d send
forth an army to meet them.

"There is no necessity for it," replied Ali, with a cold smile. "I am
quite capable of defending myself in Janina for three months against
any force that may be brought against me. It is much more necessary to
capture Arta. Go back, therefore, and say to Marco Bozzari, 'Come not
to Janina, but go against Salikh Pasha. Tepelenti is sufficient for
himself in Janina.'"

Bozzari understood the old lion's hint. He did not wish the Greek
forces to get into Janina, he preferred to defend himself to the very
last bastion. All the forces he had consisted of four hundred and
thirty Albanians, but this number was quite sufficient to serve the
guns. Even if but a tenth of this force remained to him, that would be
amply sufficient to defend the red tower, and if the worst came to the
worst, Ali alone would be sufficient to blow the place into the air.

Here Ali had accumulated all his treasures, all his arms, his
garments, his correspondence with the princes of half the universe,
his young damsels. In the cellar below the tower were piled up a
thousand barrels of gunpowder, a long match reached from one of these
barrels to Ali's chamber, and there a couple of torches were always
burning by his side.

Whoever wanted Ali's head had better come for it!

So Bozzari returned to Arta, and not very long afterward the Greek
army took the place by storm. In the whole fortress they did not find
powder enough to fill a hole in the barrel; the Turkish army had, in
fact, 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 had
been his furious haters, personal enemies, enviers of his fortune;
and, bitter hater as he was, it was with a strong feeling of
satisfaction that Tepelenti saw them all bite the dust; but this
Kurshid was quite indifferent to him, and knew nothing either of his
fury or his intrigues. He had never been Ali's enemy, and had no
reason for hating him. This thought made Ali uneasy.

It had often been Ali's experience that when any one who greatly hated
him 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 on
the wings of his own savage fury, and would hit its man even at a
thousand paces; but Kurshid often took a walk near the trenches, and
though they fired at him one gun after another, not