Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 341, March, 1844, Vol. 55 by Various

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Reviving under the influence of the darkness, so congenial to their habits
and occupations, the Uzcoques began to recover from their alarm, and the
murmur of voices was again heard as they seized the sacks, and hastily
filled them with the various objects lying on the beach. Every thing being
collected, the pirates commenced toiling their way up the steep mountain
path leading to the castle, with the exception of a few who still lingered
at the entrance of the cavern, and whom the prisoners could hear disputing
about some point on which there seemed to exist much difference of opinion.

"Hell and the devil!" at last exclaimed an impatient voice, in a louder
tone than had yet been employed. "There's little chance that we have not
been seen from the castle; for the warder would expect us back about this
time, and doubtless was on the look-out. These Turkish hounds have seen
every thing, and might easily betray us. Let us leave them here till
to-morrow, till I have spoken to the warder, and arranged that they be
sent on at once to Gradiska without coming to speech of the captain. I
will join the escort myself to make it still surer."

After some slight opposition on the part of the others, this proposal was
adopted, and the remaining pirates took their departure. The sound of
their footsteps along the rocky path had scarcely died away on the ears of
the anxiously listening captives, when loud acclamations and cries of joy
announced the arrival of the first detachment at the castle. The heavy
gates of the fortress were opened with much din and rattle; after a short
space they were again slammed to, the portcullis fell, and then no further
sound broke the deep silence that reigned in the ravine.

The collection of the plunder, the discussion among the pirates, and their
departure, had passed so rapidly, that the young Turk had scarcely had
time to recover from the giddy, half-stunned state into which the rough
usage he had received had thrown him, when he found himself alone with his
old fellow-captive.

"Well, Hassan," said he at last, in a voice of suppressed fury, "what
think you of all this?"

The old man made no verbal reply, but merely stroked his beard, shrugged
his shoulders, and opened his eyes wider than before, as much as to say,
"I don't think at all; what do you think?"

"It is not the prospect of passing the night in this damp hole, bound hand
and foot, that chafes me to madness, and makes my very blood boil in my
veins," resumed the young man after a pause. "That is a small matter,
but"--

"A small matter!" interrupted Hassan with unusual vivacity. "That is,
because you have forgotten the most dreadful part of our position. Bound
hand and foot as we are, we can expect nothing less than to fall, ere
cock-crow, into the power of Satan."

"Of Satan!" repeated the other. "Has terror turned thy brain?"

"Of a truth, the Evil One has already tied the three fatal nooses which he
hangs over the head of the sleeping believer," replied the old Mahometan
in a lachrymose tone. "He who awakes and forthwith invokes the holy name
of Allah, is thereby delivered from the first noose; by performing his
ablutions, the second becomes loosened; and by fervent prayer he unties
the third. Our bonds render it impossible for us to wash, and the second
noose, therefore, will remain suspended over our devoted heads."

"Runs it so in the Koran, old man?" asked the youth.

"In the Koran! What Mussulman are you? It is the hundred and forty-ninth
passage of the Suna."

"The Suna!" repeated the other, in a tone of indifference. "If that is all,
it will not break my slumbers."

"Allah protect me!" exclaimed the old man, as he made an attempt to pluck
out his beard, which the shackles on his wrists rendered ineffectual.
"Allah protect me! Is it not enough that I have fallen into captivity? Am
I also doomed to pass the night under the same roof with an unbeliever,
even as the Nazarenes are?"

"May the bolt of Heaven fall on thy lying tongue!" exclaimed the youth in
great wrath. "I an unbeliever! I, Ibrahim, the adopted son of Hassan,
pacha of Bosnia!"

In deepest humility did the old merchant bow his head, and endeavour to
lay hold of the hem of the young man's crimson caftan, in order to carry
it to his lips.

"Enough! enough!" said Ibrahim, whose good temper had returned. "You spoke
in haste and ignorance. I am well pleased when I break no commandment of
the Koran; and trouble my head little about the sayings of those babbling
greybeards, the twelve holy Imaums."

