THE PIRATES OF SEGNA. 333 



and fire the cavern ! Let the elements do battle for 

 us. Perchance by their aid the bark of your leader 

 Dansowich may yet escape its foes and reach the 

 haven." 



Immediately after these words, which made the 

 two Moslems quail, the pirate's daughter hastily 

 entered the cavern with a blazing torch, the flashes of 

 which awakened from slumber into life and glow the 

 various tints of mosses, lichens, and stalactites in- 

 numerable that studded the ample vault. In this 

 flitting and singular illumination, the appearance of 

 the Uzcoque maiden was awful. Above the common 

 stature of woman, and finely formed, she was attired 

 in a white woollen garment, carelessly adjusted and 

 confined at the waist by a broad red girdle, from 

 which it fell in long and graceful folds to her feet 

 Her face was a perfect oval ; her features of regular 

 and striking beauty; her complexion, naturally of 

 that clear rich brown, which lends more lustre to the 

 eyes than the purest red and white, was now ghastly 

 with intense alarm ; and this death -like paleness im- 

 parted a more prominent and commanding character 

 to her well-defined, jet-black brows, and the full, 

 dark, humid eyes, which gleamed like brilliants 



hollow of the cliffs. The mysterious operation of this fire 

 was to heat the veins of the earth, which then, through pain 

 or fury, sent out the raging hurricanes that rendered those 

 narrow seas in the highest degree dangerous, and indeed 

 untenable." 



