352 TKAYEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



rissa thrust his right hand under his cloak, and 

 seemed to clutch some weapon. Even the coun- 

 sellor's dame for a moment turned her eyes from the 

 jewels she was admiring to the anxious countenance 

 of the padre. 



"Your last exploit will bring you into trouble," 

 continued the latter to Jurissa. " You have gone be- 

 yond all bounds ; and a special ambassador has arrived 

 here from Venice." 



" Well ! " replied the Uzcoque surlily, " was not 

 the sack of doubloons sufficient fee to keep you at 

 your post ? " 



" I have but just left it," answered the monk, " and 

 you may thank me if the storm is averted for the 

 moment, although it must burst ere long. Before the 

 ambassador could obtain his audience, I hurried to 

 the archduke and chanted the old ditty; told him 

 you were the Maccabees of the century the bulwarks 

 of Christendom : that without you the Turks would 

 long since have been in Gradiska that the Vene- 

 tians, through fear and lust of gain, were hand and 

 glove with the followers of Mahomet and that it 

 was their own fault if you had to strike through 

 them to get at the infidel : that they cared little 

 about religion, so long as the convenience of their 

 traffic was not interfered with and that it would be 

 a sin and a shame to deprive himself of such valiant 

 defenders for the sake of obliging the republic. This, 

 and much more, did I say to his highness, Signer 



