Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/89

Rh time of his application to King James he was preparing the Soderina for a piratical cruise "with forty bronze pieces on the lower, and twenty on the upper deck." He was also planning to obtain a "letter of marque" from any Italian prince who would receive him, in the event of his failure to appease King James. It would appear that the application to King James was made through some courtier for a consideration. It was refused, because the Venetian ambassador, Zorzi Giustinian, demanded that no such pardon should be granted until the State of Venice, and all Venetian subjects, had been amply indemnified for their losses.

Zorzi Giustinian was able to trouble Ward in another way. At Tunis, the pirates' harbour, there was little market for merchandise. Ward had taken a great spoil of silk and indigo in the Soderina, but he could not dispose of it to his satisfaction among the Turks and Moors. He induced an English ship, which had put into Tunis for water, to take a lading of these goods, to dispose of them in Flanders. The Venetian Senate was admirably served by its spies. Giustinian received particulars of this ship, and induced the