CHAPTER V
A MAN IN THE MIDST OF DANGERS
The Pasha of Janina, for thirty successive days, received nothing butill tidings; and twice within the period of two waxing moons did hisown power as steadily wane.
The first Job's-messenger which reached him was the Arnaut horseman,who had escaped from Stambul, and whom the Sultan's Tartars hadpursued as far as Adrianople. This man told him that the attempt onthe life of Gaskho Bey had failed, and that the captured assassins hadrevealed the name of their employer.
"Behold, I have wounded myself with my own sword," exclaimed Ali. "Theprophetic voice of Seleucia spoke the truth; yea, verily, it spoke thetruth."
And still more of the prophecy was to be accomplished.
A few days later the report reached him that Eminah had cast herselfat the feet of the Sultan and demanded judgment on the head of herhusband.
"I knew it beforehand," sighed Ali. "The Prophet told it all to me.Nevertheless, I shall stand at the gates of the Seraglio on a silverpedestal."
Next day he heard that Gaskho Bey had been appointed Pasha of Janina.
"They act as if I were dead already," murmured the veteran, with asbitter a feeling as if he already saw his youthful supplanter standingon his threshold. "They bury me before I am dead, they divide myproperty before I have made my will. Nevertheless, one day I shallstand in the gates of the Seraglio on a richer pedestal."
And with that Tepelenti sent forth his ciauses to all the towns withinhis domains, and to all the local governors, commanding all who hadsons to send their sons and all who had brothers to send theirbrothers to him without delay. Then he ordered that every beast ofburden that could be spared should be driven into the mountains, andthat every barque they could lay their hands upon should be broughtfrom the sea-coast into the Gulf of Durazzo. The arsenal of Janinabristled with terrific rows of cannons and bombs, and the commandersof the various army corps received instructions to concentrate theirforces under the walls of Janina. At any rate, he was determined notto be taken unawares. At least, he would have time to unfurl the redflag before the dread message arrived from Stambul that the Padishahdemanded his head.
Ah, ha! Ali Tepelenti would not surrender his gray beard so easily.The hunters shall find out what manner of lion they are pursuing. Afirman of the Grand Signior nominated the banished Pehlivan Pasha,Lord of Lepanto; Sulaiman Pasha was made Governor of Trikala, and thetwo mountain passes guarding it; Muhammad Bey, whose father Ali hadslain, was proclaimed Lieutenant-General of Durazzo. Thus they haddivided his territories beforehand among his most bitter and mostdangerous enemies. Ah! this will, indeed, be a magnificent chase.
Ali called together his sons, of whom Vely was Lord of Lepanto,Sulaiman of Trikala, and Mukhtar Pasha of Durazzo. He showed them onthe map where their territories lay, and pointed out that if they lostthem they would have nothing left. Let all three of them, therefore,gird upon their thighs the swords he intrusted to them and fight likemen. The two younger sons swore fervently that they would conquerFortune with their weapons, but Vely Bey preserved a gloomy silence.
"Art thou not my son?" asked the veteran.
"Allah hath so willed it," answered Vely, "and I also will fight, notfor thee but for myself, not for life nor for what is on the otherside of death, but because I have a little child in Lepanto, and theenemy is besieging that fortress. That little child is all the worldto me. I will fight as only a father can fight for his son. I willrescue him if possible. Thy glory or thy ruin is alike indifferent tome. If the report reach thee that the enemy hath taken Lepanto andslain my son, then count no more upon the sword which thou hastintrusted to me."
And with these words Vely turned his back on his father and softlywithdrew.
As Ali saw his son quietly pass before him, it occurred to him whetherit would not be as well to draw his pistol from his belt and shootdown the waverer before he quitted Janina. It is true that he hadknown all this beforehand. His own wife, his own sons, his ownweapons, were to turn against him; but then, on the other hand, washe not to stand at the gate of the Seraglio on a silver pedestal?
