THE PIRATES OF SEGNA. 361 



until the base Uzcoques plundered my baggage. How 

 thus quickly it passed from them to you, is as well 

 known to me as to yourself. But mark me, lady ! if 

 all these jewels are not delivered at my apartments in 

 the west wing of the castle ere midnight, I will de- 

 nounce your husband and his colleagues as long- 

 suspected and now-proved partakers with the Pirates 

 of Segna. And, should redress be denied me here, 

 the ambassador of Venice shall report this infamous 

 collusion before a higher tribunal in Vienna." 



Struck dumb by this terrible denunciation, the fair 

 culprit gasped for breath, and her evident distress 

 having been watched in growing wonder by the 

 assembled ladies and cavaliers, the latter began to 

 mutter threats of vengeance. One of them now 

 stepped forward, and, grasping the hilt of his rapier, 

 accused the Venetian of having insulted the wife of a 

 nobleman high in the councils of the archduke, when 

 the Proveditore, looking down upon the courtier with 

 that riveted and intensely piercing gaze which stag- 

 gers the beholder like a sudden blow, and may still 

 be noted in many of Titian's portraits, answered with 

 brief and startling emphasis 



" Signor ! you do me grievous wrong. 'Tis I, and 

 not the lady, who am the injured party." 



Awed by his gathering brow, and the settled, stern, 

 unsparing resolution which flashed from every fea- 

 ture, and indicated a man confident in his own re- 

 sources, the courtiers did involuntary homage to his 



