turned was to this effect,-that if he could get within the British line of demarcation (which extends as far as mid-channel) he then would be protected. His request of an escort for the place of embarkation was refused; but at length, after many pressing entreaties, information was conveyed to him secretly, that some English gun-boats would be lying at Butrinto during a certain period, upon which he might seize and pass over in safety; but that no open assistance could be given to a declared rebel of the Porte. Again, in this instance also, Ali was betrayed by his own avarice: he hesitated to depart without his treasures, and expected that if it were known he was about to remove these, the Albanians would revolt and put him to death. During his vacillation the Turkish troops advanced to Joannina and cut off his retreat, whilst their flotilla blockaded the coasts of Epirus.

It is impossible to enter into all the particulars of this part of Ali's eventful history; such as the great diversion made in his favour by the Greek insurrection in Moldavia, and most especially by that in the Morea; his proclamations in favour of the Grecian cause; his declarations that he had become a Christian, and was fighting under the banner of the Cross; his politic measures in arming the Souliots and replacing that heroic people in their impregnable for tresses, from whence they scattered terror and destruction among his enemies, and where they still exist breathing again the air of freedom and bidding stern defiance to their antagonists. These and other corresponding events will come with greater propriety into a memorial of the war in Greece, which we are preparing for a succeeding number of our Journal. In the mean time, suffice it to say, that after the Sultan had expressed great indignation at the slowness of the operations carried on against this arch-rebel, Pashou Bey was superseded in his command of the Ottoman army, which was given to the intrepid and adventurous Chourschid Pasha.

This general soon changed the face of affairs: he completely routed the Albanian troops opposed to him, and took Ali's two sons Mouchtar and Veli prisoners, who were exiled into the Asiatic provinces, but soon afterwards decapitated for holding correspondence with their father's ailies. At length the Ottoman army advanced to Joannina; Ali retreated into his fortified serai of Litaritza, and thus the old lion was completely at bay. Here again operations proceeded slowly; for the Turkish troops, though among the best in the world to defend a fortress, are the very worst to attack one, principally through their ignorance in the art of war, as well as the great deficiency of their battering-trains and every other species of artillery. Ali from his fortress, which was much better supplied with cannon, contrived to protract the siege eighteen months, to annoy his antagonists by gallant sorties, to

destroy

destroy them from his batteries, and to endanger the very existence of the Ottoman Empire. The miseries, however, which the wretched inhabitants of this once-flourishing and populous city endured between the two contending parties, must not be omitted in our narrative, one main object of which is to pourtray some of those calamities to which the human race, under a Mahometan Government, is necessarily and constantly exposed.

As soon as the Turkish army was seen encamped upon the heights of Driscos, the lake was covered with barks full of women and children of the first families endeavouring to escape. In the mean time, the tyrant having given his Albanian troops permission to plunder a city which he was unable to defend, the houses were immediately filled with a lawless soldiery. One of the first objects of pillage was the cathedral, where the Greeks, and even the Turks themselves, had deposited their most precious effects. Nothing was respected; the very tombs of the archbishops were broke open in search of precious relics, and the sanctuary was polluted by the blood of the robbers themselves, as they disputed with each other for the possession of the sacred vases. The city offered a most deplorable spectacle on all sides: neither Christians nor Mahometans were respected: the harems of these, and the gynæceons of those, were forced open, and displayed the cruel sight of modesty struggling with violence. Cries and groans and the crash of arms resounded on all sides, when a terrible detonation announced the destruction of Joannina. A shower of shot and shells, grenades and Congreve-rockets, spread carnage, fire and devastation through: every quarter of the town for the space of two hours. Ali, seated on one of the bastions of his fortress, like the exterminating angel, directed its destructive fire, which soon levelled to the ground this once-flourishing capital, with its public edifices.

Those of the people who could escape from the flames, carrying in the train friends and relatives, half-burned or mutilated by the explosion of the shells, women loaded with their children, and old men enfeebled by age, had scarcely passed the palisade of mount Pactoras before they were attacked by the advanced guard of the Ottoman army. So far from protecting the unfortunate beings, who had escaped the carnage, these Rumelian hordes fell upon defenceless citizens, plundering them without mercy, and tearing their sons and daughters from their arms: uttering the most piercing cries, the poor wretches dispersed, and endeavoured to escape to the mountains; but they were there met by another set of plunderers and assassins, in the savage mountaineers, who had assembled to get their share of the booty. Despair at length gave courage and strength to the fugitives: some feeble women succeeded in passing the lofty chain of mount Olitzika into the plains of Thesprotia; others, seized with the pains of premature labour, perished in the

forests;

forests; many young women, after having disfigured themselves by the most dreadful mutilations, that they might become objects of disgust to the barbarians, like virgin martyrs in the times of persecution, concealed themselves in caverns, where they perished of hunger; all the defiles and paths were strewed with wounded and dying men, or with their corpses: and thus, for the crimes of one villain, a city containing thirty thousand souls was overwhelmed with unutterable calamities.

