Ali Pacha | Page 6

lawful wife, but the mother of the youngest, Veli,
was a slave. His origin was no legal bar to his succeeding like his
brothers. The family was one of the richest in the town of Tepelen,
whose name it bore, it enjoyed an income of six thousand piastres,
equal to twenty thousand francs. This was a large fortune in a poor
country, where, all commodities were cheap. But the Tepeleni family,
holding the rank of beys, had to maintain a state like that of the great
financiers of feudal Europe. They had to keep a large stud of horses,
with a great retinue of servants and men-at-arms, and consequently to
incur heavy expenses; thus they constantly found their revenue
inadequate. The most natural means of raising it which occurred to
them was to diminish the number of those who shared it; therefore the
two elder brothers, sons of the wife, combined against Veli, the son of
the slave, and drove him out of the house. The latter, forced to leave
home, bore his fate like a brave man, and determined to levy exactions

on others to compensate him for the losses incurred through his
brothers. He became a freebooter, patrolling highroads and lanes, with
his gun on his shoulder and his yataghan in his belt, attacking, holding
for ransom, or plundering all whom he encountered.
After some years of this profitable business, he found himself a wealthy
man and chief of a warlike band. Judging that the moment for
vengeance had arrived, he marched for Tepelen, which he reached
unsuspected, crossed the river Vojutza, the ancient Aous, penetrated the
streets unresisted, and presented himself before the paternal house, in
which his brothers, forewarned, had barricaded themselves. He at once
besieged them, soon forced the gates, and pursued them to a tent, in
which they took a final refuge. He surrounded this tent, waited till they
were inside it, and then set fire to the four corners. "See," said he to
those around him, "they cannot accuse me of vindictive reprisals; my
brothers drove me out of doors, and I retaliate by keeping them at home
for ever."
In a few moments he was his father's sole heir and master of Tepelen.
Arrived at the summit of his ambition, he gave up free-booting, and
established himself in the town, of which he became chief ago. He had
already a son by a slave, who soon presented him with another son, and
afterwards with a daughter, so that he had no reason to fear dying
without an heir. But finding himself rich enough to maintain more
wives and bring up many children, he desired to increase his credit by
allying himself to some great family of the country. He therefore
solicited and obtained the hand of Kamco, daughter of a bey of Conitza.
This marriage attached him by the ties of relationship to the principal
families of the province, among others to Kourd Pacha, Vizier of Serat,
who was descended from the illustrious race of Scander Beg. After a
few years, Veli had by his new wife a son named Ali, the subject of this
history, and a daughter named Chainitza.
Ire spite of his intentions to reform, Veli could not entirely give up his
old habits. Although his fortune placed him altogether above small
gains and losses, he continued to amuse himself by raiding from time to
time sheep, goats, and other perquisites, probably to keep his hand in.

This innocent exercise of his taste was not to the fancy of his
neighbours, and brawls and fights recommenced in fine style. Fortune
did not always favour him, and the old mountaineer lost in the town
part of what he had made on the hills. Vexations soured his temper and
injured his health. Notwithstanding the injunctions of Mahomet, he
sought consolation in wine, which soon closed his career. He died in
1754.

CHAPTER II
Ali thus at thirteen years of age was free to indulge in the impetuosity
of his character. From his early youth he had manifested a mettle and
activity rare in young Turks, haughty by nature and self-restrained by
education. Scarcely out of the nursery, he spent his time in climbing
mountains, wandering through forests, scaling precipices, rolling in
snow, inhaling the wind, defying the tempests, breathing out his
nervous energy through every pore. Possibly he learnt in the midst of
every kind of danger to brave everything and subdue everything;
possibly in sympathy with the majesty of nature, he felt aroused in him
a need of personal grandeur which nothing could satiate. In vain his
father sought to calm his savage temper; and restrain his vagabond
spirit; nothing was of, any use. As obstinate as intractable, he set at
defiance all efforts and all precautions. If they shut him