CONQUERS IT, AND MASSACRES THE INHABITANTS. 193 certain officers, shewed them the vizir's bouyourdee couched in the strongest terms, attached them to his own forces, and without the slightest communication with the Turkish generals, who dared not interfere, led them sword in hand against Gardiki. He first carried a large farm house at the bottom of the hill which had been entrenched and converted into a strong out-post: from thence he drove its defenders up a steep and narrow path leading towards the city, in which they took refuge as well as in a small fortress which commanded the ascent. The Greeks animated by the example of their leader, and joyful at an opportunity of exterminating a Mahometan tribe, followed through every difficulty and danger, forced the citadel, and soon gained possession of the city itself, which was given up to all the horrors of an assault in the very sight of the Turkish troops below. Very few persons escaped from slaughter or captivity. Amongst the prisoners were Mustafà Pasha, Demir Dosti, and a great train of beys and agàs: these were sent immediately under a strong escort to Ioannina, whither they were brought in a species of mock triumph and treated at first not only with kindness but munificence. This refinement in cruelty is not unusual with Ali when he wishes to make his victims feel more keenly a reverse of fortune. The other citizens of Gardiki were distributed through the different towns and villages in the vicinity, which became answerable for their appearance under the most dreadful penalties; whilst the unfortunate females, they who least deserved it, became conversant with calamity in its most frightful forms: after having been subjected to the brutal passions of the soldiery, they were conducted to that tigress in a human shape, Shaïnitza, at her palace in Libochobo: there their beautiful flowing hair was cut off close to their heads in the presence of that sanguinary monster, who first stamped it contemptuously under foot and then ordered that part of her divan to be stuffed with it upon which her unwieldy form is accustomed to repose: these innocent and unfortunate victims of inhuman cruelty were afterwards 194 MASSACRES THE INHABITANTS. turned out destitute upon the mountains, when the penalty of death had been proclaimed against any one who should harbour or relieve them. After a few weeks Ali departed, at the head of a large body of troops, to Libochobo, to pay his sister a visit and congratulate her upon the satisfaction made to her violated honour. We may well suppose that the storm of vengeance now raging in his bosom was not allayed by the soothing entreaties of feminine compassion. Before he left Ioannina he gave orders that all the Gardikiote beys should be cast into close confinement in the monasteries of the island, whilst secret instructions concerning them were left with his agents. During his residence at Libochobo he commanded all the prisoners to be brought from the surrounding districts on a certain day and hour into the court of a large han called Valiarè in the valley of Deropuli, about five miles from Argyro-Castro, near the commencement of the Gardikiote territory. Thither he proceeded at the appointed time with about 3000 of his troops. Seated in his carriage at the gate of the han he ordered each person to be called out separately before him, and when he had minutely investigated his age, parentage and profession, he ordered a few to be carried into a place of security (those probably who had been settlers in the place since the insult which he was about to revenge) and the rest he remanded back into the court of the han. He then commanded his troops to advance, who were well aware of the service upon which they were about to be employed: the Mahometans all held back, but the Greeks eagerly mounted the walls which surrounded the area wherein the prisoners were enclosed. Ali then took a musket from the hands of a soldier, and having ordered the han gates to be thrown open, discharged the first shot into the crowd of victims: this was the signal for a general massacre; the surrounding troops fired amongst them till their ammunition was expended, when others succeeded and continued the work of death. The fury of despair ministered arms to some of these wretched prisoners, who with stones torn from the pavement and the walls wounded many of their destroyers: others retreated into one of the apartments of the han, to which fire was immediately applied, and those who escaped the volleys of musketry fell a sacrifice to the flames. In the mean time, a few having burst out of the area, came in despair and flung themselves at the feet of the vizir and cried for mercy in accents that might have moved a heart of flint; but Ali's heart is harder than flint, and not a single rill from the fount of mercy flows into his soul: he ordered his chaoushes and kaivasis to cut the imploring suppliants in pieces with their ataghans before his face. The bloody work was thus completed, when the bodies, amounting to between seven and eight hundred, were left unburied to rot upon the spot where they had fallen; the gateway of the area was walled up and an inscription placed over it cut in stone, which signifies, THUS PERISH ALL THE ENEMIES OF ALI'S HOUSE*. On the very day of this butchery the Gardikiote beys who had been left at Ioannina to the number of seventy-two, were brought down to a convent upon the island opposite Mitzikeli, where they were all strangled, their bodies conveyed in boats to the opposite shore and