crushing the desolate? Will she sell the bruized slave at her own doors? ZAVELLAS. No nation, O Kaido, is capable of this turpitude: escape with honour were alike impossible: surrender was unthought of. She exhorted them to die with her: they were passive and silent, placed themselves on some chests of cartouches at her side, and shared with her the death of Samuel. Noti and Kizzo Bozzaris had withdrawn in good time from Suli to Vurgarelli, had opened to themselves the pass of Athanasia, forced the gorge of Theodosia, and, after fighting two days incessantly, pressed forward to the bridge of Coracos, the termination (as they imagined) of their march. It was however commanded by a Turkish battery. No hope was left to them, but of occupying the rock and monastery of Veternizza. This they accomplished; and many were the Turks who fell in striving to dislodge them from it. As however there were no provisions, nor means of obtaining any, another attack was made against the bridge. In the attempt to force the barricade, nearly the whole troop was slain. The women saw nothing now between them and the Turks: husbands, brothers, were called upon in vain; no voice of pity, none of encouragement, none of acknowledgement, was heard. Not all even of the children were surviving; for some had been slain while held up that the fathers might see them, and the rest were no comfort, but a curse. Two hundred mothers ran with their infants and little boys to where the river was deeper, just above, and commanding their daughters to cling to them inseparably, if they ever loved them, and if that which distinguishes the Suliot women above all others, is dear and sacred. Never were they more obedient. none would wish it: none, wishing it, could accomplish it. Rather than be delivered over to the Infidel, the Pargans would dig up again the bones of their forefathers, carry them in their bosoms, The traveller who may see hereafter the whirlpools of the Achelous, will shudder: they did not. Noti Bozzaris had fainted after his fifth wound, and was dragged into the dungeon of Jannina. Kizzo and ten more escaped. Photo Zavellas and Kaido, with Dimo Draco and Zima Zervas, forced their way thro the defiles, retreated to Parga, and afterward were received with the compassion and the honours due to them in the Ionian Isles, not yet under British commissioners and continental counsels. Parga and they were doomed to be no longer the refuge of the free or the unfortunate. The first time a whole Christian people was ever sold openly by another Christian people to the Mahometan, was by England in the nineteenth century, on the thirteenth of March 1817. On the ninth of May at sunset the British flag was struck from the walls of Parga. An account of the transfer is given by Colonel de Bosset, witness to the treaty (as far as the treaty had witnesses) between the Bashaw and the Lord High Commissioner: a second, no less interesting and curious, was published by Mustoxidi. The following lines express the sentiments of an expatriated Pargan. Mountains and winding vallies, that unfold Your freshest verdure and first flowers, farewell! Go, native land.. the Briton's slave. . be sold!.. To other times let other voices tell, By riches unsubdued, by force unbowed, What ages thou hast stood, and yet shouldst stand, and plunge with them from the summits of the rocks into the sea. I too have a country: if I cannot save her, I may at least obey her. The injury I have received (but indeed it should never be called so) only raises my heart the higher. Thanks to them who have given me a power, a victory, I could not have gained without them. Promise them my duty. KAIDO. From these arms then God receive thee into his! ZAVELLAS. Courage courage! weak lingering Kaido!.. pray to him for the soul of Zavellas. . for the safety of better men. |