“But Parga, Parga!” cried Ali.

“May Allah grant the pacha long life!  The Parganiotes have escaped the sword of His Highness.”

“It is the will of Allah!” murmured the pacha; whose head sank upon his breast in dejection.

Arms having failed, Ali, as usual, took refuge in plots and treachery, but this time, instead of corrupting his enemies with gold, he sought to weaken them by division.

CHAPTER VII

The French commander Nicole, surnamed the “Pilgrim,” on account of a journey he had once made to Mecca, had spent six months at Janina with a brigade of artillery which General Marmont, then commanding in the Illyrian provinces, had for a time placed at Ali’s disposal.  The old officer had acquired the esteem and friendship of the pacha, whose leisure he had often amused by stories of his campaigns and various adventures, and although it was now long since they had met, he still had the reputation of being Ali’s friend.  Ali prepared his plans accordingly.  He wrote a letter to Colonel Nicole, apparently in continuation of a regular correspondence between them, in which he thanked the colonel for his continued affection, and besought him by various powerful motives to surrender Parga, of which he promised him the governorship during the rest of his life.  He took good care to complete his treason by allowing the letter to fall into the hands of the chief ecclesiastics of Parga, who fell head-foremost into the trap.  Seeing that the tone of the letter was in perfect accordance with the former friendly relations between their French governor and the pacha, they were convinced of the former’s treachery.  But the result was not as Ali had hoped:  the Parganiotes resumed their former negotiations with the English, preferring to place their freedom in the hands of a Christian nation rather than to fall under the rule of a Mohammedan satrap....  The English immediately sent a messenger to Colonel Nicole, offering honourable conditions of capitulation.  The colonel returned a decided refusal, and threatened to blow up the place if the inhabitants, whose intentions he guessed, made the slightest hostile movement.  However, a few days later, the citadel was taken at night, owing to the treachery of a woman who admitted an English detachment; and the next day, to the general astonishment, the British standard floated over the Acropolis of Parga.

All Greece was then profoundly stirred by a faint gleam of the dawn of liberty, and shaken by a suppressed agitation.  The Bourbons again reigned in France, and the Greeks built a thousand hopes on an event which changed the basis of the whole European policy.  Above all, they reckoned on powerful assistance from Russia.  But England had already begun to dread anything which could increase either the possessions or the influence of this formidable power.  Above all, she was determined that the Ottoman Empire should remain intact, and that the Greek navy, beginning to be formidable, must be destroyed.  With these objects in view, negotiations with Ali Pacha were resumed.  The latter was still smarting under his recent disappointment, and to all overtures answered only, “Parga!  I must have Parga.”—­And the English were compelled to yield it!