362 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



loftier spirit, and gave way. The proud Venetian 

 strode through the yielding circle and quitted the 

 hall, while the counsellor's wife, pleading illness and 

 fatigue in reply to the pointed and numerous ques- 

 tions of surrounding friends and enemies, sum- 

 moned her husband to attend her, and retired to her 

 apartments. 



Meanwhile the young Moslem and his companion 

 in misfortune, who had been brought prisoners to 

 Gradiska, were confined in one of the massive towers 

 which flanked the castle. They had arrived not long 

 before the commencement of the festival, and when 

 going under guard along a corridor in the east wing, 

 Ibrahim passed the open door of an apartment in 

 which Strasolda was adjusting the rich jewels of the 

 counsellor's lady before her appearance in the ball- 

 room. Startled by the approaching tramp of armed 

 men, the Uzcoque maiden raised her eyes, and beheld 

 the noble and well-remembered features of the young 

 Turk, whose captive she had been, and whose image 

 had so strangely reappeared to her through the flit- 

 ting cloud of smoke in the cavern. "Mother of 

 heaven ! " she exclaimed, covering her eyes with her 

 hands ; " do I again behold that Moslem youth, ever 

 appearing when least expected ? " Again she gazed ; 

 but the prisoners, hurried onward by their guards, 

 had proceeded to the end of the corridor, where a 

 narrow winding staircase, fashioned in the immense 

 thickness of the tower wall, led to their appointed 



