THE PHI AXES OF SEGXA. 419 



ducted to tlie burning town, amidst the jeers and ill- 

 treatment of their captors. Exposed to great danger 

 from the falling roofs and timbers of the blazing 

 houses, they were led through the streets of Pesca, 

 and on their Avay had ample opportunity of witness- 

 ing the incredible cruelties exercised by the pirates 

 upon the inhabitants of that ill-fated town. What 

 made these cruelties appear still more horrible, was 

 the part taken in them by the Uzcoque women, who, 

 as was the case at that period with most of the Scla- 

 vonian races, were all trained to the use of arms, 1 

 and who on this occasion swelled the ranks of the 

 freebooters. Their ferocity exceeded, if possible, 

 that of the men. Neither age, sex, nor station 

 afforded any protection against these furies, who 

 perpetrated barbarities the details of which would 

 exceed belief. 



The violence of the flames rendering it impossible 

 to remain in the town, the Uzcoques betook themselves 

 to the castle of a nobleman, situated on a rising 

 ground a short distance from Pesca. On first land- 

 ing, the pirates had broken into this castle and made 

 it their headquarters. After pillaging everything of 

 value, they had gratified their savage love of destruc- 

 tion by breaking and destroying what they could not 



1 The reader of German literature will call to mind the 

 anecdote, in Jean Paul's ' Levana,' of a Moldavian woman who 

 in one day slew seven men with her own hand, and the same 

 evening was delivered of a child. 



