action was proceeding at the
northern end of the besiegers' intrenchments. Ali left his castle of the
lake, preceded by twelve torch-bearers carrying braziers filled with
lighted pitch-wood, and advanced towards the shore of Saint-Nicolas,
expecting to unite with the Suliots. He stopped in the middle of the
ruins to wait for sunrise, and while there heard that his troops had
carried the battery of Ibrahim-Aga-Stamboul. Overjoyed, he ordered them
to press on to the second intrenchment, promising that in an hour, when
he should have been joined by the Suliots, he would support them, and he
then pushed forward, preceded by two field-pieces with their waggons, and
followed by fifteen hundred men, as far as a large plateau on which he
perceived at a little distance an encampment which he supposed to be that
of the Suliots. He then ordered the Mirdite prince, Kyr Lekos, to
advance with an escort of twenty-five men, and when within hearing
distance to wave a blue flag and call out the password. An Imperial
officer replied with the countersign "flouri," and Lekos immediately sent
back word to Ali to advance. His orderly hastened back, and the prince
entered the camp, where he and his escort were immediately surrounded and
slain.

On receiving the message, Ali began to advance, but cautiously, being
uneasy at seeing no signs of the Mirdite troop. Suddenly, furious cries,
and a lively fusillade, proceeding from the vineyards and thickets,
announced that he had fallen into a trap, and at the same moment Omar
Pacha fell upon his advance guard, which broke, crying "Treason!".

Ali sabred the fugitives mercilessly, but fear carried them away, and,
forced to follow the crowd, he perceived the Kersales and Baltadgi Pacha
descending the side of Mount Paktoras, intending to cut off his retreat.
He attempted another route, hastening towards the road to Dgeleva, but
found it held by the Tapagetae under the Bimbashi Aslon of
Argyro-Castron. He was surrounded, all seemed lost, and feeling that his
last hour had come, he thought only of selling his life as dearly as
possible. Collecting his bravest soldiers round him, he prepared for a
last rush on Omar Pacha; when, suddenly, with an inspiration born of
despair, he ordered his ammunition waggons to be blown up. The Kersales,
who were about to seize them, vanished in the explosion, which scattered
a hail of stones and debris far and wide. Under cover of the smoke and
general confus