The Este orator, Niccolo’ Sadoleto, arrives in Valona. He is welcomed honorably by the Turks and immediately finds himself face to face with Grand Pasha Ahmed “the Toothless.” He immediately senses great hostility and the weakness of his arguments: the offer to exchange Turkish hostages clashes with the Grand Pasha’s total indifference. After three long hours, Sadoleto is finally dismissed. He hurries back to Apulia to deliver the bad news that there is no room for negotiation, and that the Grand Pasha “is a mortal enemy of the Lord King.”
