340 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AN'D SPORT. 



they went along, they at last reached the fortress of 

 Clissa, situated in the mountains, a few miles from 

 the old Eoman town of Spalatro. There, with the 

 permission of its owner, Pietro Crosichio, they estab- 

 lished themselves, forming one of the outposts of 

 Christendom, and thence carried on a war of exter- 

 mination against the Turks, to whom they did a 

 degree of injury that would appear quite incom- 

 mensurate with the smaUness of their numbers. The 

 name of Uzcoque soon became known throughout the 

 Adriatic as the synonym of a gallant warrior, till at 

 length the Turks, driven nearly frantic by the ex- 

 ploits of this handful of brave men, fitted out a strong 

 expedition and laid siege to Clissa, with the double 

 object of getting rid of a troublesome foe, and of ad- 

 vancing another step into Christian Europe. 



The different powers who had benefited greatly, 

 although indirectly, by the enterprising valour of the 

 Uzcoques, neglected to give them the smallest assist- 

 ance in their hour of peril. After an heroic defence, 

 Clissa fell into the hands of the Turks, and a scanty 

 and disheartened remnant of its brave defenders fled 

 northward to seek some new place of refuge. This 

 they found in the fortress of Segna, then belonging 

 to a Count Frangipani, who allowed them to occupy 

 it ; and at the same time, Ferdinand the First of 

 Austria bethought himself, although somewhat tar- 

 dily, that the Uzcoques had deserved better at his 

 hands, and at those of other Christian princes, than 



