breaking furiously through the line of Venetian
ships, stationed between Veglia and the mainland, and which were
totally unprepared for this sudden and daring manoeuvre, they
disappeared amidst the shoals and in the small creeks and inlets of
the Dalmatian islands belonging to the republic, where the ponderous
Venetian galleys would vainly attempt to follow them. Their object was
the same which they had already attempted to carry out in Venice on
the day of the Bridge Fight; namely, to seize upon some Venetian
magistrate or person of importance whom they might exchange for
Dansowich. Under the guidance of Jurissa Caiduch they waylaid and
boarded every vessel that passed up or down the Adriatic, especially
those coming from the Ionian islands, in hope of meeting with a
Venetian of rank. Nor did they pursue their researches upon the water
alone. Not a night passed that one or other of the islands was not
lighted up by the blaze of villages, hamlets, and villas. In the
absence of Dansowich, there was no restraint upon their fury; and
urged on by the bloodthirsty Jurissa, the cruelties they committed
were unprecedented even in their sanguinary annals. Nor were they
without hope that the barbarities they were perpetrating might induce
the Venetians to restore their leader to liberty, in order that he
might, as was well known to be his wont, check the excesses of his
followers.

The outbreak of the pirates had been so sudden and unexpected, that
the Proveditore, who sailed from Venice on the same day on which it
occurred, had received no intelligence of it, and, unconscious of his
peril, steered straight for the islands. One circumstance alone
appeared strange to him, which was, that during the last part of his
voyage he did not meet a single vessel, although the quarter of the
Adriatic through which he was passing was usually crowded with
shipping. But he was far from attributing this extraordinary change to
its real cause.

It was afternoon when Marcello's galley cane in sight of the white
cliffs of Cherso, and shortly afterwards entered the channel, running
between that island and Veglia. The masses of dark clouds in the
western horizon were becoming momentarily more threatening, and
various signs of an approaching storm made the captain of the galley
especially anxious to get, before nightfall, into the nearest harbour,
which was that of Pesca, at the southern extremity of the island of
Veglia. All sail was made upon