MR. VAUDON COURT'S MISSION. 201 acquired a dissimulation perfectly impenetrable: falsity had become his habitual character, whilst his hardened soul never betrayed by the least external agitation the passion lurking within: moreover as he was accustomed to sacrifice without mercy his agents in those transactions which he was not willing to avow, a bloody and impervious veil covered all his manœuvres. In the commencement of his residence at Ioannina this officer proceeds to say, that he was deceived by the vizir's apparent symptoms of good faith, by the frankness of his protestations, and the calm physiognomy of his open countenance; but he soon began to entertain suspicions of his character and designs, by the solicitude shown to mislead him with regard to his military resources, by the discrepancy observable between his discourse and actions, by the constant fears expressed lest the French Emperor should demand the restoration of the ex-Venetian towns, by the merit he made of the fortress which he was constructing at Prevesa, and by the fluctuation of his projects regarding Parga and Santa Maura all which things proved that Ali had views and interests perfectly distinct from his allies; and he soon found that these centred in his own occupation of the septinsular republic at the conclusion of the war. Every subtile art was put in practice to discover whether Mons. Vaudoncourt possessed any secret order respecting such an arrangement: in the mean time Ali was constantly making a display of his services, agitating his presumed rights over the islands, which he affected to say constitute an integral part of the Epirotic territory, expressing his expectations of a recompense, or endeavouring at any rate to elicit a promise of reimbursement in case the cession of any place should be required. The colonel did not think proper to destroy these hopes, lest he should detach him at once from the French interests; and though he longed : 202 ALI'S VIEWS ON SANTA MAURA. to send a statement of his surmises to Marshal Marmont, he was restrained by knowing that his dispatches would be opened; and he was not in possession of a cipher. A single intercepted dispatch might have caused Ali to take measures injurious to the welfare of the Dalmatian army, while his ulterior views could do no harm; and the very belief felt throughout Europe that he was attached to the French cause might in reality prove beneficial to it. In the mean time the Vizir continued his exertions with extraordinary activity: he endeavoured to intrigue with the Tzamouriots and Paramithians, for the purpose of carrying Parga by a coup de main; but in this he failed. Under the direction of Colonel Vaudoncourt he threw up works round Ioannina, strengthened his serai of Litaritza, and constructed those forts and lines at Prevesa which seemed formidable when compared with Turkish fortifications in general: but his unconquerable avarice, and his insecurity with regard to indemnification, if the restoration of the place should be demanded, caused him to thwart his engineer in every plan: however as the object of this latter was only to keep the Russians in check, he submitted quietly to the vizir's caprices, and left him a work which was but in part constructed according to the rules of art. He now prosecuted the siege of Santa Maura with great activity, hoping to gain possession of it before any general cession should be made; as no one knew better the value of previous occupation. His army encamped on the beach of Playa, where the channel of the Dioryctos is narrowest; it consisted of eight thousand Albanians under command of his old general Usuf Araps; and to this were opposed on the side of the Russians about two thousand troops of the line, with a multitude of Suliots, augmented by numerous deserters who fled from Ali's injustice or tyranny. ADMIRAL DUCKWORTH'S EXPEDITION. 203 It is doubtful whether he would not have attained this object of his ardent wishes, had it not been for a welltimed diversion promoted by the Russians, which menaced the internal tranquillity of his states. This arose from a general insurrection of the Tzamouriots and Paramithians, in league with the pashas of Delvino and Berat; and if this latter had been a man of more decided character, Ali, instead of gaining Santa Maura, might have been driven out of Epirus. But he soon found means to divert Ibrahim from the alliance, and sowed dissensions amongst the others, or checked them by his arms. About this time our celebrated naval expedition sailed against Constantinople, the motives and conduct of which have been so mistaken and misrepresented by politicians on this side the water, that I think it right to state what opinions were entertained respecting it by those nearer to the scene of action. Russia, in all her enterprises and political schemes, ever kept her eye fixed upon the possessions of Turkey: she was also aware that she never could gain her point, unless England were willing to assist or unable to oppose her. In the year 1806 that great northern power saw a favourable opening in affairs of which she endeavoured eagerly to take advantage. Knowing that England was alarmed at the preponderating influence of Buonaparte, she entered into an alliance with her, offensive and defensive; and then succeeded in forcing Turkey into a contest, by demands which she never would have made had she not been sure of the assistance of her new ally. At the commencement of war a powerful Russian army took military possession of the important provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, and the very existence of the Turkish empire in Europe was threatened: nor was it 204 ADMIRAL DUCKWORTH'S EXPEDITION. long before England saw the ultimate aim of Russia; but she could not refuse her co-operation without a risk of throwing Alexander into the arms of Bonaparte; accordingly Admiral Duckworth received orders to advance with his fleet against the Dardanelles. That officer sent a frigate to Corfu, with an intimation to Admiral Siniavin that he expected his contingent, which was supposed to consist of about six ships of the line: instead of this however the Russian admiral immediately bent the sails of nearly thirty; which when our resident in that island observed, he instantly dispatched a confidential messenger overland, in the disguise of a Turkish dervish, to inform the British admiral of the fact; who, upon this intelligence, made all possible expedition, whilst his Russian ally delayed his course at the isles of Hydra, Spezie, and Poros, to procure additional vessels and to man his own. Admiral Siniavin was astounded when he met our fleet at the Dardanelles, returning from Constantinople, against which it had not fired a shot: by this circumstance, whether it may be styled a lucky incident or a masterly manœuvre, the Turkish capital was probably saved from that destruction to which it had been devoted by the cabinet of St. Petersburgh: had the Russian fleet been permitted to anchor before Constantinople, an immense force was prepared in the Black Sea to co-operate with it, and the armies on the Moldavian and Wallachian frontiers were ready to pour down upon their prey. The treaty of Tilsit took place soon after these events. ALI SENDS AN ENVOY TO TILSIT. 205 CHAPTER VIII. WHEN the armistice was concluded between Russia and France, Ali was still occupied in prosecuting the siege of Santa Maura, and endeavouring, like his predecessor Pyrrhus, to concentrate his power round the Ambracian gulf: but when this event took place, his French allies withdrew from the contest, and left him to his own resources. A Turk either has, or pretends to have, no notion of etiquette and delicacy of conduct; Ali therefore affected great surprise at what he termed a base desertion; discovered traits of extreme ill humour; and spread the most extraordinary rumours and alarms throughout Albania, being almost thrown off that balance which it was still necessary for him to keep: he dispatched however a messenger to the congress at Tilsit, endeavouring to gain by negotiation what he had failed to take by force. His envoy had formerly been in the service of Buonaparte himself: originally an Italian friar, and chief inquisitor at Malta, he accompanied the French army to Egypt, as interpreter of languages: on his return to Europe, after the battle of the Nile, he was taken |