"But the nooses," expostulated Hassan, not a little scandalized by his
companion's words.

"You have nothing to do but to sleep all night without awaking," replied
the young Turk laughing. "Then you will have no need either to wash or
pray."

The superstitious old man turned his face to the wall in consternation and
anguish of spirit.

"This night have I seen with my own eyes what we have hitherto refused to
believe," resumed Ibrahim after a pause, and in a tone of indignation that
echoed through the cavern. "I am now convinced that the shameless
scoundrels do not rob on their own account, since they are obliged to
pilfer and conceal a part of their plunder in order to get a profit from
their misdeeds. Marked you not, Hassan, how they trembled when the sun lit
up the ravine, lest their tricks should be espied by some sentry on the
battlements; and how their panic fear made them carry every thing up to
the castle?"

The old Turk bowed his head assentingly.

"Glory be to God and the Sultan!" continued the youth. "Before the bright
countenance of the prophet's vicegerent, who reigneth in Stamboul, no
misdeed can remain hidden that occurs in the remotest corner of his vast
dominions. Nay, much of what happens in the land of the Giaour is also
manifest to his penetrating vision. Witness the veil of turpitude and
cunning which has long been seen through by the clear eyes of our holy
mollahs, and of the council at the Seraglio, and which has just now been
torn away from before me, like a mist dispersing in the sunshine of truth.
Truly spoke the Christian maiden, whom but a few weeks back I took captive
in a fight with the Uzcoques, but who was shortly after rescued by another
band of those raging fiends."

"Saw you the maiden," exclaimed Hassan, "the good maiden that accompanies
the pirates, like an angel walking among demons?"

"What know you of the Houri?" eagerly demanded the youth, in vain
endeavouring to raise his head from the damp stones.

"That it was the hand of Allah that rescued her from you," replied the
other. He chastiseth his creatures with rods, but even in his chastisemcnt
is mercy. "How many more had not the dogs and the ravens devoured, had the
Christian maiden been taken from among the Uzcoques? She belongs to them,
she is the daughter of their leader, the terrible Dansowich, beside whom
she is ever to be found, instilling the musk and amber of mildness into
his fierce soul, and pouring healing into the wounds he makes. I know her
not, but often have I heard the Christians, with whom my traffic brought
me acquainted, include her in the prayers they addressed to their God."

"Her eyes were as brilliant stars, and they blinded my very soul,"
exclaimed Ibrahim impetuously; "the honey of her words dropped like balm
into my heart! As the sound of bubbling fountains, and the rustle of
flowery groves to the parched wanderer in the desert, fell her sweet voice
upon my ear. So gentle and musical were its tones, that I thought not of
their meaning, and it is only to-day that I understand them."

"I know not," quoth Hassan, "what you may have seen; but doubtless, Satan,
who wished to inspire you with an unholy desire for a Nazarene woman,
began by blinding you. According to all I have heard, the Uzcoque maiden
is good and compassionate, but as ugly as night."

"Ugly!" cried Ibrahim, "Then there must be two of them; for the one I saw
was blooming as the spring, her eyes like the morning star, and her cheeks
of velvet. Oh, that I could again behold her! In that hope it was that I
pressed so rashly forward in the fight, and was made prisoner; but yet
have I not beheld the pearl of mine eyes."

"She cannot be amongst them," said Hassan; "and thence comes it that the
pirates have this year committed greater cruelties than ever, and done
deeds that cry out to Allah for vengeance."

"Instead of her silver tones," continued Ibrahim, "I hear the shrieks of
the tortured; instead of her words of peace and blessing, the curses of
the murderer."

"But what did the maiden tell you?" enquired Hassan, who was getting
impatient at the transports of the enamoured youth.

"Her words flowed like a clear stream out of the well of truth. It is not
the Uzcoques alone," said she, "who are to blame for the horrors that"--

"Hark!" interrupted the old Turk.

A clamour of voices and splashing of oars became audible, a keel grated on
the beach, and then hurried footsteps were heard in the ravine.

