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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13689 ***
+
+SEA-WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
+
+[Illustration: KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA—CORSAIR,
+ADMIRAL, AND KING.]
+
+
+
+
+SEA-WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
+
+THE GRAND PERIOD OF THE MOSLEM CORSAIRS
+
+BY COMMANDER E. HAMILTON CURREY, R.N.
+
+WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  “Ships are but boards, sailors but men:
+   There be land rats and water rats, land thieves and water thieves,
+   I mean pirates.”
+
+   _Merchant of Venice._
+
+
+LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W 1910
+
+TO THAT GRACIOUS LADY
+
+TO WHOSE COUNSEL AND ENCOURAGEMENT
+
+I OWE SO MUCH
+
+MORE THAN ANY ONE—SAVE I—CAN IMAGINE...
+
+TO MY WIFE
+
+I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+When the ship is ready for launching there comes a moment of tense
+excitement before the dogshores are knocked away and she slides down
+the ways. In the case of a ship this excitement is shared by many
+thousands, who have assembled to acclaim the birth of a perfected
+product of the industry of man; the emotion is shared by all those
+who are present. It is very different when a book has been completed.
+The launching has been arranged for and completed by expert hands;
+she like the ship gathers way and slides forth into an ocean: but,
+unlike the ship which is certain to float, the waters may close over
+and engulf her, or perchance she may be towed back to that haven of
+obscurity from which she emerged, to rust there in silence and neglect.
+There is excitement in the breast of one man alone—to wit, the author.
+If his book possesses one supreme qualification she will escape the
+fate mentioned, and this qualification is—interest. As the weeks
+lengthened into months, and these multiplied themselves to the
+tale of something like twenty-four, the conviction was strengthened
+that that which had so profoundly interested the writer, would not
+be altogether indifferent to others. For some inscrutable reason the
+deeds of sea-robbers have always possessed a fascination denied to
+those of their more numerous brethren of the land; and in the case
+of the Sea-wolves of the sixteenth century we are dealing with the
+very aristocrats of the profession. Circumstances over which they had
+no control flung the Moslem population of Southern Spain on to the
+shores of Northern Africa: to revenge themselves upon the Christian
+foe by whom this expropriation had been accomplished was natural to
+a warrior race; and those who heretofore had been land-folk pure and
+simple took to piracy as a means of livelihood. It is of the deeds of
+these men that this book treats; of their marvellous triumphs, of their
+apparently hopeless defeats, of the manner in which they audaciously
+maintained themselves against the principalities and the powers of
+Christendom always hungering for their destruction.
+
+The quality which Napoleon is said to have ascribed to the British
+Infantry, “of never knowing when they were beaten,” seems to have also
+characterised the Sea-wolves; as witness the marvellous recuperation
+of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa when expelled from Tunis by Charles V.;
+and the escape of Dragut from the island of Jerba when apparently
+hopelessly trapped by the Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria. All through
+their history the leaders of the Sea-wolves show the resourcefulness
+of the real seamen that they had become by force of circumstances, and
+it was they who in the age in which they dwelt showed what sea power
+really meant. Sailing through the Mediterranean on my way to Malta in
+the spring of this year, as the good ship fared onwards I passed in
+succession all those lurking-places from which the Moslem Corsairs were
+wont to burst out upon their prey. Truly it seemed as if
+
+  “The spirits of their fathers might start from every wave,”
+
+and in imagination one pictured the rush of the pirate galley, with its
+naked slaves straining at the oar of their taskmasters, its fierce,
+reckless, beturbaned crew clustered on the “rambades” at the bow and
+stern. It might be that they would capture some hapless “round-ship,”
+a merchantman lumbering slowly along the coast; or again they might
+meet with a galley of the terrible Knights of St. John or of the
+ever-redoubtable Doria. In either case the Sea-wolves were equal to
+their fortune, to plunder or to fight in the name of Allah and his
+prophet.
+
+That which differentiated the Sea-wolves from other pirates was the
+combination which they effected among themselves; the manner in which
+these lawless men could subordinate themselves to the will of one whom
+they recognised as a great leader. To obtain such recognition was no
+easy matter, and the manner in which this was done, by those who rose
+by sheer force of character to the summit of this remarkable hierarchy,
+has here been set forth.
+
+E. Hamilton Currey.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                    Page
+  INTRODUCTORY                                         1
+
+  CHAPTER I
+  THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS                          13
+
+  CHAPTER II
+  THE COMING OF THE CORSAIRS                          28
+
+  CHAPTER III
+  URUJ BARBAROSSA                                     43
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+  THE DEATH OF URUJ BARBAROSSA                        59
+
+  CHAPTER V
+  KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA                             75
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+  THE TAKING OF THE PEÑON D’ALGER; ANDREA DORIA       91
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+  THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE CORSAIR KING                 107
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+  THE RAID ON THE COAST OF ITALY; JULIA GONZAGA      123
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+  BARCELONA, MAY 1535; THE GATHERING OF THE
+    CHRISTIAN HOSTS                                  139
+
+  CHAPTER X
+  THE FALL OF TUNIS AND THE FLIGHT OF BARBAROSSA     155
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+  ROXALANA AND THE MURDER OF IBRAHIM                 172
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+  THE PREVESA CAMPAIGN; THE GATHERING OF THE FLEETS  189
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+  THE BATTLE OF PREVESA                              205
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+  THE NAVY OF OARS; THE GALLEY, THE GALEASSE,
+    AND THE NEF                                      221
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+  DRAGUT-REIS                                        238
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+  DRAGUT-REIS                                        254
+
+  CHAPTER XVII
+  DRAGUT-REIS                                        269
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII
+  THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN                            286
+
+  CHAPTER XIX
+  DRAGUT-REIS                                        306
+
+  CHAPTER XX
+  THE SIEGE OF MALTA                                 324
+
+  CHAPTER XXI
+  ALI BASHA                                          344
+
+  CHAPTER XXII
+  LEPANTO                                            362
+
+  AUTHORITIES CONSULTED                              383
+
+  LIST OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, SPAIN,
+    SULTANS OF TURKEY, POPES OF ROME, AND GRAND
+    MASTERS OF MALTA FROM 1492 TO 1580               385
+
+  DISTANCES IN SEA MILES ON THE COAST OF NORTHERN
+    AFRICA                                           387
+
+  INDEX                                              389
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+I wish to record my cordial recognition of the kindness shown to me at
+Malta by Mr. Salvino Sant Manduca. The picture of the carrack opposite
+to page 300 was a gift from him. The galley of the Knights of Malta is
+a reproduction of a picture hanging in his house. I should also like to
+thank him for the time and trouble which he took on my behalf during my
+stay at Malta, and the keen interest he displayed in my subject.
