“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.