"It is another vessel with Uzcoques!" exclaimed Ibrahim; "but these are
not laden with plunder, their movements are too rapid."

As he spoke, the tumult and murmur of voices and trampling of feet
increased, and above all a noise like distant musketry was heard.

"Holy Virgin!" suddenly exclaimed a clear and feminine voice, apparently
close to the mouth of the cavern. "They are already at the castle--the
gates, no doubt, are shut, the drawbridge raised. Before they could come
down it would be too late."

The young Turk started.

"It is she, Hassan!" he exclaimed. "It is Strasolda, the Christian maiden!"

"Oh, my father!" cried the same voice in tones of heart-rending anguish.
"How shall we deliver thee? Alas! alas! who can tell the tortures they
will make thee suffer in their dreadful dungeons?"

The noise of the musketry became more and more distinct. Some of the newly
arrived Uzcoques who had hurried up the winding path, were soon heard
clamouring furiously for admittance at the castle gates.

"They will be too late!" exclaimed the maiden, wringing her hands in
despair. The next moment a sudden thought seemed to flash across her mind,
lending her fresh hope and energy.

"Gracious Heaven!" she exclaimed in joyful tones. "Have we not here the
cave, from which, invoked by fire, the storm and the hurricane, the north
wind and the tempest, come forth and shatter the most stately vessels
against our iron-bound coast.[4] Up, Uzcoques, and fire the cavern! Let
the elements do battle for us. Perchance by their aid the bark of your
leader Dansowich may yet escape its foes and reach the haven."

[4] In Minucci's History of the Uzcoques, continued by Paola Sarpi,
we find the following:--"Segna, through its position on a cragged
rock, was unapproachable by carts or horses, and consequently by
artillery. The harbour appertaining to it, however, was tolerably
good, but exceedingly difficult of access on account of the north
wind, (vento di Buora,) which blew almost incessantly in the
channel leading to it. According to popular belief, the Segnarese
had the power of causing this wind to blow at will, by merely
kindling a fire in a certain hollow of the cliffs. The mysterious
operation of this fire was to heat the veins of the earth, which
then, through pain or fury, sent out the raging hurricanes that
rendered those narrow seas in the highest degree dangerous, and
indeed untenable."

Immediately after these words, which made the two Moslems quail, the
pirate's daughter hastily entered the cavern with a blazing torch, the
flashes of which awakened from slumber into life and glow the various tints
of mosses, lichens, and stalactites innumerable that studded the ample
vault. In this flitting and singular illumination, the appearance of the
Uzcoque maiden was awful. Above the common stature of woman, and finely
formed, she was attired in a white woollen garment, carelessly adjusted
and confined at the waist by broad red girdle, from which it fell in long
and graceful folds to her feet. Her face was a perfect oval; her features
of regular and striking beauty; her complexion, naturally of that clear
rich brown, which lends more lustre to the eyes than the purest red and
white, was now ghastly with intense alarm; and this death-like paleness
imparted a more prominent and commanding character to her well-defined,
jet-black brows, and the full, dark, humid eyes, which gleamed like
brilliants through their long lashes. Heavy tresses of raven hair,
escaping beneath her turban-like head-dress, streamed out like a sable
banner as she rushed into the cavern, then fell and flowed in waving
luxuriance over neck and shoulders to her girdle. The Turks in the
interior of the cavern, gazed in speechless wonder at this beautiful
apparition standing erect in the strong red light. Waving her torch with
energetic and graceful action, she appeared like an antique sybil at the
moment of inspiration, or some Arabian enchantress preparing for an
incantation. Their admiration, however, yielded to alarm, when they beheld
her dash the torch upon the ground, and her attendants pile upon it straw
and fagots, which blazed up instantly to the cavern roof, emitting volumes
of smoke that made the captives invisible, and by its suffocating
influence deprived them erelong of all power of utterance.

