KURSHID PASHA
Gaskho Bey, the incapable giant, was captured by the Suliotes in a
night attack, his army was scattered beneath the walls of Janina, and
Ali Pasha became once more the absolute master of Epirus.
Then, like lightning fallen from heaven, unexpectedly, unforeseen, a
man came from Thessalonica whose name was shortly to ring through half
the world. The name of this man was Kurshid Pasha.
He was a man of a puny, meagre frame, his features were widely
divergent from the characteristic Ottoman type, for he had a delicate
profile, a bright blond beard and mustache, and blue eyes with
flexible eyebrows, all of which gave a peculiar character to his face,
which showed unmistakable traces of a penetrating mind and cool
courage.
Ten thousand warriors accompanied the new commander to Janina, which
grew into thirty thousand at the very first battle. Kleon's and
Ypsilanti's armies were routed, and Gaskho Bey's scattered squadrons
rallied around the banners of the victor.
While Ali Pasha was defending Janina, the leaders of the Greek
insurgents besieged the fortress of Arta, which Salikh Bey defended
with a small garrison.
Kurshid's predecessor, Gaskho Bey, had committed the error of
besieging Janina and endeavoring to relieve Arta at the same time, and
thus he came to grief at both places. The new commander acted on a
different plan. He knew well that not a head amongst all the Greek
rebels was half so dangerous as Ali Tepelenti's; so, leaving Salikh
Pasha to his fate, he directed all his energies against Janina.
A man indeed hath come against thee, O Ali Pasha! A man as valiant, as
crafty as thou; if thou be a fox, he is an eagle of the rocks, that
pounces down on the fox; and if thou be a tiger, he is the
boa-constrictor which infolds and crushes the tiger.
Ali urged Kleon and Artemis to hasten to his assistance. His
messengers did not return to the fortress. The Greek leaders gave no
reply to his summons. Anybody else would have found some consolatory
explanation of their remissness, but Ali divined things better. The
Greeks said amongst themselves, "Let the old monster tremble in his
ditch; let them close him in and hold him tight. He will be
constrained to make a life-and-death struggle to save his old beard.
When we have captured Arta, and when our detested ally" (for they did
detest him in spite of his being their good friend) "is at the very
last gasp, then we will go to the rescue, relieve him, and let him
live a little longer."
Tepelenti was well aware that they spoke of him in this way. He knew
well that they hated him, and would gladly leave him to perish. The
only reason the Greeks had for allying themselves with Ali was that
his fortress was filled with an enormous store of treasure, arms, and
muniments of war; his gray head was the pivot of the whole rebellion.
If the fortress were taken, they would be deprived of this strong
pivot, those treasures, that gray head!
One day the Suliotes encamped before Arta heard the terrible tidings
that Kurshid Pasha had captured Lithanizza and La Gulia, the two
outlying forts of the stronghold of Janina, and had driven Ali back
into the fortress. The tidings filled them with consternation. If
Janina were lost, the whole Greek insurrection would lose the source
of its supplies. The treasures which Ali had scattered amongst the
Greeks with a prodigal hand would at once fall into the hands of the
Sultan, and then he would be able to secure Epirus at a single blow.
A Greek army under Marco Bozzari immediately set out from Arta to
relieve Janina. Ali knew of it beforehand. Bozzari's spies had crept
through Kurshid's camp into Janina, and signified to Ali that their
leaders were on their way to "The Five Wells," and that he should 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 a bullet went near
him.
"Let him alone," said Ali; "we shall never be able to kill this man."
And his old energy left him as if he had suddenly become crippled.
He invited Kurshid Pasha to intercede for him with the Sultan, that he
might be restored to favor, offering in such case to place his
treasures at the disposal of the Grand Signior, and turn his arms
against the Greeks. Kurshid demanded an assurance to this effect in
writing, and when Ali complied, Kurshid sent the document, not to the
Sultan at Stambul but to the Suliotes at Arta, that they might see how
ready Ali was to betray them. The Greeks, in disgust, abandoned Ali.
This last treachery dismayed them at the very zenith of their triumph;
they perceived that a mighty antagonist had risen against them in
Kurshid Pasha, who was magnanimous enough not to make use of traitors,
but spurn them with contempt. This intellectual superiority guaranteed
the success of Kurshid's arms. The Turkish commander had been acute
enough to extend the hand of reconciliation, not to Ali, but to the
Suliotes.
Tepelenti waited in vain in the tower of Janina for the arrival of the
army of deliverance. The Suliotes returned to their villages, and
Artemis reflected with secret joy that in the very red tower in which
Ali had decapitated her plighted lover, he himself now sat in his
despair, environed by foes, waiting with the foolish hope that the
embittered Suliotes would hasten to deliver him.
The Epirote rebellion was already subdued by Kurshid Pasha, and only
one point in the whole empire now glowed with a dangerous fire--the
haughty Janina.