Such was the fate of Joannina, and no better in a short time was that of its destroyer. Amidst the general distress, however, of this protracted siege, Ali's fortitude never once forsook him. The greatest part of his captains and their troops had now deserted him; an epidemic disorder raged in his garrison; his chief engineer, Carette, a Neapolitan adventurer, had gone over to his enemies; and this renegado pointed their fire with such effect against his fortress as obliged him to retire into his old serai in the castron : there was the tomb of his wife Erminia; there he had long ago transported the greatest part of his treasures; thither also he conveyed his favourite Vasilikee. Famine, in all its attendant horrors, at last made its appearance in his fortress; yet even then the courageous old lion disdained to ask for quarter; with the best of his still faithful Albanians he made a sally from the citadel, crossed the lake in spite of the enemy's cannon, carried off some flocks of sheep from the opposite mountains of Zagori, and returned with his plunder in safety to the castron. At length he was cut off from that resource, deprived of all hope of succour from the surrounding tribes, and vigorously blockaded by about 25,000 troops. In this extremity he opened a negotiation with Chourschid Pasha, who, to induce him more readily to surrender, and to assure him of the Sultan's determined perseverance, informed him that Ismael Pasha and Hussein Pasha, two commanders who had been recalled from Joannina on account of their dilatory measures, had been beheaded at Constantinople. Ali replied, that neither his head nor his ashes should be insulted; intimating at the same time his resolution of blowing up himself, his citadel, and all his treasures into the air by means of 2000 barrels of powder that were in the magazine, unless the Sultan granted him his life and a free pardon. This threat, especially the fear of losing Ali's treasure, one of the main objects of the war, impelled Chourschid to enter into a treaty and to feign acquiescence in his views. After some time he informed Ali, by the Seraskier, that the Grand Signor had granted him a pardon, which was even then upon the road; but that no step could be taken except after a personal interview: he assured him also, that not only a pardon was granted him, but permission to retire into a place of security with half his treasures. This was a cunning

a cunning stroke of policy: had the offer of pardon been unaccompanied with permission to retain any part of his wealth, Ali, who was as much attached to it as to life itself, never would have yielded: had the whole been allowed him, he would have suspected the deceit. In the present instance he consented to the desired interview, which it was proposed should take place upon the island: thither then he repaired, after being assured that every thing in the citadel should remain upon the same footing as he might leave it: but he trusted more to the faithfullest of his faithful slaves Selim, whom he ordered to remain with a lighted match at the door of the magazine, ready to blow it up at his master's order, or in case the enemy should gain possession of the place.

Ali, thus blinded as to his approaching fate, proceeded with about a dozen of his officers to the Island of the Lake. The Seraskier had ordered an entertainment to be prepared for him, in the most superb style possible, in the very monastery, nay, it is said in the very apartment, where the unfortunate Mustafà Pasha of Delvino had been starved to death by his inexorable decree. Here he was treated in a magnificent manner for several days, and had various conferences with the Turkish officers, of whom many had formerly been in his service; and all gave him strong assurance of his pardon this confidence was increased by his considering that the fatal match was in the hands of his trusty Selim, and that his head without his riches would be no particular object of gratification to the Sultan.

Such was the posture of affairs on the 5th of February 1822, when Chourschid Pasha dispatched Hassan the Seraskier, formerly High Admiral of the Porte, to announce to Ali the arrival of his pardon. He was congratulated upon this intelligence, and requested to show a corresponding sense of the favour in a ready and cheerful submission, by ordering Selim to extinguish his torch, and the garrison to surrender.

Ali's eyes were opened by these demands; but it was now too late. He answered, "that upon quitting the citadel he had commanded Selim to obey his verbal order only, and that no other would have the least effect upon that incorruptible agent: he requested liberty therefore to go and give the order in person. This permission was refused: a long debate ensued, in which Ali exerted all his address, but in vain. The attendants of the Seraskier gave him the strongest assurances, even swearing upon the Koran, that there was no intention to deceive him.

Ali, after some hesitation, demanded a sight of the firman, and a forged instrument was put into his hands: feeling that nothing could now alter his situation, but determined to make every exertion possible for his own preservation, he requested the signature

and

and oath of the Pasha, and of all his principal officers, to the truth of the deed and the fidelity of their observance of it. This being instantly done to his satisfaction, he drew from his bosom the half of a ring which corresponded to another half which Selim had in his possession. "Go," said he, "present this to Selim, and that ferocious lion will be changed into a timid and obedient lamb." So it happened: when Selim saw this token from his master, he instantly prostrated himself upon the ground and extinguished the match; but before he could rise again he was transfixed by the poignards of the assassins. Upon Ali's order being shown to the garrison, the Imperial standard was hoisted upon his last strong hold, and his power was gone.

During these transactions Ali was seated in the convent among his few remaining friends, who were, for the most part, worn out by wounds and watching and fatigue: he was himself suffering under a want of repose and an extreme depression of spirits, though his features did not even in this extremity betray his inward emotions. He sate opposite the door which led to the audience chamber, when, about five o'clock in the afternoon, Hassan Pasha, Omar Bey Brioni, the Selictar, and several other Turkish officers, entered with their attendants. At the sight of them Ali arose with impetuosity, and grasping one of his pistols, cried out in a voice of thunder to Hassan Pasha, "Stop,-what is that you bring to me?" "The firman of your sovereign: know you not his sacred characters?" "Yes," said Ali, "and I reverence them." "If so," replied the other, "submit to your fate, perform your ablutions, and offer up your prayers to God and his Prophet; for your head is demanded." Ali stayed not for the conclusion of this speech, but exclaimed, "My head is not to be obtained so easily," and these words were accompanied by a pistol-ball, which broke the thigh of Hassan. With the rapidity of lightning he then drew forth his other pistols, whilst his followers did the same, and laid two more of his adversaries dead at his feet: he was then levelling a loaded blunderbuss at the rest, when the Selictar, in the midst of the affray, shot him in the lower part of the abdomen. Another ball struck him on the breast; he rolled off the Divan upon the floor, and before he expired had just time to cry out to one of his attendants, "Go, my friend, dispatch poor Vasilikee, that these vile dogs may not profane her beauteous person." Many of his followers shared the fate of their master, and four of the principal Turkish officers were killed or wounded. His head being then separated from his body, and embalmed, was sent next day to Constantinople, where it arrived on the 23rd of February in custody of the Selictar, who escorted thither also his wife Vasilikee, and a little grandson aged eight years, with a considerable portion of his harem and treasures. The march

of