Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by the Uzcoques
for their expeditions and surprises was usually the night; and this,
added to the custom of mask-wearing, was the cause that the features
of Dansowich were unknown to his captors. Nevertheless the striking
countenance and lofty bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of
those who were taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they
were persons of mark--suspicions which were not dissipated by their
reiterated denial of being any thing more than common Uzcoques. It was
this doubt which saved their lives; for their captors, instead of
hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the galleys, which was the
usual manner of disposing of Segnarese prisoners, took them to Venice,
and placed them at the disposal of the senate. All subsequent threats
and promises proved ineffectual to extort from the pirates an
acknowledgment of superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would
perhaps have ended in believing the account they gave of themselves,
had not the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if they
could ascertain that there was a chief among the prisoners, to obtain
from him, by torture or otherwise, confessions which might enable them
to prove to the Archduke the encouragement afforded by his counsellors
to the piracies of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every
possible pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the prisoners.
This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should not discover; and
her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the captivity of their leader
from becoming known among the pirates themselves. His daughter's
entreaties, and his own better nature, had frequently caused Dansowich
to check his followers in the atrocities they were too apt to commit.
In consequence of this interference, Strasolda suspected her father to