to know the names of some of the great European powers, had caused his pachas to take the field with strong armaments for the extermination of this nest of pirates.  These expeditions were certainly not disadvantageous to the Porte, which seized the opportunity of annexing to its dominions some large slices of Hungarian and Venetian territory; but their ostensible object remained unaccomplished, and the proverbial salutation of the time, “God save you from the Uzcoques!” was still on the lips of every one.

The word “Uzcoque,” by which this dreaded people was known, had grown into a sound of mourning and panic to the inhabitants of the shores and islands of the Adriatic.  At the utterance of that fearful name, young girls crowded together like frightened doves; the child hid its terrified face in its mother’s lap; the eyes of the matron overflowed with tears as the images of murdered sons and outraged daughters passed before her mind’s eye, and, like Banquo’s ghost, filled the vacant seats at the table; while the men gazed anxiously out, expecting to see their granaries and store-houses in flames.  Nor were the seaman’s apprehensions less lively, when night surprised him with some valuable cargo in the neighbourhood of the pirates’ haunts.  Every rock, each tree, and bush became an object of dread; the very ripple of the waves on the shingle a sound of alarm.  To his terrified fancy, a few leafless and projecting branches assumed the appearance of muskets, a point of rock became the prow of one of those light, sharp-built boats in which the Uzcoques were wont to dart like seabirds upon their prey; and, invoking his patron saint, the frightened sailor crossed himself, and with a turn of the rudder brought his vessel yet nearer to the Venetian galleys that escorted the convoy.

At the cry “Uzcoque” the slender active Albanian grasped his fire-lock, with rage and hatred expressed on his bearded countenance:  the phlegmatic Turk sprang in unwonted haste from his carpet; his pipe and coffee were neglected, his women and treasures secured in the harem, while he shouted for the Martellossi,[3] and slipping them like dogs from a leash, sent them to the encounter of their foes on the devastated plains of Cardavia.  In the despatches from Madrid, from the ministers of that monarch on whose dominions the sun never set, to his ambassadors, the name of these seven hundred outlaws occupied a frequent and prominent place.  But by none were the Uzcoques more feared and detested than by the greyheaded doge and senators of the Ocean Queen, the sea-born city, before whose cathedral the colours of three kingdoms fluttered from their crimson flagstaffs; and the few young Venetians in whose breasts the remembrance of their heroic ancestors yet lived, blushed for their country’s degradation when they beheld her rulers braved and insulted by a band of sea-robbers.