synonymous with condemnation, such a calumny might easily cause the
death of the innocent Zaidee. But if Ibrahim was weak and indolent, he
was also confiding and generous. He took the letters to his wife, who
had no difficulty in clearing herself, and who warned him against the
writer, whose object and plots she easily divined, so that this odious
conspiracy turned only to Ali's discredit. But the latter was not likely
either to concern himself as to what others said or thought about him
or to be disconcerted by a failure. He simply turned his machinations
against his other enemy, and arranged matters this time so as to avoid a
failure.

He sent to Zagori, a district noted for its doctors, for a quack who
undertook to poison Sepher Bey on condition of receiving forty
purses. When all was settled, the miscreant set out for Berat, and was
immediately accused by Ali of evasion, and his wife and children were
arrested as accomplices and detained, apparently as hostages for the
good behaviour of their husband and father, but really as pledges for
his silence when the crime should have been accomplished. Sepher Bey,
informed of this by letters which Ali wrote to the Pacha of Berat
demanding the fugitive, thought that a man persecuted by his enemy would
be faithful to himself, and took the supposed runaway into his service.
The traitor made skilful use of the kindness of his too credulous
protector, insinuated himself into his confidence, became his trusted
physician and apothecary, and gave him poison instead of medicine on
the very first appearance of indisposition. As soon as symptoms of death
appeared, the poisoner fled, aided by the emissaries of Ali, with
whom the court of Berat was packed, and presented himself at Janina to
receive the reward of his crime. Ali thanked him for his zeal, commended
his skill, and referred him to the treasurer. But the instant the wretch
left the seraglio in order to receive his recompense, he was seized