[3] The Turks, finding their own troops not well adapted to the
irregular and desperate kind of warfare waged by the Uzcoques, and
also unable to compete with them in the rapidity of their movements,
formed a corps expressly for the pursuit of the freebooters, which
was composed of men as wild and desperate as themselves. With these
_Martellossi_, as they were called, the Uzcoques had frequent and
sanguinary conflicts. Minucci says of the Martellossi, in his
_Historia degli Uscochi_, that they were "Scelerati barbari anco
'ordine de' medesime Scochi."

To this band belonged the wild figures, whose appearance on the shore has
been noticed, and who were busily employed in rummaging a number of sacks
and packages which lay scattered on the ground. They pursued their
occupation in profound silence, except when the discovery of some object
of unusual value elicited an exclamation of delight, or a disappointment
brought a grumbling curse to their lips. They seemed carefully to avoid
noise, lest it should draw down upon them the observation of the castle
that frowned above their heads, and at the embrasures and windows of which
they cast frequent and frightened glances, although the darkness of the
ravine, at the entrance of which they had stationed themselves, and the
rapidly deepening twilight, rendered it almost impossible to discover them.

"By the beard of the prophet, Hassan!" exclaimed in a suppressed tone a
young Turk, who lay bound hand and foot at a short distance from the
pirates, "why do these mangy curs keep us lying so long on the wet grass?
Why do they not seek their kennel up yonder?"

The person addressed was a little, round, oily-looking Turk, a Levant
merchant, whose traffic had called him to one of the neighbouring islands,
and who had been laid hold of on his passage by the Uzcoques. He was