war waged against him, and these might induce his own soldiers to rebel,
in order to become masters of them. He resolved to protect them from
either surprise or conquest. The sum necessary for present use was
deposited in the powder magazine, so that, if driven to extremity,
it might be destroyed in a moment; the remainder was enclosed in
strong-boxes, and sunk in different parts of the lake. This labour
lasted a fortnight, when, finally, Ali put to death the gipsies who
had been employed about it, in order that the secret might remain with
himself.

While he thus set his own affairs in order, he applied himself to the
troubling those of his adversary. A great number of Suliots had joined
the Ottoman army in order to assist in the destruction of him who
formerly had ruined their country. Their camp, which for a long time had
enjoyed immunity from the guns of Janina, was one day overwhelmed with
bombs. The Suliots were terrified, until they remarked that the bombs
did not burst. They then, much astonished, proceeded to pick up and
examine these projectiles. Instead of a match, they found rolls of paper
enclosed in a wooden cylinder, on which was engraved these words, "Open
carefully." The paper contained a truly Macchiavellian letter from Ali,
which began by saying that they were quite justified in having taken up
arms against him, and added that he now sent them a part of the pay
of which the traitorous Ismail was defrauding them, and that the bombs
thrown into their cantonment contained six thousand sequins in gold. He
begged them to amuse Ismail by complaints and recriminations, while his
gondola should by night fetch one of them, to whom he would communicate
what more he had to say. If they accepted his proposition, they were to
light three fires as a signal.

The signal was not long in appearing. Ali despatched his barge, which