then, throwing down their fire-arms, the pirates grasped their sabres
and made violent efforts to board. But each time that they succeeded
in closing, the plunging of the ponderous galley into the trough of
the sea, or the rising of some huge wave, severed them from their
prey, and prevented them from setting foot on the decks of the
Venetian vessel. This delay was made the most of by the officers of
the latter, in making arrangements for defence. The Proveditore
himself, a man of tried and chivalrous courage, and great experience
both in land and sea warfare, lent his personal aid to the
preparations, and in a few pithy and emphatic words strove to
encourage the crew to a gallant resistance. But the soldiers and
mariners who manned the galley had already sustained a heavy loss by
the fire of the Uzcoques, and were moreover alarmed by their near
approach to that perilous shore, as well as disheartened by the
prospect of a contest with greatly superior numbers. Although some few
took to their arms and occupied the posts assigned them by their
officers, the majority seemed more disposed to tell beads and mutter
prayers, than to display the energy and decision which alone could
rescue them from the double peril by which they were menaced. The
pirates, meanwhile, were constantly foiled in their attempts to board
by the fury of the elements, till at last, becoming maddened by
repeated disappointments, they threw off their upper garments, and
fixing their long knives firmly between their teeth, dashed in crowds
into the water. Familiar with that element from childhood, they
skimmed over its surface with the lightness and rapidity of sea-mews,
and swarmed up the sides of the galley. A vigorous defence might yet
have saved the vessel; but the heroic days of Venice were long
past--the race of men who had so long maintained the supremacy of the
republic in all the Italian seas, was now extinct. After a feeble and
irresolute resistance, the Venetians threw down their arms and begged