CHAPTER XIV
KURSHID PASHA
Gaskho Bey, the incapable giant, was captured by the Suliotes in anight attack, his army was scattered beneath the walls of Janina, andAli Pasha became once more the absolute master of Epirus.
Then, like lightning fallen from heaven, unexpectedly, unforeseen, aman came from Thessalonica whose name was shortly to ring through halfthe world. The name of this man was Kurshid Pasha.
He was a man of a puny, meagre frame, his features were widelydivergent from the characteristic Ottoman type, for he had a delicateprofile, a bright blond beard and mustache, and blue eyes withflexible eyebrows, all of which gave a peculiar character to his face,which showed unmistakable traces of a penetrating mind and coolcourage.
Ten thousand warriors accompanied the new commander to Janina, whichgrew into thirty thousand at the very first battle. Kleon's andYpsilanti's armies were routed, and Gaskho Bey's scattered squadronsrallied around the banners of the victor.
While Ali Pasha was defending Janina, the leaders of the Greekinsurgents besieged the fortress of Arta, which Salikh Bey defendedwith a small garrison.
Kurshid's predecessor, Gaskho Bey, had committed the error ofbesieging Janina and endeavoring to relieve Arta at the same time, andthus he came to grief at both places. The new commander acted on adifferent plan. He knew well that not a head amongst all the Greekrebels was half so dangerous as Ali Tepelenti's; so, leaving SalikhPasha to his fate, he directed all his energies against Janina.
A man indeed hath come against thee, O Ali Pasha! A man as valiant, ascrafty as thou; if thou be a fox, he is an eagle of the rocks, thatpounces down on the fox; and if thou be a tiger, he is theboa-constrictor which infolds and crushes the tiger.
Ali urged Kleon and Artemis to hasten to his assistance. Hismessengers did not return to the fortress. The Greek leaders gave noreply to his summons. Anybody else would have found some consolatoryexplanation of their remissness, but Ali divined things better. TheGreeks said amongst themselves, "Let the old monster tremble in hisditch; let them close him in and hold him tight. He will beconstrained to make a life-and-death struggle to save his old beard.When we have captured Arta, and when our detested ally" (for they diddetest him in spite of his being their good friend) "is at the verylast gasp, then we will go to the rescue, relieve him, and let himlive a little longer."
Tepelenti was well aware that they spoke of him in this way. He knewwell that they hated him, and would gladly leave him to perish. Theonly reason the Greeks had for allying themselves with Ali was thathis fortress was filled with an enormous store of treasure, arms, andmuniments of war; his gray head was the pivot of the whole rebellion.
If the fortress were taken, they would be deprived of this strongpivot, those treasures, that gray head!
One day the Suliotes encamped before Arta heard the terrible tidingsthat Kurshid Pasha had captured Lithanizza and La Gulia, the twooutlying forts of the stronghold of Janina, and had driven Ali backinto the fortress. The tidings filled them with consternation. IfJanina were lost, the whole Greek insurrection would lose the sourceof its supplies. The treasures which Ali had scattered amongst theGreeks with a prodigal hand would at once fall into the hands of theSultan, and then he would be able to secure Epirus at a single blow.
A Greek army under Marco Bozzari immediately set out from Arta torelieve Janina. Ali knew of it beforehand. Bozzari's spies had creptthrough Kurshid's camp into Janina, and signified to Ali that theirleaders were on their way to "The Five Wells," and that he should sendforth an army to meet them.
"There is no necessity for it," replied Ali, with a cold smile. "I amquite capable of defending myself in Janina for three months againstany force that may be brought against me. It is much more necessary tocapture Arta. Go back, therefore, and say to Marco Bozzari, 'Come notto Janina, but go against Salikh Pasha. Tepelenti is sufficient forhimself in Janina.'"
Bozzari understood the old lion's hint. He did not wish the Greekforces to get into Janina, he preferred to defend himself to the verylast bastion. All the forces he had consisted of four hundred andthirty Albanians, but this number was quite sufficient to serve theguns. Even if but a tenth of this force remained to him, that would beamply sufficient to defend the red tower, and if the worst came to theworst, Ali alone would be sufficient to blow the place into the air.
Here Ali had accumulated all his treasures, all his arms, hisgarments, his correspondence with the princes of half the universe,his young damsels. In the cellar below the tower were piled up athousand barrels of gunpowder, a long match reached from one of thesebarrels to Ali's chamber, and there a couple of torches were alwaysburning by his side.
Whoever wanted Ali's head had better come for it!
So Bozzari returned to Arta, and not very long afterward the Greekarmy took the place by storm. In the whole fortress they did not findpowder enough to fill a hole in the barrel; the Turkish army had, infact, fired away its very last cartridge.
Ali had once more the satisfaction of seeing one of his enemies,Salikh Pasha, prostrate. Hitherto all who had fought against him hadbeen his furious haters, personal enemies, enviers of his fortune;and, bitter hater as he was, it was with a strong feeling ofsatisfaction that Tepelenti saw them all bite the dust; but thisKurshid was quite indifferent to him, and knew nothing either of hisfury or his intrigues. He had never been Ali's enemy, and had noreason for hating him. This thought made Ali uneasy.
It had often been Ali's experience that when any one who greatly hatedhim came during a siege or a battle within shooting distance of him,and he then pointed a gun at him, the ball so fired seemed to fly onthe wings of his own savage fury, and would hit its man even at athousand paces; but Kurshid often took a walk near the trenches, andthough they fired at him one gun after another, not a bullet went nearhim.
"Let him alone," said Ali; "we shall never be able to kill this man."And his old energy left him as if he had suddenly become crippled.
He invited Kurshid Pasha to intercede for him with the Sultan, that hemight be restored to favor, offering in such case to place histreasures at the disposal of the Grand Signior, and turn his armsagainst the Greeks. Kurshid demanded an assurance to this effect inwriting, and when Ali complied, Kurshid sent the document, not to theSultan at Stambul but to the Suliotes at Arta, that they might see howready Ali was to betray them. The Greeks, in disgust, abandoned Ali.This last treachery dismayed them at the very zenith of their triumph;they perceived that a mighty antagonist had risen against them inKurshid Pasha, who was magnanimous enough not to make use of traitors,but spurn them with contempt. This intellectual superiority guaranteedthe success of Kurshid's arms. The Turkish commander had been acuteenough to extend the hand of reconciliation, not to Ali, but to theSuliotes.
Tepelenti waited in vain in the tower of Janina for the arrival of thearmy of deliverance. The Suliotes returned to their villages, andArtemis reflected with secret joy that in the very red tower in whichAli had decapitated her plighted lover, he himself now sat in hisdespair, environed by foes, waiting with the foolish hope that theembittered Suliotes would hasten to deliver him.
The Epirote rebellion was already subdued by Kurshid Pasha, and onlyone point in the whole empire now glowed with a dangerous fire--thehaughty Janina.