his father, as if overwhelmed by this imperious message, calmed down,
and obeyed.

"Come hither, Mouktar," said the pacha, extending his murderous hand to
be kissed as soon as his son appeared. "I shall take no notice of your
anger, but in future never forget that a man who braves public opinion
as I do fears nothing in the world. You can go now; when your troops
have rested from their march, you can come and ask for orders. Go,
remember what I have said."

Mouktar retired as submissively as if he had just received pardon for
some serious crime, and found no better consolation than to spend the
night with Veli in drinking and debauchery. But a day was to come when
the brothers, alike outraged by their father, would plot and carry out a
terrible vengeance.

However, the Porte began to take umbrage at the continual aggrandisement
of the Pacha of Janina. Not daring openly to attack so formidable a
vassal, the sultan sought by underhand means to diminish his power, and
under the pretext that Ali was becoming too old for the labour of so
many offices, the government of Thessaly was withdrawn from him, but, to
show that this was not done in enmity, the province was entrusted to his
nephew, Elmas Bey, son of Suleiman and Chainitza.

Chainitza, fully as ambitious as her brother, could not contain her
delight at the idea of governing in the name of her son, who was weak
and gentle in character and accustomed to obey her implicitly. She
asked her brother's permission to go to Trikala to be present at the
installation, and obtained it, to everybody's astonishment; for no
one could imagine that Ali would peacefully renounce so important a