1803. 1804. Jan. A.D. Vourgareli, and thither the arms of the Pacha were promptly directed. These, however, on the first news of the affair of Reniassa, had retired, by the advice of Kitzo Botzaris, who had joined them after the defeat at Tzalongo, to a monastery named Seltzo, on the banks of the Achelous, about eight hours distant from their first position. Here they were attacked A.D. in the spring of 1804 by an army of 7000 men, chosen, to sharpen their cruelty, from the friends and relations of those who had fallen in the wars of Suli, and commanded by two of Ali's most ferocious lieutenants, Hago Muchardar and Bekir Tziogaduri.* Offensive measures were, however, still ineffectual evenagainst the scattered remnants of this warlike race; the Turks were worsted in every encounter, and it was only after a siege of three months that they succeeded in expelling them from their quarters, and bringing the matter to a decisive issue. On the 20th of April, o. s. they came to a general engagement on the heights above the Achelous; the Turks had possession of the rising ground, and their impetuous onset soon threw the Suliots into disorder. They were but 1000 in number, and of these only 300 were capable of bearing arms, the remainder consisting of women and May Giocatore, so surnamed from his addiction to play. little children. Of the entire, only fifty-five, amongst whom was Kitzo Botzaris, succeeded in escaping, and made their way to Parga;* These, and the other Suliots who had previously taken refuge at Parga, passed over, after a little delay, to Corfu, where they were hospitably received by the Russians, and quartered at the town of Lefkimo and the island of Paxo. But deprived of their wonted pursuits, and possessed of no trades or professions whereby to gain a livelihood, they were for a length of time beset by all the miseries of indigence and disease. Towards the close of the year 1804 they were invited by Hassan Tzapari, of Margariti, to return to. Epirus, and lend their assistance in a war which he and some of the neighbouring Beys were about to commence against their old enemy Ali Pacha. They complied on the terms of being first assisted by him in recovering Suli, but in this they were deceived: Hassan led them to the conquest, not of their native mountains, but of his own villages, which had been wrested from him by the Pacha; and disgusted with their treatment, and finding all chance of recapturing Suli hopeless, they abandoned his service, and withdrew to Parga. In 1805 they were again invited to the Ionian Islands by the Russian General Anrep, and with about 500 other Greeks formed into a corps of light chasseurs, in which the distinguished Suliots were appointed commissioned officers. Tzavellas and his mother, Mosco, were both enrolled, the one as Major, the other as a Captain, but they shortly after resigned, and Photo, having passed over to Joannina, made the pooкvvnos,t or act of submission, to Ali, and received the command of a body of Armatoli, in See vol. i. of this History, c. xi. p. 419. A.D. 1804. 1804. A.D. the others, hemmed in by the river, were butchered by the Turks, with the exception of about 200, who cut their own throats, in which service he died, in 1809, at the age of thirty-six.* In 1806, during the rupture between Russia and France, the Albanian regiment accompanied the former to Naples, and after the peace of Tilsit, in 1807, it was transferred to the French, who took possession of Corfu, and was placed under the orders of Colonel Minot. Finally, when the English had got possession of the Republic of the Seven Islands, its leaders swore allegiance to his Britannic Majesty, but made a reservation in favour of Russia as the only country against which they would never serve. The chief command was then transferred to Colonel Church, an officer whose name will ever be honourably associated with the history of Modern Greece; and Chrestaky, a Chimariot, and Theodore Colocotroni, the Moreot Kleft, held commissions as Majors. The corps continued in existence till 1814, when it was disbanded by Sir Thomas Maitland, Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian republic. The officers and soldiers received each one year's pay, and the latter, accustomed to no other profession than that of arms, were induced to pass over into Epirus and enter into the service of Ali, who, already trembling for the security of his dominions, in consequence of the determination of the Sultan Mahmoud to destroy all the powerful Pachas of his empire, was now as anxious to conciliate as he had once been to * Chaïdo, sister to Tzavellas, was attached to the expedition of the Russian Admiral Siniavin, and acted with distinguished bravery at the attack on Tenedos, in 1807. Rizo, 1804. the midst of the enemy, or plunged into the A.D. impetuous current of the Achelous, rather than fall into their hands.* These affairs accomplished, Ali set out in person to inspect the fortifications of Suli, and to destroy the Armatolics. Their subsequent exploits will be detailed elsewhere. Kitzo Botzaris, I may add here, remained in the service of the French at Corfu till 1813, in spite of all the solicitations and offers of Ali Pacha to induce him to return to Epirus. His affections, however, were still centred in his deserted home; and it was remarked by his companions, that the melancholy, which preyed upon his spirits, seemed never for a moment to abandon him. By them he was rather pitied than condemned; his early errors were the result of his father's crime, and his later heroism had amply expiated the faults of his youth. At length, about the time I have mentioned, he repaired privately to Arta, with his son Marco, the Leonidas of Modern Greece. The object of his visit was said by some to be the recovery of a valuable booty which he had concealed at the period of his flight from Vourgareli, but his real design was never known. In his voyage he had been watched by the spies of Ali Pacha, the house where he halted at Arta was beset by them on the night of his arrival, and Botzaris, as he sat at supper, was murdered by the assassins of the tyrant. The regret of his countrymen for his death, and their admiration of his valour, are recorded in one of the Kleftic Ballads preserved in the Collection of M. Fauriel, v. ii. p. 344. Hughes, v. ii. p. 169. Perevos, v. ii. pp. 43-94. Rizo, pp. 197, 206, 246. Pouqueville, v. i. p. 247, &c. * Perevos, v. ii. p. 48. Pouqueville, v. i. p. 211. Carrel, p. 229. Dufey, v. i. p. 167. 1304. A.D. preside at the execution of the last victims who had been captured by his troops. For eight days the carnage was incessant, and by the light of the conflagration which reduced the villages of the Selleide to ruins, nothing was to be seen but racks, gibbets, executioners, and victims. One favourite mode of torture was to force gunpowder into the ears of the captives and tear open their cheeks by exploding it; the women were violated and hurled from the rocks into the stream of the Acheron, the children were sold for the harems of the Turks, and the tenth of the prisoners were assigned as slaves to the executioners of their friends. his appetite for blood began to pall, the Vizir, to change the scene, returned with the remnant of his prisoners to Joannina, where he renewed the work of torture. Impalements and slow fires, at which the agonized wretches were consuming, were to be encountered at every turning; the Pacha himself directed and assisted at every execution, and when fatigue compelled him to retire, a Suliot, whose skull had been stripped of the flesh, was compelled by whips to pace before the windows of his palace, in order to glut the wearied monster with his torments.† * Life of Ali Pacha, p. 139. As †Three children, of extraordinary beauty, a girl and her |