The evening was serene and still, with scarcely a breath of wind stirring,
and the flames blazed upward to the cavern roof; only now and then a light
breeze from the sea wafted them on one side, and, at the sane time,
dispersing the smoke, gave the Turks a momentary glimpse of the maiden,
standing with uplifted hands, expectation, anxiety, and grief, depicted on
her speaking countenance, as she invoked the spirit of the storm, while
around her stood the few remaining Uzcoques, with sorrowing and downcast
faces.

"They come not!" she exclaimed after a pause, during which the fire began
to burn low for lack of fuel, and the noise of the musketry diminished and
finally ceased. "Uzcoques!" she cried in a louder voice, and with
inspiration in her thrilling tones--"Take heed and warning, for your hour
is come. Your crags and caverns, your rocky shores and howling storms,
refuse you further service!"

She paused, and at that moment was heard the rush of a rapidly approaching
boat.

"Speak not, ye messengers of evil!" exclaimed Strasolda in piercing
accents. "Utter not a word. You have left Dansowich in the hands of the
Venetians."

There was no reply to her half frantic exclamation, and the deep silence
was only broken by the footsteps of the new-comers, as with dejected looks
they joined their companions. Just then some damp branches that had lain
smouldering and smoking on the fire, burned brightly up, and by their
light Ibrahim and Hassan beheld the maiden kneeling in the midst of the
pirates, her tearful face covered by her fair and slender fingers. The
next moment she raised her head and gazed into the cavern.

As she did so, the sorrowful expression of her features changed, and her
countenance was lighted up with a look of rapture, while a loud cry burst
from her lips. Through the opening in the smoke, the prisoners became
visible to her as they lay motionless in the interior of the cave, the
light from the flames glowing on their red garments, and giving them the
appearance of two statues of fire. In the handsome countenance of one of
the figures thus suddenly revealed to her, Strasolda recognized the young
Moslem, whose prisoner she had been, and whose noble person and bearing,
courteous manners, and gentle treatment, had more than once since the day
of her captivity, occupied the thoughts and fancy of the Uzcoque maiden.
Unaware of Ibrahim's capture, Strasolda did not for an instant suppose
that she beheld him in flesh and blood before her. To her excited and
superstitious imagination, the figures of the Turks appeared formed out of
fire itself, and she doubted not that the spirits of the cave had chosen
this means of presenting to her, as in a prophetic mirror, a shadowy
fore-knowledge of future and more favourable events.

While she yet gazed eagerly on what she deemed a supernatural appearance,
the rent in the veil of smoke suddenly closed, the flame sank down, and
again all was gloom and darkness in the cavern. The thick stifling vapour
of the damp wood, augmenting as the flame diminished, was now so
overpowering that the Turks were in imminent danger of suffocation. In
their extremity, making a violent effort, their pent up voices found vent
in a cry of such startling wildness, that the Uzcoques, struck with terror,
sprang back from the mouth of the cave, hurrying the maiden with them. The
cry was not repeated, for the Turks had lost all consciousness from the
stifling effects of the smoke.

"Banish your fears, Uzcoques!" exclaimed Strasolda, staying the fugitives.
"The voice that to you is a sound of dismay, gives me hope and confidence.
I see the golden crescent rising in irresistible might, and shedding its
rays over all the lands of the earth. Happy they on whom it casts its mild
and favouring beams, and truer far the safeguard it affords to those who
serve it, than that which is found beneath the shadow of the cross. Better
the sharp cimeter and plighted word of the Moslem, than the fair promises
of the lying Christian, who, in the hour of peril, abandons those by whose
courage he has profited. But enough!" cried she in an altered tone. "Our
first duty is to rescue my father from the hands of the Venetians. Go not
into Segna. There are traitors there who might reveal what we most wish
kept secret. The Venetians know not the person of Dansowich, and that may
save him if no time be lost in plotting his deliverance. Let none even of
our own people hear of his captivity. Now to the castle!"

She led the way, and in silence and sadness the pirates followed the
daughter of their captive chief.

