leaned half-fainting on his arm,
her eloquent looks said that which made Ibrahim's pulses thrill with
grateful rapture. Pressing her fondly to his bosom, he placed her on
the back of his faithful steed, and vaulted into the saddle. Snorting
as the vapour flew from his red nostrils, and neighing with mad
delight, the impatient animal threw out his iron hoofs into the air,
flew round the angle of the cliff, and joined erelong a dozen mounted
spearmen. Then, bending their headlong course towards the far east, in
a few seconds all had disappeared.

During this scene, which passed almost with the speed of thought, the
Proveditore, who was seated on a ledge of the cliff, had gazed
anxiously and wildly at the youthful stranger. He knew him in an
instant, and would have singled him out amidst thousands; but was so
overwhelmed by a rushing tide of strong and heartrending emotions,
that he could neither rise nor speak, and remained, long after the
Turk had disappeared, with out-stretched arms and straining eye-balls.

"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed the bewildered Antonio, half suspecting
the truth, "who was that daring youth?"

After a pause, and in tones broken and inarticulate, his father
answered--"Thy twin brother, Antonio! When a child he was stolen from
me by some Turks in Candia; and those who stole have given him their
own daring and heroic nature, for they are great and rising, while
Venice and her sons are falling and degenerate. Oh Ercole! my dear and
long-lost son--seen but a moment and then lost for ever!" ejaculated
the bereaved father, as, refusing all comfort, he folded his cloak
over his face and wept bitterly.

* * * * *

NOTE.--Shortly after these events, Venice, urged at last beyond all
endurance, took up arms against Austria on account of the protection
afforded by the latter power to the Uzcoques. The pirate vessels were
burned, Segna besieged and taken, the Uzcoques slain or dispersed. The
quarrel between Austria and the republic was put an end to by the
mediation of Spain shortly before the breaking out of the Thirty
Years' War.

"Ces miserables," says a distinguished French writer, speaking of the
Uzcoques, "furent bien plus criminels par la faute des puissances, que
par l'instinct de leur propre nature. Les Venetiens les aigrirent;
l'eglise Romaine prefera de les persecuter au devoir de les eclaircir;
la maison d'Autriche en fit les instruments de sa politique, et qua