Yet in his lineaments ye cannot trace
While gentleness her Milder radiance throws
Along that aged venerable face
The deeds that lurk beneath, & stain him with disgrace

Fig. 1: Illustration from the English translation of the History of Suli and Parga by Christophoros Perraivos.

On my having paid him some slight compliment, Ali received me with so much courtesy of speech and of manner, that, had I not been certain, from general report, that he was a most barbarous and cruel man, and if, before entering his palace, I had not, in seeing fastened up on stakes some heads still dropping with blood, been a witness of his barbarity, I would have formed the most favourable opinion of him, and would have looked on him as the gentlest and most agreeable of men.

Carlo Gherardini, Italian translator of the History of Suli and Parga