"Then thou wilt not live with me?" asked Eminah, fixing her piteously entreating eyes upon her husband.
Ali shook his head in silence.
"Then I will die with thee!" cried the damsel, with a determined voice.
The pasha regarded her in amazement.
"I swear," cried Eminah, "that I will either go back with thee or die with thee here! Dost thou hear that noise? They are slamming to the iron gates from the outside. At this moment every exit is closed, so that even if I wished to escape from hence I could not. These doors can only open at a word from Ali, and they will only open once more. Either thou wilt go with me from hence or I will remain here with thee."
Ali pressed the damsel to his bosom. She lay clinging there like a tender blossom. He pressed his lips to that pale brow, and covering her gently and gradually with his silken caftan, he whispered in a scarcely audible voice:
"Be it so! be it so! Here we will die together!"
Early next morning a flourish of trumpets awoke the Lord of Janina, the Lord of the last tower of Janina. The herald of Kurshid Pasha was standing beneath the round windows, and delivered in a loud voice the general's message to Ali Pasha, whereby he summoned Tepelenti to surrender voluntarily on the strength of the solemn assurance confirmed by oath to his wife.
Tepelenti appeared at the window with Eminah reclining on his bosom.
"Go back to your master," he cried to the messenger, "and tell him that Ali and his wife have resolved to die here together. The moment an armed host enters the court-yard of this fortress I will immediately blow up the tower."