The day of vengeance not having fully arrived, he explained this breach of faith by declaring that the hostages had attempted to escape.
The popular credulity was satisfied by this explanation, and no one doubted the good faith of the pacha when he announced that he was going to Kardiki to establish a police and fulfil the promises he had made to the inhabitants.

Even the number of soldiers he took excited no surprise, as Ali was accustomed to travel with a very numerous suite.
After three days' journey, he stopped at Libokhovo, where his sister had resided since the death of Aden Bey, her second son, cut off recently by sickness.

What passed in the long interview they had no one knew, but it was observed that Chainitza's tears, which till then had flowed incessantly, stopped as if by magic, and her women, who were wearing mourning, received an order to attire themselves as for a festival.
Feasting and dancing, begun in Ali's honour, did not cease after his departure.
He spent the night at Chenderia, a castle built on a rock, whence the town of Kardiki was plainly visible.

Next day at daybreak Ali despatched an usher to summon all the male inhabitants of Kardiki to appear before Chenderia, in order to receive assurances of the pacha's pardon and friendship.
The Kardikiotes at once divined that this injunction was the precursor of a terrible vengeance: the whole town echoed with cries and groans, the mosques were filled with people praying for deliverance.

The appointed time arrived, they embraced each other as if parting for ever, and then the men, unarmed, in number six hundred and seventy, started for Chenderia.