He then ordered the Mirdite prince, Kyr Lekos, to advance with an escort of twenty-five men, and when within hearing distance to wave a blue flag and call out the password.

An Imperial officer replied with the countersign "flouri," and Lekos immediately sent back word to Ali to advance.

His orderly hastened back, and the prince entered the camp, where he and his escort were immediately surrounded and slain.
On receiving the message, Ali began to advance, but cautiously, being uneasy at seeing no signs of the Mirdite troop.

Suddenly, furious cries, and a lively fusillade, proceeding from the vineyards and thickets, announced that he had fallen into a trap, and at the same moment Omar Pacha fell upon his advance guard, which broke, crying "Treason!" Ali sabred the fugitives mercilessly, but fear carried them away, and, forced to follow the crowd, he perceived the Kersales and Baltadgi Pacha descending the side of Mount Paktoras, intending to cut off his retreat.
He attempted another route, hastening towards the road to Dgeleva, but found it held by the Tapagetae under the Bimbashi Aslon of Argyro-Castron.

He was surrounded; all seemed lost, and feeling that his last hour had come, he thought only of selling his life as dearly as possible.