+
+R. HAMILTON CURREY.
+
+
+  KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA—CORSAIR, ADMIRAL, AND KING _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                        FACING PAGE
+
+  URUJ AND KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA                               44
+
+  ANDREA DORIA, PRINCE OF ONEOLIA, ADMIRAL TO CHARLES V.         92
+
+  SOLIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT                                       110
+
+  THE EMPEROR CHARLES V                                         150
+
+  MULEY HASSAN KING OF TUNIS                                    162
+
+  GALEASSE UNDER SAIL                                           194
+
+  GALLEY UNDER OARS                                             222
+
+  BRIGANTINE CHASING FELUCCA                                    236
+
+  GOZON DE DIEU-DONNÉ SLAYING THE GREAT SERPENT OF RHODES       294
+
+  CARRACK IN WHICH THE KNIGHTS ARRIVED AT MALTA, 1530           300
+
+  JEAN PARISOT DE LA VALETTE, GRAND MASTER OF THE KNIGHTS
+    OF MALTA, AT THE SIEGE OF THAT ISLAND BY THE TURKS IN 1565  324
+
+  DEATH OF DRAGUT AT THE SIEGE OF MALTA                         340
+
+  A GALLEY OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA                              354
+
+  DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA                                           362
+
+  SEBASTIAN VENIERO                                             364
+
+
+
+
+SEA-WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+In all the ages of which we have any record there have been men who
+gained a living by that practice of robbery on the high seas which
+we know by the name of Piracy. Perhaps the pirates best known to
+the English-speaking world are the buccaneers of the Spanish Main,
+who flourished exceedingly in the seventeenth century, and of whom
+many chronicles exist: principally owing to the labours of that John
+Esquemelin, a pirate of a literary turn of mind, who added the crime
+of authorship to the ill deeds of a sea-rover. The Sea-Wolves of the
+Mediterranean in the preceding century did not raise up a chronicler
+from among themselves: for not much tincture of learning seems to
+have distinguished these desperate fighters and accomplished seamen,
+descendants of those Spanish Moslems who had, during the Middle
+Ages, lived in a land in which learning and culture had been held in
+the highest estimation. Driven from their homes, their civilisation
+crushed, their religion banned in that portion of Southern Spain in
+which they had dwelt for over seven centuries, cast upon the shores
+of Northern Africa, these men took to the sea and became the scourge
+of the Mediterranean. That which they did, the deeds which they
+accomplished, the terror which they inspired, the ruin and havoc which
+they wrought, have been set forth in the pages of this book.
+
+It was the age of the galley, the oar-propelled vessel which moved
+independently of the wind in the fine-weather months of the great
+inland sea. Therefore to the dwellers on the coast the Sea-wolves were
+a perpetual menace; as, when booty was unobtainable at sea, they raided
+the towns and villages of their Christian foes. During all the period
+here dealt with no man’s life, no woman’s honour, was safe from these
+pirates within the area of their nefarious activities. They held the
+Mediterranean in fee, they levied toll on all who came within reach
+of their galleys and their scimitars. Places unknown to the geography
+of the sixteenth century became notorious in their day, and Christian
+wives and mothers learned to tremble at the very names of Algiers and
+Tunis. From these places the rovers issued to capture, to destroy, and
+to enslave: in Oran and Tlemcen, in Tenes, Shershell, Bougie, Jigelli,
+Bizerta, Sfax, Susa, Monastir, Jerbah, and Tripoli they lurked ready
+for the raid and the foray. At one time all Northern Africa would
+thrill to the triumph of the Moslem arms, at another there would go
+up the wail of the utterly defeated; but in spite of alternations of
+fortune the Sea-wolves abode in the localities of their choice, and
+ended in establishing those pirate States which troubled the peace of
+the Mediterranean practically until the introduction of steam.
+
+The whole record of the sixteenth century is one of blood and fire,
+of torture and massacre, of “punic faith” and shameless treason; the
+deeds of the sea-rovers, appalling as they were, frequently found a
+counterpart in the battles, the sieges, and the sacking of towns which
+took place perpetually on the continent of Europe.
+
+There was so much history made at this period, the stage of world
+politics was occupied by so many great, striking, and dazzling
+personalities, that the Sea-wolves and all they accomplished were to a
+great extent overshadowed by happenings which the chroniclers of the
+time considered to be of greater importance. In this no doubt they were
+right in the main; but, in spite of this opinion which they held, we
+find that time and again the main stream of events is ruffled by the
+prows of the pirate galleys. Such men as the Barbarossas, as Dragut,
+and Ali Basha could only have been suppressed and exterminated had the
+whole might of Christendom been turned against them, for they held in
+their hands two weapons, the keenest and most powerful with which to
+attain the objects which they had in view.
+
+The first and more powerful of these was the appeal in a rough and
+warlike age to the cupidity of mankind. “Those who are content to
+follow us,” they said in effect, “are certain to enrich themselves if
+they are men stout of heart and strong of hand. All around us lie rich
+and prosperous lands; we have but to organise ourselves, and to take
+anything that we wish for; we can, if we like, gather a rich harvest at
+comparatively small trouble.” Such counsels as these did not fall on
+deaf ears. Driven from the land of plenty—from glorious Andalusia with
+its fruitful soil, its magnificent cities, its vines and olives, its
+fruit and grain, its noble rivers and wide-spreading _vegas_—the
+Spanish Moslem of the day of the Sea-wolves was an outcast and a
+beggar, ripe for adventure and burning for revenge on those by whom he
+had been expropriated.
+
+Great historians like William Hickling Prescott tell us that, in the
+course of the seven centuries of the Moslem domination in Spain, the
+Moors had become soft and effeminate, that “the canker of peace”
+had sapped, if it had not destroyed, the virile qualities of the
+race, that luxury and learning had dried up at their source those
+primitive virtues of courage and hardihood which had been the leading
+characteristics of those stark fighters who had borne the banner of
+the Prophet from Mecca even to Cadiz. Tom by faction, by strife among
+themselves, they had succumbed to the arms of the Northern chivalry; by
+its warriors they had been driven out, never to return.
