Part 10 (1/2)

At this, Gaskho Bey, foaming with rage, tore the sword out of Pehlivan's hand (where he had left his own sword he could not have said for the life of him), and, placing himself at the head of a band of Spahis, began to pursue the retreating foe.

Ali was proceeding quite leisurely towards the fortress, as if he did not trouble himself about his pursuers, although they were six times as numerous as his forces.

When Gaskho Bey had got within ear-shot, Tepelenti shouted back to him:

”Thou hast come to a bad place, brave Bey. This ground is mine, and what is beneath it is mine also, dost thou not know that yet?”

Gaskho Bey naturally did not understand a word of this till, at a gesture from Ali, a rocket flew up into the air, at which signal those inside the fortress suddenly exploded all the mines which had been dug under all the streets of the town. Tepelenti had prepared these during his fortunate days by piercing water conduits and making subterranean vaults large enough to hold great stores of gunpowder.

Ali rallied his own bands at the head of the bridge, and when, suddenly, the explosion burst forth along the whole length of the street, and the destroying flame tossed the pursuing squadrons into the air one after the other, he amused himself by contemplating the ruin from the top of the fort, and was the last who disappeared in the hidden tunnel. For a long time those in the fortress could hear the agonized cries of the vanquished. One-third of the besieging army had been destroyed in a single night. The rest quitted the accursed town, which seemed to have been built over h.e.l.l itself, and took up a position in the fields outside and on the heights of Lithanizza.

The rising sun revealed a horrible spectacle. The town of Janina no longer existed, the beautiful tall houses, the cupolaed mosques, the slender white minarets, the imposing barracks--where were they?

Instead of them, all that could be seen was a shapeless ma.s.s of piled-up ruins; here and there, on a dark background, scorched by flickering flames, a huddle-muddle of broken rafters, mangled corpses, charred black or gaping hideously open, lay scattered about amongst the rubbish, and from the mouth of a conduit at the side of the bastion there trickled sadly down into the lake a dark red stream, which wound its way in and out amongst the ruins.

”Poor children, how sweetly they are sleeping!”

Thus spoke Ali.

In a corner of the red tower, sleeping side by side, were the two Suliote kinsfolk, Artemis and Kleon. They slept in each other's embrace, and not even the gaze of Ali awoke them.

”Don't arouse them,” said Ali to his dumb eunuchs; ”let them sleep on!”

And again he regarded them with a smile--they slept so soundly. And yet they knew not when they fell asleep whether they would ever awake again.

Ali did not arouse the slumberers. Thrice he sent to see if they had awakened, but he would not have them disturbed. At last the hand of the youth made his chain clank, and both of them opened their eyes at the sound.

”I was on my way to Akro-Corinth,” said he, rubbing his large dreamy eyes with his hands, ”and I saw them rebuilding the Parthenon.”

”I stood at Thermopylae,” said the girl, ”and the enemy fell before me by thousands.”

”And now we shall go to the block,” sighed Kleon, listening as the iron doors of his dungeon slowly opened.

”Be strong!” whispered the girl, pressing the hand of her brother which was enlaced in hers.

The dumb eunuchs surrounded them, and led them before Ali Pasha.

The pasha was sitting on a divan, and still wore his funeral robe; all the furniture was shrouded with cinder-colored cloth; there was nothing golden, nothing that sparkled in the room.

The brother and sister stood before him, pressing each other's hands.

”My dear children,” said the pasha, in a voice that trembled with emotion, ”don't look into each other's eyes, but look at me!”

At this unusual tone, at these kindly words, the brother and sister did look at him, and perceived that the old man was looking at them sadly, doubtfully, and that his eyes were full of tears.

Ali beckoned to the eunuchs, and they freed the brother and sister from their chains.

”Behold, ye are free, and may return to your homes,” said Ali.

These words had the effect of an electric shock upon the youth, and his face lit up with a flush of joy.