A host of more than twenty thousand men stood under arms at hisdisposal, Albanians and Suliotes. A gallant host, if only it wouldfight. But for whom would it fight?--for him or for the Sultan? Andthese soldiers, when they saw him besieged, would they forget theirmurdered kinsfolk, their plundered fields, their burned villages? Didnot every man of them know that Ali Tepelenti had been amassingtreasures all his life, but had never troubled himself about gooddeeds? And now these treasures would surely be his ruin.
Time brought the answer. While his enemies were still afar off, theSuliotes arose, under the leadership of a girl among the mountains ofBracori, where one of Ali's grandsons, Zaid, was recruiting soldiers,and massacred Ali's men to the very last one. The last one, however,they suffered to escape and convey to Ali Zaid's severed head, at thesame time informing him that it was sent by that girl the head ofwhose betrothed he had cut off before her very eyes, and she meant tosend him still more.
This was the Greek's declaration of war. There at Janina, under hisvery nose, the Greek captain, Zunga, deserted the Albanian camp, andwhen the Grand Signior's army reached Trikala, and Gaskho Bey's heraldgalloped between the two armies with the imperial firman hanging roundhis neck, and summoned the vassals to take up arms against the Pasha,the whole camp went over to Gaskho Bey. Alone, without the smallestescort, Sulaiman, Ali Pasha's youngest son, fled without having hadthe opportunity of testing his father's sword, and they captured himon the road.
Still he had the other two. Mukhtar Bey, with a powerful fleet, lay inthe Gulf of Durazzo, and Vely Bey, wroth though he might be with hisfather, was a valiant warrior, and his son was in Lepanto, and savehim he must and would.
But not only his son, some one else was there also. On that cruel,murderous day when Ali Pasha drowned the harems of his sons in thelake, one person among so many escaped, and this was Xelianthe. Thedamsel loved Vely as much as he loved her, and contrived to let himknow that she was alive. Vely Bey sent her to Lepanto, and kept her inhiding there with his little son in order that she might be far fromhis father.
And now the bey himself hastened to Lepanto, arrived at night in theneighborhood of the town, and perceived already from afar that thecitadel in which he had concealed his darlings was in flames.
What if he had arrived too late!
With the fury of a savage wild tiger he flung himself upon thebesieging Pehlivan, and in a midnight battle routed him beneath thewalls of Lepanto, the Albanians fighting desperately by the side oftheir leader. But what was the use of it? The fortress was saved,indeed, but it was already in flames. Vely, roaring with grief andpain, flung himself on the gate, scarcely recognizing again the placehe had quitted so short a time ago.
He reached the pavilion where he had concealed his wife and child. Itwas built entirely of wood, except the roof, which was of copper. Acurious mass of molten dark-red metal gleamed among the fire-brands.Vely rushed bellowing to the spot, and his soldiers, tearing aside thecharred beams and rafters, came upon two skeletons burned to cinders.A coral necklace lying there, which the fire had been unable tocalcine, told him that these were the remains of his wife and son.
Not a word did Vely say to a living soul; but he plunged his swordinto its sheath, and that same night he rode unarmed into the camp ofthe discomfited Pehlivan Pasha and surrendered himself to the enemy.
His army, utterly demoralized, immediately fled back to Janina,bringing the tidings to his father that Vely Bey, immediately afterhis victory, had surrendered of his own accord to the Sultan.
So every one abandoned Ali. His cities opened their gates to hisenemies, his best friends betrayed, his two sons forsook, him. Stillthe third son remained. And Mukhtar Bay was the best man of the three.He was the bravest, and he loved his father the best.
Two days later came the tidings that Mukhtar Bey with his whole fleethad surrendered before Durazzo to the Kapudan Pasha.
> "The soothsayer foretold it all to me," said Ali, calmly, when thenews was brought to him. "So it was written beforehand in heaven.Nevertheless, at the last, I shall stand at the gates of the Seraglioon a silver pedestal!"