+
+When this was accomplished, when the curtain fell on the final scene
+of the tragedy, and the Moors, after the fall of Granada, were driven
+across the sea into Africa, there came to pass a most remarkable change
+in those who had been expropriated. The learning, the culture, the
+civilisation, by which they had been so long distinguished, seemed to
+drop away from them, cast away like a worn-out garment for which men
+have no further use. In place of all these things there came a complete
+and desperate valour, a bitter and headstrong fanaticism.
+
+It was one of the attributes of the Moslem civilisation in Spain,
+and one of the most enlightened thereof, that religious toleration
+flourished in its midst. Jew and Christian were allowed to worship at
+the altars of their fathers, no man hindering or saying them nay; one
+rule, and one alone, had to be preserved: none must blaspheme against
+Mahomet, the Prophet of God, as he was considered to be by the Moslems.
+The penalty for infraction of this rule was death; otherwise, complete
+liberty of conscience was accorded.
+
+We have spoken of the two weapons held by the leaders of the
+Sea-wolves. The first, as we have, said, was cupidity; the second
+was fanaticism, the deadly religious hatred engendered, not only by
+the wholesale expropriation of the Moslem population, but also by
+the persecution to which the Moriscoes—as those Moslems were known
+who remained in Spain—were subjected by their Christian masters. It
+requires little imagination to see how these two weapons of avarice
+and intolerance could be made to serve the purpose of those dominant
+spirits who rose to the summit of the piratical hierarchy. Not only
+did they dazzle the imaginations of those who followed in their train
+by promises of wealth uncounted, but they added to this the specious
+argument that, in slaying and robbing the Christian wheresoever he was
+to be found, the faithful Moslem was performing the service of God and
+the act most grateful to his holy Prophet.
+
+Could any rule of life be at the same time more simple and more
+attractive to the beggared Mohammedan cast on the sterile shores of
+Northern Africa to starve?
+
+With the main stream of history, to which we have before referred, we
+have no concern in this book. He who would embark thereon must sail
+a powerful vessel which must carry many guns. Also for the conduct
+of this vessel many qualities are necessary: a commanding intellect,
+acute perceptions, indefatigable industry, complete leisure, are among
+those things necessary to the pilot. These must be supplemented by a
+genius for research, a knowledge of ancient and modern languages, and
+an unerring faculty for separating the few precious grains of wheat
+from those mountains of chaff which he will have to sift with the
+utmost care. There are, however, subsidiary rivulets which feed the
+onward flow of events, and of such is the story of the Sea-wolves of
+the Mediterranean. On these the adventurous mariner can sail his little
+cockboat, discreetly retiring before he becomes involved and engulfed
+in the main stream. That he cannot altogether avoid it is shown by
+the fact that the men who are here chronicled took part in events of
+first-class importance in the age in which they lived. Kheyr-ed-Din
+Barbarossa fought the battle of Prevesa against his lifelong
+antagonist, Andrea Doria. Dragut was killed at the siege of Malta, at
+the moment almost of the fall of the castle of St. Elmo; had he lived
+it is more than probable that Jean Parisot de la Valette and his heroic
+garrison would have been defeated instead of being victorious. Ali
+Basha was the one Moslem commander who increased his reputation at the
+battle of Lepanto, because, as was usual in all maritime conflicts of
+the time, the corsairs, who had the habit of the sea, were more than a
+match for soldiers embarked to fight on an unfamiliar element.
+
+We shall speak, later on, of the autocratic rule of these leaders who
+possessed so absolute a domination over the men by whom they were
+followed. The fact of this absolute supremacy on the part of the chiefs
+is very curious, as theoretically in the confederacy of the Sea-wolves
+all were equal; we are, in fact, confronted with pure democracy, where
+every man was at liberty to do what seemed best in his own eyes. He
+was a free agent, none coercing him or desiring him to place himself
+under discipline or command. This, be it observed, was the theory. As
+a matter of fact the corsairs, who were extraordinarily successful in
+their abominable trade, abode beneath an iron and rigid discipline.
+This was enforced by the lash, as we shall see later on when it is
+related how Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa flogged one Hassan, a captain
+who, he considered, had failed in his duty: or by the actual penalty
+of death, which Uruj Barbarossa inflicted on one who had dared to act
+independently of his authority.
+
+The theory of equality obtained among the Mediterranean pirates; but
+the Barbarossas, Dragut, and Ali believed that, in practice, the less
+interference there was with their designs by those, whom Cardinal
+Granvelle denominated in a letter to Philip II. as “that mischievous
+animal the people,” the better it would be for all concerned. The
+conception held of rights and duties of “the mischievous animal”
+by these militant persons was, that it should behave as did those
+others recorded of the Roman centurion in Holy Writ: if it did not,
+and difficulties arose, the leaders were not troubled with an undue
+tenderness either towards the individual or the theory. Of this we
+shall see examples as we go on.
+
+This period has been called “The Grand Period of the Moslem Corsairs”
+cause it was in something less than a century, from the year of the
+expulsion of the Moors from Granada in 1492 to the death of Ali Basha
+in 1580, that the Sea-wolves were at the height of their power, that
+the piratical States of the Mediterranean were in the making. That
+subsequently they gave great cause of trouble to Christendom is
+written in characters of blood and fire throughout the history of the
+succeeding centuries; but the real interest in the careers of these
+men resides in the fact that they established, by their extraordinary
+aptitude for sea-adventure, the permanent place which was held by
+their descendants. Time and again in the sixteenth century the effort
+was made to destroy them root and branch: they were defeated, driven
+out of their strongholds on shore, crushed apparently for ever. But
+nothing short of actual extermination could have been successful in
+this; as, no matter how severe had been the set-back, there was always
+left a nucleus of the pirates which in a short time grew again into a
+formidable force. The Ottoman Turk, magnificent fighter as he was on
+land, seemed to lose his great qualities when the venue was changed
+from the land to the sea. The Janissaries, that picked corps trained
+as few soldiers were trained even in that age of iron, who never
+recoiled before the foe but who fought only to conquer or die, seem to
+have failed when embarked for sea-service. That which the hard teaching
+of experience alone could show—that the man who fights best upon the
+sea is he who has the habit of the sea—was at this time not generally
+recognised, and this it was that rendered the corsairs so supreme on
+the element which they had made their own. Some among the great ones of
+the earth there were who appreciated this fact, who, like that great
+statesman Ibrahim, Grand Vizier to Soliman the Magnificent, recognised
+what it was to lay their hands upon “a veritable man of the sea”; but
+the rule was to embark men from the shore and to entrust to them the
+duty of fighting naval actions.
