ravine, and standing out against the red stormy-looking sky behind it, the
outline of a fortress was visible, and in the hollow beneath might be
distinguished the small closely-built mass of houses known as the town of
Segna.

This castle, which, by natural even more than artificial defences, was
deemed impregnable, especially on its sea face, was the stronghold of a
handful of hardy and desperate adventurers, who, although their numbers
never exceeded seven hundred men, had yet, for many years preceding the
date of this narrative, made themselves a name dreaded throughout the
whole Adriatic. The inhabitants of the innumerable Dalmatian islands, the
subjects of the Grand Turk, the people of Ancona--all, in short, who
inhabited the shores of the Adriatic, and were interested in its commerce,
or in the countless merchant vessels that skimmed over its
waters--trembled and turned pale when the name of these daring freebooters
was mentioned in their hearing. In vain was it that the Sultan, who in his
sublimity scarcely deigned to know the names of some of the great European
powers, had caused his pachas to take the field with strong armaments for
the extermination of this nest of pirates. These expeditions were
certainly not disadvantageous to the Porte, which seized the opportunity
of annexing to its dominions some large slices of Hungarian and Venetian
territory; but their ostensible object remained unaccomplished, and the
proverbial salutation of the time, "God save you from the Uzcoques!" was
still on the lips of every one.

The word "Uzcoque," by which this dreaded people was known, had grown into
a sound of mourning and panic to the inhabitants of the shores and islands
of the Adriatic. At the utterance of that fearful name, young girls
crowded together like frightened doves; the child hid its terrified face
in its mother's lap; the eyes of the matron overflowed with tears as the