place of exile, accompanied by actors, Bohemian dancers, bear leaders,
and a crowd of prostitutes.

Thus attacked in the person of his most powerful son, Ali thought
to terrify his enemies by a daring blow. He sent three Albanians to
Constantinople to assassinate Pacho Bey. They fell upon him as he was
proceeding to the Mosque of Saint-Sophia, on the day on which the sultan
also went in order to be present at the Friday ceremonial prayer, and
fired several shots at him. He was wounded, but not mortally.

The assassins, caught red-handed, were hung at the gate of the Imperial
Seraglio, but not before confessing that they were sent by the Pacha of
Janina. The Divan, comprehending at last that so dangerous a man must be
dealt with at any cost, recapitulated all Ali's crimes, and pronounced a
sentence against him which was confirmed by a decree of the Grand Mufti.
It set forth that Ali Tepelen, having many times obtained pardon for his
crimes, was now guilty of high treason in the first degree, and that he
would, as recalcitrant, be placed under the ban of the Empire if he did
not within forty days appear at the Gilded Threshold of the Felicitous
Gate of the Monarch who dispenses crowns to the princes who reign in
this world, in order to justify himself. As may be supposed, submission
to such an order was about the last thing Ali contemplated. As he failed
to appear, the Divan caused the Grand Mufti to launch the thunder of
excommunication against him.

Ali had just arrived at Parga, which he now saw for the third time since
he had obtained it, when his secretaries informed him that only the rod
of Moses could save him from the anger of Pharaoh--a figurative mode of
warning him that he had nothing to hope for. But Ali, counting on his
usual luck, persisted in imagining that he could, once again,