The fire was quite out, the smoke had cleared away, the moon poured its
silvery light into the cavern, and the stillness was unbroken, save by the
ripple of the waves on the beach, when Ibrahim recovered from the state of
insensibility into which he had been thrown by the suffocating influence
of the smoke, and heard his companion snoring at his side. For some time
the young Turk lay, revolving in his mind the eventful scene he had
witnessed, and the strange and startling circumstances that had come to
his knowledge during the few preceding hours. The capture of Dansowich was
an event of much importance; nor was there less weight in the discovery
Ibrahim had made of the dependence of the Uzcoques upon a higher power,
which, in secret, aided and profited by their depredations. Although
Austria had been frequently accused of abetting the piracies of the
Uzcoques, the charge had never been clearly proved, and to many appeared
too improbable to obtain credence. Ibrahim had hitherto been among the
incredulous; but what he had this day seen and heard, removed every doubt,
and fully convinced him of the justice of those imputations.

Turning in disgust from the contemplation of the labyrinth of crime and
treachery to which he had seized the clue; the young Moslem sought and
found a far pleasanter subject of reflection in the remembrance of the
maiden, whose transcendent beauty and touching devotion to her captive
parent, shone out the more brightly from their contrast with the vice and
degradation by which she was surrounded. With much interest did he
endeavour to solve the problem, and explain what appeared almost
miraculous, how so fair a creature--such a masterpiece of Heaven's
handiwork--could have passed her childhood and youth amongst the refuse of
humanity assembled on the island, and yet have retained the spotless
purity which was apparent in every look and gesture. But, however
interesting these reflections were to the enamoured Ibrahim, his recent
fatigues had been too great for nature not to assert her claims, and the
wearied body finished by triumphing over the rebellious restlessness of
the excited spirit. The graceful form of Strasolda, and the wild figures
of the Uzcoques, swam more and more indistinctly before his closing eyes,
until he sank at last into a deep and refreshing slumber.

CHAPTER III.

THE JEWELS.

The tribe of the Uzcoques, or Scochi, derived their name from _scoco_, a
refugee or fugitive, a word bearing reference to their origin. Towards the
commencement of the sixteenth century, a band of hardy and warlike men
abandoned the the provinces of Southern Hungary, Bulgaria, and Servia, and
took refuge in Dalmatia from the tyranny and ill usage of the Turks, who
had overrun the first-named provinces. Accompanied by their wives and
families, and recruiting their numbers as they went along, they at last
reached the fortress of Clissa, situated in the mountains, a few miles
from the old Roman town of Spalatro. There, with the permission of its
owner, Pietro Crosichio, they established themselves, forming one of the
outposts of Christendom, and thence carried on a war of extermination
against the Turks, to whom they did a degree of injury that would appear
quite incommensurate with the smallness of their numbers. The name of
Uzcoque soon became known throughout the Adriatic as the synonyme of a
gallant warrior, till at length the Turks, driven nearly frantic by the
exploits of this handful of brave men, fitted out a strong expedition and
laid siege to Clissa, with the double object of getting rid of a
troublesome foe, and of advancing another step into Christian Europe.

The different powers who had benefited greatly, although indirectly, by
the enterprising valour of the Uzcoques, neglected to give them the
smallest assistance in their hour of peril. After an heroic defence,
Clissa fell into the hands of the Turks, and a scanty and disheartened
remnant of its brave defenders fled northward to seek some new place of
refuge. This they found in the fortress of Segna, then belonging to a
Count Frangipani, who allowed them to occupy it; and, at the same time,
Ferdinand the First of Austria bethought himself, although somewhat
tardily, that the Uzcoques had deserved better at his hands, and at those
of other Christian princes, than to be left to their own resources when
assailed by the overwhelming power of the Porte. As a sort of atonement,
he took them formally into his pay, to assist him in his wars against the
infidel. But from this day forward the Uzcoques gradually declined in
valour and in moral worth. From a race of heroes they degenerated into a
horde of mercenary adventurers, and finally, of cruel and cowardly pirates.
Their primitive customs and simple virtues were exchanged for the vices of
refugees and criminals from Venice and other neighbouring states, who came
in crowds to fill up the frequent vacancies occurring in their ranks.

