ieva
was brought into the Seraglio instead. The girl was then about
fourteen years old. The Circassian girls at that age are fully mature,
and the bloom of their beauty is at its prime. Milieva, from the very
first day when she entered the harem, became the Sultan's favorite
damsel.

Thomar joined the ranks of the ichoglanler, a band of youths who are
brought up in the outer court and form the Sultan's body-guard.

It was in this year that Mahmoud instituted the Akinji corps,
selecting its members from amongst the Janissaries, and formed them
into a small regular army. Thomar very soon won for himself the
command of a company, and continued to rise higher and higher till at
length he reached the eminence which the merchant had foretold to him;
and when the course of time brought with it the day on which he was to
see Kasi Mollah again, he had become Derbend Aga, one of the Sultan's
very highest officials, and his name was mentioned respectfully by all
true believers. And in the village of Himri his name was also
mentioned. Kasi Mollah often heard it attached to the title of "bey,"
and Thomar also heard a good deal of the village of Himri and of Kasi
Mollah, for they now called his father "murshid," and the name
"murshid" is full of mournful recollections for both Moscow and
Petersburg.

But of all these things we shall know more at another time.

CHAPTER X

THE AVENGER

And what now is old Ali Tepelenti about in his nest at Janina? Is he
content with a state of things which results in this--that he must
either perish or pass the brief remainder of his days in constant
fighting? Is he satisfied with this sea of blood over which the
tempest rages, and whose shores he cannot see?

Not yet has he surrendered to fate. His country has declared war
against him, the Sultan has pronounced his death-sentence, his family
have abandoned and turned against him; but Ali has not suffered his
sword to be broken in twain. For eight and seventy years he has been
the scourge of his enemies, the defence of his country, the Sultan's
right hand, the patriarch of his family, and in his nine and
seventieth year the Sultan and his relations say to him, "Die! thou
hast lived long enough!" And he, by way of reply, set his country in
flames, shook the throne of the Sultan, and extirpated his own
kinsfolk.

The Greeks, whose tyrant he once was, are now his allies. Tepelenti
provides them with arms and money, and with good and ba