ewels at the ball, having destroyed
Strasolda's hopes of obtaining her father's liberation through the
intervention of the archducal counsellors, the high-spirited maiden
resolved to execute a plan she had herself devised, and which,
although in the highest degree rash and hazardous, might still succeed
if favoured by circumstances and conducted with skill and decision.
This was to seize upon the person of a Venetian of note, in order to
exchange him for the Uzcoques then languishing in the dungeons of the
republic.

The Venetians were not yet aware that the much-dreaded woivode
Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by the Uzcoques
for their expeditions and surprises was usually the night; and this,
added to the custom of mask-wearing, was the cause that the features
of Dansowich were unknown to his captors. Nevertheless the striking
countenance and lofty bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of
those who were taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they
were persons of mark--suspicions which were not dissipated by their
reiterated denial of being any thing more than common Uzcoques. It was
this doubt which saved their lives; for their captors, instead of
hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the galleys, which was the
usual manner of disposing of Segnarese prisoners, took them to Venice,
and placed them at the disposal of the senate. All subsequent threats
and promises proved ineffectual to extort from the pirates an
acknowledgment of superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would
perhaps have ended in believing the account they gave of themselves,
had not the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if they
could ascertain that there was a chief among the prisoners, to obtain
from him, by torture or otherwise, confessions which might enable them
to prove to the Archduke the encouragement afforded by his counsellors
to the piracies of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every
possible pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the prisoners.
This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should not discover; and
her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the captivity of their leader
from becoming known among the pirates themselves. His daughter's
entreaties, and his own bette