+
+When “the Grand Period” came to an end, as it did about the date
+already indicated, the corsairs had become a permanent institution;
+they remained established at Algiers, Tunis, and other ports on
+the littoral of Northern Africa as a recognised evil. Pirates they
+remained to the end of the chapter, the scourge of the tideless sea;
+but no longer did they array themselves in line of battle against
+the mightiest potentates of the earth allied for their complete
+destruction. It was the men of the sea who set up this empire; it was
+they who defied Charles V., a whole succession of Popes, Andrea Doria
+and his descendants, the might of Spain, Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and
+France. It was they who taught the so-called civilised world of the age
+in which they lived that sea-power can only be met and checked by those
+who dispose of navies manned by seamen; that against it the master of
+the mightiest legions of the land is powerless.
+
+This contention is by no means invalidated by the fact that frequently
+the corsairs were defeated by land forces embarked on board ship.
+Thus when Dragut was defending Tripoli against an expedition sent
+against him in 1559 by the combined forces of Spain, Tuscany, Rome,
+Naples, Sicily, and Genoa, of one hundred sail which embarked fourteen
+thousand troops, he was relieved by Piali, the Admiral of Soliman
+the Magnificent, who came to his assistance with eighty-six galleys,
+each of which had on board one hundred Janissaries, and who gained
+so striking a victory over the Christians that the Turkish Admiral
+returned to Constantinople with no less than four thousand prisoners.
+But in this case, as in so many others, the actual hostilities took
+place on shore, where the troops had the opportunity of displaying
+their sterling qualities.
+
+There is very little doubt that critics will point out that the
+corsairs were by no means universally successful; that, as in the
+case of the attack by Hassem, the ruler of Algiers in 1563, on Oran
+and Marzaquivir (a small port in the immediate vicinity of Oran), in
+the end the Moslems were badly beaten. This undoubtedly was the case,
+and there is no desire to magnify the deeds of the Sea-wolves or to
+minimise the heroic defence of Marzaquivir by the Count of Alcaudete,
+or that of Oran by his brother, Don Martin de Còrdoba, At the last
+moment of their wonderful defence they were relieved by a fleet sent by
+the King of Spain, and Hassem had to abandon his artillery, ammunition,
+and stores and beat a hasty retreat to the place from whence he had
+come.
+
+There was nothing remarkable in the fact that the corsairs were
+frequently defeated; what is really strange is that they should have
+achieved so great a success—success vouched for by the concrete
+instance that they established those sinister dynasties on the coast of
+Northern Africa which were the outcome of their piratical activities.
+
+In speaking of them, historians of later date than that at which they
+flourished are apt to hold them somewhat cheaply, to dismiss them as
+mere barbarians of no particular importance in the scheme of mundane
+affairs; as men who caused a certain amount of trouble to civilisation
+by their inroads and their plunderings. That which is certain is that
+they were for centuries a standing shame and disgrace to the whole of
+Christendom.
+
+To those who may perhaps be called the pioneers—that is to say, the men
+treated of in this book—a certain amount of sympathy and understanding
+may be conceded; for they had been driven from the land which had
+been theirs, it was their countrymen and their co-religionists who
+were being ground to powder beneath the fanatical cruelty of the
+Spanish Inquisition. That which they did was doubtless abominable,
+but it cannot be contended that they had not received the strongest
+provocation both from the material and the religious points of view.
+
+Once the “Grand Period” was passed, that period in which such men as
+the Barbarossas, Dragut, and Ali flourished, the chronicle of the
+Moslem States founded by them sinks to the degraded level of sheer
+robbery and murder; of a history of a tyranny established within one
+hundred miles of the shores of Europe, and of great kings and princes
+bargaining with piratical ruffians who held in thrall thousands upon
+thousands of their subjects. How it came about that the Christian
+States tolerated such an abuse is one of those mysteries which can
+never be explained; and if subsequent centuries displayed a greater
+refinement of manners, a more apt appreciation of all that is softer
+and kindlier in the human relationships of nation towards nation and
+of people towards people, they have not perhaps so much to plume
+themselves upon as had their rude forefathers of the sixteenth century,
+who, seeing the evil and feeling the effects thereof, did their best to
+extirpate those by whom this evil was caused.
+
+The question may be asked, how can it be that the lives and actions of
+such men as these are worth chronicling? It is because, not only that
+they modified profoundly the course of history in the age in which they
+lived, but also because that, hidden deep down, somewhere, in these men
+stained by a thousand crimes, ruthless, lustful, bloodthirsty, cruel as
+the grave, was the germ of true greatness, some dim spark of the divine
+fire of genius. Contending against principalities and powers, they held
+their own; in the welter of anarchy in which they lived they proved
+that there existed no finer fighting men, which alone give them some
+claim to consideration; but that which is most interesting to watch is
+the absolute domination obtained by the leaders over their followers.
+There is no other record of pirates who commanded on so large a scale;
+there is none which shows men such as these bargaining on equal terms
+with the great ones of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS
+
+
+There is, in the deeds of men of action, an interest which is never
+aroused by those persons of brains and capacity by whom the world
+is really ruled. The statesman in his cabinet is the god within the
+machine; it is he who directs the acts of nations, it is he who moves
+the fleets and armies as if they were pieces on the chess-board; to
+him, as a rule, is the man of action subordinate, obeying his behests.
+Rule and governance are his, power both in the abstract and the
+concrete. Seldom in the history of the world do we come across the men
+who are at one and the same time statesmen and soldiers, who, taking
+their destiny in their own hands, work it out to the appointed end
+thereof. But, as we stray in the by-paths of history, we meet with
+some who, in their day, have influenced not only the age in which they
+lived themselves, but also the destinies of generations yet unborn. It
+would seem incredible that mere pirates, such as the Moslem corsairs
+of the Mediterranean, could be included in this category, and yet, as
+their story is unfolded, we shall see how the Sea-wolves rose from
+the humblest beginnings to trouble the peace of Europe, to found for
+themselves dynasties which endured.
+
+Uruj Barbarossa, Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, Dragut Reis, and Occhiali, or
+All Basha, were men who, in the sixteenth century, did much to change
+the conditions of the times in which they lived: it was the time of
+the Renaissance in Europe, a period of splendour in all the arts and
+sciences. These men added nothing to the knowledge of the civilised
+world as it then existed, save and except in one particular, which
+was, as Kheyr-ed-Din explained to Soliman the Magnificent on a certain
+memorable occasion, that he who rules on the sea will rule on the land
+also. In the present day, when all the nations and languages sit at the
+feet of Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Mahan, and acclaim his “Sea Power”
+series of books, it is interesting to find that he was anticipated
+in the most practical fashion possible by a corsair of the sixteenth
+century.
