his guns should be directed.  Illumined by the flashes of fire, his figure assumed fantastic and weird shapes.  The balls sung in the air, the bullets hailed around him, the noise drew blood from the ears of those with him.  Calm and immovable, he gave signals to the soldiers who were still occupying part of the ruins of Janina, and encouraged them by voice and gesture.  Observing the enemy’s movements by the help of a telescope, he improvised means of counteracting them.  Sometimes he amused himself by greeting curious persons and new-comers after a fashion of his own.  Thus the chancellor of the French Consul at Prevesa, sent as an envoy to Kursheed Pacha, had scarcely entered the lodging assigned to him, when he was visited by a bomb which caused him to leave it again with all haste.  This greeting was due