At the age of twenty-five he returned home and harassed the Turks to such an extent that he could not show himself openly by daylight.  Like another and more famous outlaw in the days of the kings of Israel, all those that were bitter of soul came down unto him, and he became captain over them.  By night he descended upon the Turks wherever he could find them, and made great slaughter among them.  The Governor of Podgorica, then Turkish, Yussuf Mucic by name, offered a large sum of money for his head, but no one could be found willing to meet that terrible man whom legend and story had endowed with supernatural powers.  Finally, a criminal consented to attempt the deed on the promise of his liberty, and this led to one of the most incredible episodes in Marko’s life.  The criminal lay in wait for him on a lonely part of the road near Rijeka, and as Marko was passing along he stepped suddenly on to the road pistol in hand.  Marko in no way attempted defence, but simply transfixed the man with a glance.  The wretched man in an ecstasy of terror shot himself, so penetrating was the glance which the Voivoda had given him.  So runs the story.  Suffice it to remark that Marko arrived safe and sound the same evening in Cetinje, and a dead criminal was found on the next day by the roadside.  Now Yussuf, the Governor, was himself a soldier of some repute, and when he heard of the failure of his messenger he boastfully expressed a desire to meet the celebrated Marko in single combat.  On this challenge being reported to him Marko rode off on a half-tamed steed at midday into the heart of Podgorica, and reined up before the Pasha’s house.  In fear and trembling the Turks hastily closed their bazaars and houses as that fearful horseman galloped through their streets.  In a loud voice Marko cried—­

“I am here, Yussuf, to answer thy challenge.  Wilt thou now come out and fight with me?”

But fear filled the heart of the craven Turk, and he sent a woman to the window to say that he was away from home.  Marko knew this to be a lie, and cried so that all should hear him that henceforth the challenge was annulled.  “I do not fight with cowards,” he said, and again galloped away unmolested.

Such was the power that superstition had weaved around his person that he was commonly believed to be invulnerable, which belief was afterwards belied by the fact that he carried two bullets with him to the grave.

After this public insult to Yussuf, it was known that he would spare no pains to take Marko’s life, and a touching episode is told of the love which Marko’s tribe bore to him.  His people were ever ready to sacrifice their lives for him, and in this instance it was deemed necessary to remove the obnoxious Pasha.  Accordingly a cousin of Marko journeyed to the Podgorican market with a pistol concealed in a load of wood.  He lay in wait before Yussuf’s house and shot him down as he emerged.  The Turkish populace literally cut him to pieces—­a fate which the devoted man well knew would befall him.