province was no
longer his. The sword of Ibrahim had severed the last bonds that
fastened it to him, and he was obliged to yield it, as well as the
district of Andama. On his side, the viceroy acknowledged himself a
vassal of the Porte, and agreed to make an annual payment of the monies
he received from the pashas of Syria. This peace was concluded on May
14, 1833, and was called the peace of Kutayeh, after the place where
Ibrahim signed it.

It was impossible that the convention of Kutayeh should be more than an
armistice. The pasha benefited by it too greatly not to desire further
advantages, and the sultan had lost so much that he must needs make
some attempt at recovery. Mahmud's annoyance was caused by the fact
and nature of the dispossession rather than by its material extent. The
descendant of the Os-manlis, ever implacable in his hatreds, who had
allowed Syria, the cradle of his race, to be wrested from him, now
awaited the hour of vengeance. Mehemet Ali knew himself to be strong
enough to carry a sceptre ably, and he realised that there would be no
need for his numerous pashalics to pass out of his family. Henceforth
his mind was filled with thoughts of independence and the rights of
succession.

[Illustration: 169.jpg A MUHAMMEDAN PRAYING PRIEST]

The viceroy and the sultan continued to strengthen their forces, and a
conflict occurred near Nezib on June 24, 1839. The Egyptians completely
routed their adversaries, despite the strenuous resistance of the
Imperial Guard, who, when called upon to surrender, cried in the same
words used at Waterloo, "Khasse sultanem mamatenda darrhi tuffenguini
iere Koimas." ("The guards of the sultan surrender arms only to death").

Greatly elated, Ibrahim flung himself into the arms of his companion in
glory, Suleiman Pasha. His prediction was verified: "This time we will
go to Constantinople, or they shall come to Cairo." They set out
for Constantinople; but the viceroy was again generous. Through the
mediation of Captain Caille, aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult, who, in the
name of France, demanded a cessation of hostilities, Mehemet Ali desired
his son not to proceed into Asia Minor; so the general halted before
Aintab, the scene of his victories, as he had done on a former occasion
before Kutayeh.

Consumptive and exhausted with his excesses, Mahmud, whose virtue lay
in his ardent love of reforms, died before his time, but this untimely
demise at least spared him the know