+
+This period was one in which great men abounded. The Emperor Charles
+V., Francis I. of France, and Henry VIII. of England, were on the
+thrones of their respective countries; in Hungary was John Hunyadi, at
+Constantinople Soliman the Magnificent held rule, while in Rome the
+“fatal house of Medici” were the successors of Saint Peter. War was a
+commonplace state of the times, but until the Crescent began to sweep
+the seas it had its manifestation in the perpetual quarrels of the
+nations of Christendom, which represented, as a rule, the insatiable
+ambitions of its rulers. But now new men forced themselves to the
+front, a new power arose which was very imperfectly understood, and
+which practically held the sea at its mercy. Gone were the halcyon
+days of peaceful trade which had been pursued for generations by
+Venetian and Genoese, by Spaniard and Frenchman; gone also, apparently
+never to return, was all sense of security for the wretched dwellers on
+the littoral of the Mediterranean, who lived in daily, and particularly
+in nightly, dread of the falcon swoop of the pirate galleys.
+
+It is amusing to read the old chroniclers, sticklers as they were for
+“the dignity of history,” continually having to turn aside from the
+main stream of their narrative of emperors, popes, and kings to descend
+to the level of the Sea-wolves, and to be constrained to set down the
+nefarious doings of these rovers of the sea. Bell, book, and candle
+were invoked against them in vain, and mighty monarchs had to meet them
+in the stricken field not merely once or twice—to their utter undoing
+and discomfiture—but many times, while victory inclined first to one
+side and then to the other.
+
+The Osmanli had ever been warriors since the times of the Prophet, of
+Abu-Bekr, of Othman, and of Ali; but so far their warlike achievements
+had been always on land, their only sea experience being confined to
+the crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar, when in the eighth century,
+under Tarik, they had swarmed into Andalusia, conquered Roderick the
+Goth, and set up that Moslem domination in Southern Spain which lasted
+until 1492, just before the events set forth in this book took place.
+Piracy in all ages is a thing in which a curious shuddering interest
+has been taken, and the deeds of the outlaws of the sea have never
+lacked chroniclers. There is for this a reason apart from the record
+of robbery and murder, which is the commonplace of piratical deeds:
+it resides in the perennial interest which men take in individual
+achievement, in the spectacle of absolute and complete domination by
+one man over the lives and the fortunes of others. This intense form of
+individualism is nowhere so well exhibited as in the story of piratical
+enterprise, where a band of men, outside of the law and divorced from
+all human kind by the atrocity of their deeds, has had to be welded
+into one homogeneous mass for the purpose of preying upon the world
+at large. Therefore he who would hold rule among such outlaws must
+himself be a man of no common description, for in him must be that
+quality which calls for instantaneous obedience among those with whom
+he is associated; behind him is no constituted authority, discipline is
+personal, enforced by the leader, and by him alone. Beneath him are men
+of the rudest and roughest description, slaves to their lusts and their
+passions, prone to mutiny, suspicious, and—worst of all—stupid.
+
+It is with these constituent elements that the piratical leader had to
+deal, trusting to the strength of his own arm, the subtlety of his own
+unassisted brain. Some among these leaders have risen to eminence in
+their evil lives, most of them have been the captains of single ships
+preying on commerce in an indiscriminate manner; but this was not the
+case with the Sea-wolves of the Mediterranean, Primarily sea-robbers
+they were of course, but as time and opportunity developed their
+characters they rose to meet occasion, to take fortune at the flood, in
+a manner that, had they been pursuing any other career, would most
+certainly have caused them to rise to eminence. Into the fierce and
+blood-stained turmoil of their lives there entered something unknown
+to any other pirates: this was religious fanaticism—a fanaticism so
+engrained in character, a belief held to with such passionate tenacity,
+that men stained with every conceivable crime held that their passage
+to Paradise was absolutely secure because of the faith which they
+professed. Tradition, sentiment, discipline, were summed up in one
+trite formula; but though we, at this distance of time, may hold it
+somewhat in derision, it was a vital force in the days of Soliman the
+Magnificent; and there was an added zest to robbery and murder in the
+fact that the pirates, as good Mohammedans, were obeying the behests of
+the Prophet every time that they cut a Christian throat, plundered a
+Christian argosy, or carried off shrieking women into a captivity far
+worse than death.
+
+That a pirate should be a warrior goes without saying, that a pirate
+should be a statesman is a thing almost incredible; but those who
+will read the story of the life of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa will be
+forced to admit that here, at least, was a pirate who achieved the
+apparently impossible. Admiral Jurien de la Gravière has remarked that
+the Moslem corsairs of the sixteenth century were great men, even when
+measured by the standard of Henry VIII., of Charles V., of Soliman the
+Magnificent, of Ibrahim, his Grand Vizier, or of Andrea Doria, greatest
+among contemporary Christian mariners. To the seaman, of course, there
+is much that is fascinating in the deeds of his forerunners, and
+the ships of the corsairs had in them something distinctive in that
+they were propelled by oars, and were in consequence, to a certain
+extent, independent of the weather. Like the sailors of all ages, to
+the Sea-wolves gales and storms of all sorts and descriptions were
+abhorrent; and in consequence they had a well-marked piracy season,
+which, as we shall see, covered the spring and summer, while they
+carefully avoided the inclement months of autumn and winter.
+
+In a later chapter an attempt has been made to place before the reader
+pictures of the galley, the galeasse, and the nef, which were the names
+attached to the ships then in use; the name brigantine, far from having
+the significance attached to it by the sailor of the present day, seems
+to have been a generic term to denote any craft not included in the
+names already given.
