"I do not wish to drag down with me," he exclaimed, "those who have come to visit me as friends; it is Kursheed, whom I have long regarded as my brother, his chiefs, those who have betrayed me, his whole army in short, whom I desire to follow me to the tomb--a sacrifice which will be worthy of my renown, and of the brilliant end to which I aspire." The envoys gazed at him with stupefaction, which did not diminish when Ali further informed them that they were not only sitting over the arch of a casemate filled with two hundred thousand pounds of powder, but that the whole castle, which they had so rashly occupied, was undermined.

"The rest you have seen," he said, "but of this you could not be aware.

My riches are the sole cause of the war which has been made against me, and in one moment I can destroy them.

Life is nothing to me, I might have ended it among the Greeks, but could I, a powerless old man, resolve to live on terms of equality among those whose absolute master I have been?
Thus, whichever way I look, my career is ended.
However, I am attached to those who still surround me, so hear my last resolve.

Let a pardon, sealed by the sultan's hands, be given me, and I will submit.