Skanderbeg's speech!?

Fan Noli (part of the "History of Skanderbeg")

Skanderbeg, after receiving the usual congratulations, left this speech to the chiefs and the gathered people, according to Barleti:

"Captains and brave soldiers: The sight I have before my eyes today is neither new nor unexpected.

As I remembered you, I found you, simple great-grandsons of an ancient and generous race, brave and unswervingly loyal to your fatherland. Although I am happy now that I can open my heart to you. I tell you without boasting that as long as I have lived, I have always had this longing for the homeland and this love for freedom.

When you invited me for this work from the recovery of the Sultan, I had the same desire in my heart that you also had.

Nofta went out of your mind that I had forgotten both the homeland and freedom when I returned you poisoned without giving you any hope, and without showing you any sense of physicality and magnanimity.

Yes, I behaved in such a way that your salvation and mine wanted it, that the work was such that it had to be done, and not said, that I saw that you needed a rein rather than a postponement.

I hid my plans from you and I didn't show you the desire I had in my heart for so many years, not because I didn't trust you, not because I didn't know your soul, as soon as you were the first to raise your voice and start this dance, but because the work had to be done regretted deeply, that the means had to be found, that the time had to be chosen well.

Otherwise, blood would have been shed in vain, and the end would be a worse slavery than before, even then every hope for the future was flying, that a work like this starts once and for all, and if not well, the chance and the means to restart it are gone and never come back.

Therefore, I did not tell my plan even to myself, and I was careful not to let my tongue slip and the walls should not hear me.

I have my grandson Hamza as a witness, who I have had as a supporter, advisor, and comrade in arms with a few others, with whose loyalty we put this plan into action.

Now, although we lived and ate land, and we had one heart and one soul, with all this, none of them had ever heard me mention the country, freedom and Christianity, until the occasion came in the battle of Nish.

You could have won your freedom with your bravery and with a liberating sword, because Albania does not lack men, but you liked to receive it from my hand, even though it was late, because that's how the great lord himself wanted it.

For it is indeed a wonder that brave haughty men like you, brought up in freedom, endured so long the captivity of the barbarians, expecting to see me one day at your head.

But do I deserve this beautiful title of liberator that you are kind enough to give me?

I did not bring you freedom, I found it here among you. As soon as I set foot here, as soon as you heard my name, all of you came to me faster, as if your fathers, brothers and sons had risen from the graves, as if God himself had descended from heaven.

Receive me with such love and joy, give me such precious and innumerable services, that you made me more your slave than I was your free.

I didn't give you this fortress and this city, you gave it to me, I didn't pack your weapons, I found you armed, you had freedom everywhere, on your chest, on your forehead, in your sword, and in your arms, as faithful guards, appointed by me, you put this crown on my head, you gave me this sword in my hand, you made me the head of this principality, which you have preserved for me with so much faith, with so much care and with so much effort.

Use it now, with God's help, to liberate the whole of Albania.

Most of the work, almost all the work is done. Kruja and its entire province were won, Dibra and the highlands joined us, the enemy did not have a name or a sign left in our fields, only the fortresses remain.

I hope we will take these with grace and grace, with fox and bravery, although the Turkish garrisons are strong, and the castles are placed on rugged and inaccessible rocks. The enemy is desperately surrounded and only the walls of the fortresses remain.

Yes, for these we will be advised, and we will end up better, when we get to the vent, even when we have weapons in hand and the enemy in front of us, than now from afar and without knowing what we are facing.

We'll start from Petrela first, not that it's easier to win. In spite of this, it is a fortress by nature, and has a strong garrison.

It is located closer to the capital, and I am sure that the good news of the events of Kruja has reached there, and it has frozen the blood of the enemies.

Terrified by your bravery and by the destruction of the garrison of Kruja, nofta will give us the fort with the best.

If not, we will force them to give us the worst. You just have to keep one thing in mind:
If we don't get Petrella, none of us should come back alive.

So raise the flag forward, and be men as always. God, as before, so and hereafter will help us and make us white-cheeked. O men!"