+
+Although the sixteenth century had outgrown the principle of the
+general massacre of the enemy by the victors, still chivalry to the
+fallen foe was far to seek, as all persons captured at sea were, no
+matter what their rank and status, immediately stripped and chained to
+the rowers’ bench, where they remained until ransom, good fortune, or
+a kindly death, for which these unfortunates were wont to pray, should
+come to their release. To a large extent this savagery may be traced
+to the religious rancour which animated the combatants on both sides,
+as the fanaticism of the Moslem, of which we have already spoken, was
+fully matched on the side of the Christians by the bigotry of the
+Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, otherwise known as the Knights of
+Malta, who were vowed to the extermination of what they, on their
+side, called “the infidel.” It was an age of iron, when men neither
+gave nor expected grace for the misfortunes which might befall them in
+the warrior life which they led. It was distinguished by many gallant
+feats of arms on both sides, but pity formed no part of the equipment
+of the fighting man bent on the death or capture of his enemy. Honestly
+and sincerely each side believed that they were doing the service of
+the Almighty in destroying the other party root and branch. The amount
+of human misery and suffering caused by the rise and progress of the
+Moslem corsairs was absolutely incalculable; the slavery of the rower
+in the galley in the time of which we speak was an agony so dreadful
+that in these days it is a thing which seems altogether incredible, a
+nightmare of horror almost impossible even to imagine.
+
+The life of the “gallerian” was so hard that his sufferings in many
+cases were mercifully ended in death in a very short time, as none
+save those of iron constitution could stand the strain imposed by the
+desperate toil and wretched food. Yet there are cases on record of men
+who had worked at the oar for actual decades, so unconquerable in their
+strength that even such a life as this had not the power to break them
+down.
+
+To the peaceful mariner who wished merely to trade, to the individual
+whose business called him overseas, this epoch must have been one of
+terror unspeakable. The ordinary perils of the deep were quite enough
+to keep timid folk at home in those days of clumsy, ill-found sailing
+ships, which could by no means work to windward, and did not sail
+remarkably well even with the most favouring breezes; when to this we
+add that every ship which started on a voyage in the Mediterranean had
+before her the chance of being captured by the corsairs, it was no
+wonder that he whose business led him oversea should make his last will
+and testament and bid a fond farewell to all his relatives.
+
+There is a record in the Mémoires of the Rev. Frère Pierre d’An,
+Bachelier en Théologie de la Faculté de Paris, etc., who wrote in a
+most heartfelt manner concerning the danger of the sea and the perils
+to be expected from the Barbary corsairs. He says, date 1637:
+
+  “An ancient writer, considering how little assurance
+  can ordinarily be placed in the sea, and how hazardous
+  it is to expose oneself and one’s goods to its mercy,
+  has remarked, with much reason, that it is infinitely
+  preferable to be poor on shore than to be rich at sea.
+  In which saying he mocks indeed at those ambitious,
+  avaricious, and mercenary men who, in order to gain false
+  glory and the things of this world, expose themselves
+  rashly to the manifest perils which are most of the time
+  the inevitable lot of the seaman. This same consideration
+  causes him also to utter these remarkable words: that
+  he repents himself of but one thing, and that is ever
+  to have travelled by sea when it was possible to have
+  done so by land. And, to say truth, he has good reason
+  to speak as he does, because it is impossible for the
+  most hardy navigators not to tremble with fear when it is
+  represented before their eyes that they must combat with
+  the winds, the waves, and the foam every time that they
+  adventure upon the deep.
+
+  “Because it is indisputable that this is the very Theatre
+  of the storms, and the place in the world most capable
+  of all sorts of violence and tragic adventure. This,
+  however, does not prevent those who covet the perishable
+  goods of this world from straying upon the sea, even in
+  unknown and untraversed regions, without ceasing and
+  without rest.
+
+  “If, however, they abandon the ocean for a time, it is
+  but to return to it again to seek once more war with
+  their ships, in order unjustly to make themselves masters
+  of the bodies and of the riches of others.
+
+  “Of such it may be remarked to-day are, in all the
+  maritime coasts, the implacable Corsairs of Barbary. For,
+  however great may be the dangers of which we have just
+  spoken, and no matter now many examples they may see of
+  the fury and inconstancy of Neptune, they cease not their
+  irritating performances, kindling warfare in all the
+  coasts of the Christian nations. It is there that they
+  exercise their infamous piracies, and there also that
+  they glory in the most shameful of all commerce—the trade
+  of the brigand.
+
+  “Which in all towns that are well policed have always met
+  with a swift and just retribution, because the law is
+  ordained against those who maintain such practices.
+
+  “But such does not happen among these pirates.
+
+  “On the contrary, it may truthfully be said that, while
+  in towns in which good persons dwell good actions receive
+  the palms and the crown, it is among the Corsairs but to
+  the wicked to whom are given recompense and praise.
+
+  “In effect the most determined among them—I mean the most
+  unworthy robbers who are best versed in all the infamies
+  of their trade and most accustomed to the practice of
+  violence—are those who are covered with honours, and
+  who pass in the estimation of their fellows for men of
+  heart and courage.
+
+  “Indeed experience has taught all Christian merchants
+  that the infidels of the coast of Barbary are all
+  brigands.
+
+  “Among these those of Algiers carry off the prize for
+  riches, for ships, for strength, and for villainy.”
+
+The bachelor in theology is somewhat sweeping in his criticisms, and
+his meaning is, perhaps, somewhat clearer than his grammar. One thing,
+however, is perfectly plain, that, in the opinion of the reverend
+brother, those who go to sea are to be divided into two categories,
+rogues and fools, with a strong preponderance of the worse Element of
+the two.
+
+Of the corsairs dealt with in this record of their deeds the two
+Barbarossas were the sons of a Mohammedan father and a Christian
+mother. Dragut Reis was a pure Mohammedan, and Ali Basha was a
+pure-blooded Italian. All these men, as will be seen, raised themselves
+to eminence in the profession of piracy; in each and every separate
+case starting at the very bottom rung of the ladder and rising, by
+sheer stress of valour and character, to the very top. Each in turn
+became Admiralissimo to the Grand Turk at Constantinople. Kheyr-ed-Din
+Barbarossa commanded the Ottoman fleet at the great battle of Prevesa,
+at which he met with his life-long competitor at sea, the famous
+Genoese Admiral, Andrea Doria. Dragut Reis was killed at the siege
+of Malta in 1565, and Ali Basha was the only Moslem commander who
+increased his reputation at the battle of Lepanto in 1571, when Don
+John of Austria shattered the power of the Moslem at sea for the time
+being.
+
+Although the “renegado” was very much in evidence in the vessels of
+the Moslem corsairs, still of course the bulk of the fighting men, by
+which the galleys were manned, were Mohammedans, the descendants of the
+warriors who had swept through Northern Africa like a living flame in
+the early days of the Mohammedan conquest.
