by Ali, on his scandalous exactions, and on the enormous sums diverted
from the Imperial Treasury. By overhauling the accounts of his
administration, millions might be recovered. To these financial
considerations Pacho Bey added some practical ones. Speaking as a man
sure of his facts and well acquainted with the ground, he pledged his
head that with twenty thousand men he would, in spite of Ali's troops
and strongholds, arrive before Janina without firing a musket.

However good these plans appeared, they were by no means to the taste
of the sultan's ministers, who were each and all in receipt of large
pensions from the man at whom they struck. Besides, as in Turkey it is
customary for the great fortunes of Government officials to be absorbed
on their death by the Imperial Treasury, it of course appeared easier
to await the natural inheritance of Ali's treasures than to attempt
to seize them by a war which would certainly absorb part of them.
Therefore, while Pacho Bey's zeal was commended, he obtained only
dilatory answers, followed at length by a formal refusal.

Meanwhile, the old AEtolian, Paleopoulo, died, having prophesied the
approaching Greek insurrection among his friends, and pledged Pacho Bey
to persevere in his plans of vengeance, assuring him that before long
Ali would certainly fall a victim to them. Thus left alone, Pacho,
before taking any active steps in his work of vengeance, affected to
give himself up to the strictest observances of the Mohammedan religion.
Ali, who had established a most minute surveillance over his actions,
finding that his time was spent with ulemas and dervishes, imagined that
he had ceased to be dangerous, and took no further trouble about him.