THE PIRATES OF SEGNA. 403 



hair is silvered by time, and even should you escape 

 your present peril, you will still, ere many years are 

 past, have to render an account to a higher tribunal 

 than ours. By an upright course you might atone 

 for the crimes of your youth and manhood, and be- 

 come the chosen instrument of Heaven to deliver 

 your fellow-Christians from a cruel scourge and sore 

 infliction." 



" And who has brought the scourge upon you 1 " 

 demanded the old man in a raised voice, measuring 

 the Proveditore with a stern and contemptuous look. 

 " Is it our fault that, whilst we were striving to keep 

 the Turk from the door of Christendom, you sought 

 every means of thwarting our efforts by forming 

 treaties with the infidel ? You do well to remind me 

 that my head is grey. I was still a youth when the 

 name of Uzcoque was a title of honour as it is now a 

 term of reproach when my people were looked upon 

 as heroes, by whose valour the Cross was exalted and 

 the Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were 

 the days Avhen, on the ruins of Spalatro, we swore to 

 live like eagles, amidst barren cliffs and naked rocks, 

 the better to harass the heathen the days when the 

 power of the Moslem quailed and fled before us. And 

 had not your sordid Venetian traders stepped in, 

 courting the infidel for love of gain, the Cross would 

 still be worshipped on all the shores of the Adriatic, 

 and the Uzcoques would still combat for honour and 

 victory instead of revenge and plunder. But your 