At length the military value of the Uzcoques being much impaired, and
their services also less required, Austria became irregular in her
payments, and at last entirely discontinued them. The barren mountains
round Segna produced nothing, and the unfortunate Uzcoques were in danger
of dying of hunger. This they felt by no means inclined to do, and erelong
complaints began to be made of piracies and depredations committed by the
Segnarese on the vessels and territory of Venice. For some time no
application on the subject was made to Austria, and when made it was found
to be of little avail.

At the period to which this narrative refers, Austria had already formed
those designs upon her southern neighbour, which in more modern times she
has carried out with complete success. The fertile plains of Northern
Italy, the convenient ports on the Adriatic, the rich commerce with the
Levant, were tempting baits to what was then the most ambitious power in
Europe; and with an undeviating steadiness did she follow up the policy
which promised to place such desirable acquisitions within her grasp.
Venice, whose power and importance were already on the decline, was the
state against which her most strenuous efforts were directed; and nothing
that could injure the trade, or lower the dignity and importance of the
republic, was omitted by the Austrian Machiavels of the day. Insignificant
as such a means of annoyance may appear, the band of Uzcoques was one of
the prime engines employed to undermine the bulwarks of Venetian
independence. Through her commerce had Venice achieved her greatness, and
through her commerce was she to be assailed and overthrown. Whilst the
Venetians, for the sake of their trade, had formed alliances with the
Turks, the Austrians, professing great religious zeal, and hatred of the
infidels, as well as a dread of further encroachments upon European
territory, did all in their power to ruin the traffic and break the
connexion between the republic and the Porte. The Uzcoques, who, although
asserting a sort of independence, still dwelt on Austrian territory, and
were reckoned as Austrian subjects, were secretly encouraged in the
piracies which they committed indiscriminately against Turkish and
Venetian vessels. These acts of piracy usually took place in the night,
and could rarely be brought home to their perpetrators, although there
could be no moral doubt as to the identity of the latter; but, even when
proved, it was found impossible to obtain any substantial redress. At the
time now referred to, the evil was at its height. Nominally peace both
with Venice and the Porte, Austria, nevertheless, stimulated the Uzcoques
to aggressions upon the subjects of both. The Archduke Ferdinand, a
well-intentioned and virtuous prince, but young and inexperienced, was
completely led and deceived by the wily and unprincipled politicians who
governed in his name. He was kept entirely in the dark as to the real
character of the Segnarese, and thus prevented from giving credence to the
frequent complaints made against them by neighbouring states. His corrupt
ministers, moreover, not content with making the pirates instrumental in
this tortuous policy, were not ashamed to squeeze from them a portion of
their illicit gains; and a lion's share of the spoil found its way into
the coffers of the archducal counsellors, who welcomed the golden Pactolus,
utterly regardless of the foul channel through which it flowed. The
Uzcoques, on their part, who were no longer the race of brave and hardy
soldiers they had been some half century before, clung to the protection
of Austria, conscious that, in their degenerate state, and with their
diminished numbers, they must soon fall a prey to their numerous foes,
should that protection be withdrawn. Thus, although inwardly chafing at
being compelled to disgorge a large part of the hard-won booty for which
they frequently periled their lives, they did not dare to withhold the
tribute, nor to omit the rich presents which they were in the habit of
making to certain influential persons about the archducal court. In return,
the ports of Austria on the Adriatic, were open to them to build and
repair vessels, or obtain supplies of provisions; every species of
indirect assistance was afforded them, and more than once, when some of
their number had fallen into the hands of the Venetians, their release, as
subjects of Austria, had been demanded and obtained by the authorities at
Gradiska. On the other hand, the claims of Venice for satisfaction, when
some of her richly laden merchant-ships had been captured or pillaged,
were slightly attended to, the applicants put off from day to day, and
from year to year, with promises and excuses, until the weak and cowardly
republic, seeing that no satisfaction was to be obtained by peaceable
means, and being in no state to declare war against her powerful neighbour,
usually ended the matter by ceasing to advance claims, the prosecution of
which only tended to her further humiliation.

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