counsellors, in whose hands you are
mere puppets. 'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you
were in league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your
misdeeds, and shared the profits of your aggressions on the subjects
of the Porte. They it was who caused the documents to be prepared,
with forged seals and signatures of the illustrious Signoria, which
were to serve as proofs of your lying assertions. Deny this, if you
can."

The beard and mustache of the old Uzcoque appeared to curl and bristle
with fury at the insulting imputations of the Proveditore. For a
moment he seemed about to fly at his interlocutor; his fingers
clutched and tore the straw upon which he was sitting; and his fetters
clanked as his whole frame shook with rage. After a brief pause, and
by a strong effort, he restrained himself, and replied calmly to the
taunting accusation of the Venetian.

"Why go so far," said he, "to seek for motives that may be found
nearer home? You seem to have forgotten how many times the Archduke
has compelled us to make restitution of booty wrested from Venetian
subjects. You forget, too, that it was in consequence of your
complaints he sent to the cruel Rabbata to control us--Rabbata whom we
slew in our wrath, for we are freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are
poor individually, it is because we yield up our booty into the hands
of our woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred
families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us, let her
remember the provocations received at her hands, the persecutions
which converted a band of heroes into a pirate horde, and which
changed our holy zeal against the enemies of the Cross into
remorseless hatred of all mankind. As to the forged seals and
signatures you talk of, and the deceptions practised on the Turks, if
such there were, they were the self-willed act of our woivodes, and in
no way instigated by Austria."

"Thou liest, Dansowich!" said the Proveditore sternly. "Did you not
proclaim and swear in the public market-place of the Austrian town of
Segna, that you were the friends and allies of Venice? This you would
never have dared to do, but with the approval and connivance of the
archducal government."

The eyes of the pirate sparkled with a strange and significant gleam
as the Proveditore recalled the circumstance to his recollection.

"Know ye not," said he with a grim smile, "whom ye have to thank for
that good office? 'Twas Da