+
+Cut adrift from the homes which had been theirs for over seven
+centuries—as we shall see in the next chapter—there was nothing left
+for the erstwhile dwellers in Andalusia but to gain their living by the
+strong hand. The harvest of the sea was the one which they garnered—a
+harvest of the goods of their mortal enemies strung out in lines of
+hapless merchant-vessels throughout the length and breadth of the
+tideless sea.
+
+It booted not that the great Powers of Europe sent expedition after
+expedition against them; these they fought to the death with varying
+fortune, ready, when the storm had passed over their heads, to start
+once more on the only career which promised them the chance of
+acquiring riches. Their whole history is a study of warfare, waged as a
+rule on the petty scale, but rising at times, as in the cases already
+mentioned, into events of first-class historical importance.
+
+The deeds of the buccaneers of the next century in the Spanish Main
+sink into comparative insignificance when compared with what was
+accomplished by such a man as Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, who was known,
+and rightly known, by his contemporaries, and for many generations
+of Moslem seamen yet to come, as “the King of the Sea.” The capture of
+Panama by Sir Henry Morgan in January 1671 was possibly as remarkable
+a feat of arms as was ever accomplished, but it cannot rank in its
+importance to civilised mankind on the same plane as those memorable
+battles in the Mediterranean of which mention has been made as having
+been fought by the Moslem corsairs.
+
+Fighting for their own hand, the booty reaped by these men was
+incredible in its richness. Sea-power was theirs, and they took the
+fullest advantage of this fact, fearing none save the great community
+of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, which, vowed to the
+destruction of the infidel, neither gave nor accepted quarter.
+
+We have said that the real interest in the lives of the corsairs arose
+from the fact that it was personal ascendancy, and that alone, which
+counted in the piratical hierarchy. Against Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa
+plots arose again and again, only to be defeated by the address of the
+man against whom they were directed.
+
+It was one of the cruellest of ages, and rough cruelty was the
+principal means adopted to ensure success; sheer terror was the weapon
+of the leader. Thus when one Hassan, a subordinate of Kheyr-ed-Din,
+failed to take a Spanish ship because she made too stout a resistance,
+his chief caused him to be soundly flogged and then thrown into prison.
+Such methods naturally raised up hosts of enemies in the wake of the
+piratical commanders, ready at any time to do them a mortal injury, and
+it is little short of miraculous that they should throughout a long
+period of years have been able not only to maintain, but to increase,
+their supremacy over the wild spirits of which their following was
+composed. It was, however, the golden age of autocracy, when men
+surrendered their judgment to some great leader, content to follow
+where he led, to endorse his policy at the cost of their lives.
+
+It is the autocrat who is made by the circumstances of his life who
+ultimately becomes supreme. The leaders among the corsairs were tried
+by every test of prosperity and of adverse fortune; they emerged from
+the ruck in the first instance because it was in them to display a more
+desperate valour than did their contemporaries, and it was only when
+they emerged triumphant from this, the first test, that they could
+begin to impose their will upon others. It was then that their real
+trials began, as the undisciplined are ever prone to suspicion, much
+given to murmuring against a leader who is not perpetually successful.
+
+As a rule, however, there were but few to criticise, as the office of
+critic was one fraught with far too much danger to be alluring. In
+maintaining their authority the leaders stopped at nothing, and the
+heads of the recalcitrant were apt to part with amazing suddenness from
+their bodies if they repined overmuch. The Moslem leader was, it is
+true, merely _primus inter pares_, and was distinguished by no outward
+symbol of the power which he possessed; but life and death lay in his
+hands, and life was cheap indeed.
+
+We have spoken hitherto of the leaders, but what of the men of which
+their following was composed? Rough, rude, and reckless, these latter
+lived but to fight and to plunder; to them any other life would have
+seemed impossible, and indeed this was practically the fact. In the
+communities in which they lived the adult male had no other means of
+gaining a livelihood. Since their expulsion from their ancient homes no
+ordered and peaceful method of existence had been possible for them.
+In the surroundings in which their forefathers had lived the arts of
+peace had been carried on in a civilisation to which there had been
+none comparable in the world as it then existed; on all this the Moslem
+had now to turn his back, and to earn a precarious living by the strong
+hand. War, sanguinary and incessant, was henceforward to be his lot,
+and it must be said that he turned to this ancient avocation with a
+zest which left but little to be desired from the point of view of
+those by whom he was led. In the new life of bloodshed and adventure he
+seemed to delight. Like the free-lance in all ages, he seems to have
+squandered his booty as soon as it was acquired, and then to sea once
+more, to face the desperate hazard of an encounter with the knights, to
+raid defenceless villages, to lie _perdu_ behind some convenient cape,
+dashing out from thence to plunder the argosy of the merchantman.
+Intolerable conditions of heat and cold he endured, he suffered from
+wounds, from fever, from hunger and thirst, from hope deferred, from
+voyages when no plunder came his way.
+
+His reward was the joy of the fight, the delight of the ambush
+skilfully laid, to see the decks of the enemy a dreadful shambles, with
+the Crescent flag of the Prophet above the detested emblem of the
+Cross. Then the return to Algiers laden with spoil: to tow behind him
+some luckless Christian ship, while aboard his own war-worn galley the
+drums beat and the trumpets sounded, and the banners floated free to
+the stainless Mediterranean sky. Then the procession of the captives
+through the crowded streets laden with what a short time before
+had been their own property—a mournful _cortège_ of men doomed to an
+everlasting slavery and of women destined for the harems of the Bashas.
+
+Thus was his life lived, and when death came it came as a rule from the
+slash of a sabre or the ball from an arquebus or a bombard; and then
+what matter, for had not Hassan Ali or Selim fallen in strife against
+the enemies of his faith, and did not the portals of heaven open wide
+to receive the man who had lost his life testifying to the fact that
+there was but one God, and that Mahomet was the Prophet of God?
+
+True in substance and in fact is that which was said by the Frère
+Pierre d’An that “it is indisputable that the sea is the Theatre of
+the storms and the place in the world most capable of all sorts of
+violence and tragic adventure.” Those who “coveted the goods of others
+straying on the sea,” called by the reverend brother “the implacable,
+corsairs of Barbary,” were to make life intolerable on that element for
+centuries to come, and if the Crescent did not supersede the banner of
+the Cross in the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, it remained as a
+portent and a dread symbol of human misery and unutterable suffering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE COMING OF THE CORSAIRS
+
+
+The rise and progress of the Moslem corsairs of the Mediterranean is a
+most curious and interesting historical fact. The causes which led to
+results so deplorable to commerce, civilisation, and Christianity are
+set forth in this chapter in order that some idea may be formed of the
+state of affairs in that region at the end of the fifteenth and the
+beginning of the sixteenth centuries, and also that the reflex action
+of the great triumph of the Christian armies in Spain may be more fully
+understood.
