in the office of Grand Provost of the Highways.  Suleyman’s secretary was a Greek called Anagnorto, a native of Macedonia, whose estates Ali had seized, and who had fled with his family to escape further persecution.  He had become attached to the court party, less for the sake of vengeance on Ali than to aid the cause of the Greeks, for whose freedom he worked by underhand methods.  He persuaded Suleyman Pacha that the Greeks would help him to dethrone Ali, for whom they cherished the deepest hatred, and he was determined that they should learn the sentence of deprivation and excommunication fulminated against the rebel pacha.  He introduced into the Greek translation which he was commissioned to make, ambiguous phrases which were read by the Christians as a call to take up arms in the cause of liberty.  In an instant, all Hellas was up in arms.  The Mohammedans were alarmed, but the Greeks gave out that it was in order to protect themselves and their property against the bands of brigands which had appeared on all sides.  This was the beginning of the Greek insurrection, and occurred in May 1820, extending from Mount Pindus to Thermopylae.  However, the Greeks, satisfied with having vindicated their right to bear arms in their own defence, continued to pay their taxes, and abstained from all hostility.

At the news of this great movement, Ali’s friends advised him to turn it to his own advantage.  “The Greeks in arms,” said they, “want a chief:  offer yourself as their leader.  They hate you, it is true, but this feeling may change.  It is only necessary to make them believe, which is easily done, that if they will support your cause you will embrace Christianity and give them freedom.”

There was no time to lose, for matters became daily more serious.  Ali hastened to summon what he called a Grand Divan, composed of the chiefs of both sects, Mussulmans and Christians.  There were assembled men of widely different types, much astonished at finding themselves in company:  the venerable Gabriel, Archbishop of Janina, and uncle of the unfortunate Euphrosyne, who had been dragged thither by force; Abbas, the old head of the police, who had presided at the execution of the Christian martyr; the holy bishop of Velas, still bearing the marks of the chains with which Ali had loaded him; and Porphyro, Archbishop of Arta, to whom the turban would have been more becoming than the mitre.

Ashamed of the part he was obliged to play, Ali, after long hesitation, decided on speaking, and, addressing the Christians, “O Greeks!” he said, “examine my conduct with unprejudiced minds, and you will see manifest proofs of the confidence and consideration which I have ever shown you.  What pacha has ever treated you as I have done?  Who would have treated your priests and the objects of your worship with as much respect?  Who else would have conceded the privileges which you enjoy? for you hold rank in my councils, and both the police and the administration