Their camp, which for a long time had enjoyed immunity from the guns of Janina, was one day overwhelmed with bombs.

The Suliots were terrified, until they remarked that the bombs did not burst.

They then, much astonished, proceeded to pick up and examine these projectiles.

Instead of a match, they found rolls of paper enclosed in a wooden cylinder, on which was engraved these words, "Open carefully." The paper contained a truly Macchiavellian letter from Ali, which began by saying that they were quite justified in having taken up arms against him, and added that he now sent them a part of the pay of which the traitorous Ismail was defrauding them, and that the bombs thrown into their cantonment contained six thousand sequins in gold.

He begged them to amuse Ismail by complaints and recriminations, while his gondola should by night fetch one of them, to whom he would communicate what more he had to say.