398 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AlsD SPORT. 



What was its object ? A hostage ? Ay, I see it all, 

 and our prisoner is none other than Dansowich him- 

 self. But we must have proof of that from his own 

 confession ; and this portrait may help to extort it." 



Whilst uttering these broken sentences, which were 

 totally incomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, 

 the Proveditore had donned his mantle, and placed 

 his plumed cap upon his head. 



" No, Antonio," said he, " we will not destroy this 

 picture, hideous though it be. It may prove the 

 means of rendering weighty service to the republic." 



And with these words, inexplicable to his son, the 

 Proveditore left the apartment ; and, taking with him 

 the mysterious portrait, hastened to the prison where 

 the Uzcoque leader was immured. 



The pirate chief was a man of large and athletic 

 frame, of strong feelings, and great intellectual capa- 

 bilities. His brow was large, open, and commanding ; 

 his countenance, bronzed with long exposure to the 

 elements, and scarred with wounds, was repulsive, 

 but by no means ignoble ; his hair and beard had 

 long been silvered over by time and calamity; but 

 his vast bodily strength was unimpaired, and when 

 roused into furious resentment, his manly chest 

 emitted a volume of sound that awed every listener. 

 Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances more 

 favourable to the fair development of his natural 

 powers and dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would 

 have become one of the most distinguished and ad- 