buried at the foot of the mountain. From the han Ali proceeded with his troops to the once flourishing city of Gardiki, which he laid in ruins, placing it under an anathema or curse, and prohibiting it from ever again becoming the habitation of man during the continuance of his dynasty in Albania. The property of its citizens he had before converted to his own use, and as they were great merchants, he kept an accurate account of all the debts found due to them, and exacted the most punctual payment. This then is the fate of Gardiki: its walls demolished, its policy dissolved, its riches dispersed and its people massacred, it has * An Albanian poet afterwards wrote a long inscription in Romaic verse, which with Ali's sanction was placed over the door of this han. The reader will find it in the Appendix with a translation. The whole transaction at the han may be compared with one related by his biographer of the deified Augustus. “Perusia capta, in plurimos animadvertit: orare veniam vel excusare se conantibus una voce Occurrens MORIENDUM ESSE. Scribunt quidam trecentos ex dedititiis electos utriusque ordinis, ad aram Divo Julio extructam Idibus Martiis hostiarum more mactatos." 196 MURDERS THE PASHA OF DELVINO. become a dwelling place for owls and the coiled serpent basks within its desolated courts. Every Gardikiote that was subsequently discovered within the dominions of Ali was arrested and put to death, when his corpse was sent to augment the mouldering heap of his unfortunate countrymen at the han of Valiarè. The vizir was grievously offended with his son Vely, who refused to put to death some Gardikiotes in his service or surrender them up. It is scarcely necessary to observe that Ali glories in this deed, which he considers one of just and pious retribution. It occurred on the 15th of March, 1812. When the vizir returned to Ioannina he gratified a revenge, not less bitter from its being protracted, upon his old antagonist Mustafà Pasha of Delvino. This wretched victim he confined in the same convent with his two sons, and gradually starved him to death, allowing him only one small piece of calamboci bread and one draught of water for his daily fare. His body was then publicly exposed in presence of the cadi and mufti, as is customary on the death of a pasha, to see whether there be any marks of violence upon the corpse: it was reported that he had died a natural death; but this report was little credited at Constantinople. A few months after this horrid murder, his cruelty or his policy demanded another sacrifice, and the destined victim was no other than the venerable Ibrahim. However, before he ventured to imbrue his hands in the blood of this respectable character he thought it necessary to discover whether such a deed were likely to arouse the indignation of the Porte. In order therefore to sound the feelings of the Divan, he put in practice the following manœuvre. On a certain day Ibrahim Pasha disappeared from his apartment in the tower. The messenger who was sent every morning by his daughters to inquire after their father's health, came back and reported the circumstance of his absence, adding that he had made all possible inquiries without being able to discover his abode. The daughters hearing this, and feeling convinced that their father had been secretly put to HIS CUNNING WITH RESPECT TO IBRAHIM PASHA. 197 death, set up the Albanian howl for the dead, in which they were joined by all the slaves of their harems as well as by the women of the adjoining mansions: from thence the cry was spread from house to house, and the whole city of Ioannina rung with lamentations during three days for this imaginary death of Ibrahim. The occurrence indeed was generally believed, and the French consul dispatched a courier with the intelligence to Constantinople. This messenger was stopped by the agents of Ali, his dispatches were read, and he was allowed to proceed. The news occasioned a strong prejudice against Ali in the minds of all. A council was called, and a capigi-bashee of the highest rank was sent to Ioannina with the sultan's commands to investigate the affair and bring back the depositions of the great officers of religion and the law. The messenger arrived, and being introduced into Ali's presence surrounded by all his ministers, stated the object of his mission, and produced his credentials, attested by the signet of the sultan. Ali affecting great surprise, exclaimed, "Dead! Ibrahim, my father, dead!" whilst all his divan followed him in expressions of incredulity and astonishment. Then turning to his two ministers, Mahomet and Sechrì Effendi, he added, "Go and accompany this officer of the Porte to the apartment of Ibrahim, and let him see what falsehoods have been circulated respecting us." Accordingly they went and found the object of their visit in the very best apartment of the seraglio, surrounded by every thing which could minister to his comfort. Ibrahim being instructed in what to say, and threatened with the extremity of torture, if he should disclose the truth, requested the capigi-bashee to say to his lord the sultan-that he kissed the ground on which he trod, and was penetrated with the deepest gratitude for the honour of his kind inquiries; but that he was perfectly well and more than content with his condition at Ioannina, being treated in the kindest manner by the vizir, and rendered happy in the society of his daughters and their children; that he felt himself now grown too old for the cares of government, and that his domi |