+
+The maritime Christian States of the Mediterranean at this epoch
+were at the height of their power and prosperity, but were faced by
+the might of the Ottoman Empire, against which they waged perpetual
+warfare. Bitter and unceasing was the strife prosecuted by the Cross
+against the Crescent, and by the Crescent against the Cross; and
+riding, like eagles on the storm came the corsairs in their swift
+galleys ready to strike down the luckless argosy of the merchantman
+wheresoever she was to be met. But this was not all, as the shore as
+well as the sea yielded up to them its tribute in the shape of slaves
+and booty, and Christian mothers trembling in the insecurity of their
+homes would hush their wailing children with the terror of the names
+of Barbarossa, of Dragut, or of Ali Basha.
+
+Popes and emperors, kings and princes, found themselves compelled to
+form leagues against these Sea-wolves who devoured the substance of
+their subjects, and great expeditions were fitted out to fight with and
+destroy the corsairs. Had Christendom been united no doubt the object
+would have been attained; but, as will be seen at the end of this
+chapter, an “Alliance of Christian Princes against the Turks”—which
+generic term included the corsairs—was not always used in the manner
+best calculated to injure those common enemies.
+
+When in 1492 Granada was yielded up to “Los Reyes Catolicos,” Ferdinand
+of Aragon, and Isabella of Castile, by that luckless monarch known as
+Boabdil el Chico (or “the little”), the last remnant of the power of
+the Moors in Spain had gone never to return. On that small hill on the
+way to the coast still known as “el ultimo suspiro del Moro” (the last
+sigh of the Moor), Boabdil, as he looked for the last time on his lost
+capital of Granada, is said to have burst into tears. His fierce mother
+Ayesha had, however, no sympathy for her fallen son: “Thou doest well
+to weep like a woman for that which thou daredst not defend as a man,”
+was her biting—and totally unjust—comment, and the cavalcade pursued
+its miserable journey to the coast, from whence it embarked for the
+kingdom of Fez.
+
+Great was the jubilation in Christendom; for more than seven centuries
+the followers of the Prophet had dwelt in the land from which Tarik
+had expelled Roderick the Goth in the eighth century. There they had
+dwelt and held up a lamp of learning and comparative civilisation which
+shone brightly through the miasmatic mists of cruelty and bloodshed
+in the Middle Ages, and none can question that, under Moorish rule
+in Spain in those centuries, the arts of peace had flourished, and
+that science, agriculture, art, and learning had found generous and
+discriminating patronage in the courts of Còrdoba and Granada.
+
+And now all was over the iron chivalry of the North had broken in
+pieces the Paynim hosts. They were expelled for ever from Christian
+soil, or else were forced to live in a state of degrading servitude,
+sore oppressed by an alien rule, in the land which their forbears had
+won and kept by the sword.
+
+There was jubilation, as has been said, in Christendom, but the knights
+and nobles who flocked from all parts of Europe to join the standard of
+the Catholic monarchs had no prevision of the consequences, no idea of
+the legacy that they were leaving to their descendants.
+
+It is of this legacy that we have to speak, and there has been none
+more terrible, none fraught with more awful suffering for the human
+race. The broken hosts of the Moslem chivalry became the corsairs of
+the Mediterranean: ruthless pirates freed from all restraint of human
+pity, living only to inflict the maximum of suffering upon their
+Christian foes, who, having sown the wind at the taking of Granada,
+reaped in the coming centuries a whirlwind of blood and agony which
+continued down to the bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in 1816,
+and even later than that date.
+
+Warriors to a man, the hosts of Boabdil crossed the Straits of
+Gibraltar into Africa; warriors but now broken men, from whom had been
+reft not only their lands and houses but even the chance of remaining
+in their native country. Religious toleration had been the rule of
+the Moslem States in Spain. In the name of religion they had been
+expropriated; therefore toleration was slain, and to exalt the Crescent
+above the Cross became the duty of every fighting Mohammedan. Into
+all the ports and harbours of the North African littoral the Moslems
+intruded themselves, their one preoccupation to revenge themselves upon
+the Christians, of no matter what race or nationality. There was at
+this date but small opposition from the rulers of the Pagan States who
+held in their weak and inefficient hands such strong places of arms as
+Algiers and Tunis.
+
+Very soon the Moslems acquired the habit of the sea, and very soon the
+Christian States discovered how different was the Mohammedan dwelling
+at peace in Andalusia, or at worst fighting with his co-religionists,
+to the desperate corsairs created by their own act who now ravaged the
+shores of the tideless sea.
+
+In the years succeeding to the conquest of Granada the corsairs became
+the scourge of the Mediterranean. France, Spain, Genoa, Venice, were
+all at odds with them; as the trading vessels, which had hitherto
+passed to and fro unmolested, were now captured, haled into North
+African ports, their cargoes sold, and their hapless crews forced to
+labour, naked and chained to the benches of the pirate galleys, until
+death came and mercifully put an end to their sufferings.
+
+From Reggio to Genoa, from Venice to Taranto, the cry of rage and
+fear went up; it was re-echoed from the coasts of France and of the
+Balearic Islands, while Southern Spain seethed with disaffection, and
+the Moriscoes, as those Moors who remained in the country were known,
+were ever on the lookout to assist their bold brethren, the rovers of
+the sea. Christendom was completely bewildered: hitherto the relations
+between the nations and the Kings of Tunis, Tlemcen, Fez, and others
+of the North African potentates, had been of the most agreeable
+description. Both parties had denounced piracy, and had as far as in
+them lay done all in their power to discourage this form of robbery.
+But now all was changed, and, as has been said in the previous chapter,
+a situation arose analogous to that of the Spaniards in the West Indies
+a century and a half later when Morgan and the buccaneers were at the
+height of their maleficent prowess. The situation was analogous, but
+whereas Morgan, Scott, L’Ollonais, and others terrorised only such
+forces as Spain possessed in far-distant colonies, the corsairs were a
+terror to all the great nations of the world.
+
+Granada fell, as has been said, in 1492 amid the rejoicings of the
+Christian States; but it had been well for Christendom as a whole if
+the Caliphs of Còrdova and Granada had never been defeated, and they
+and their subjects driven from their homes: to form the nucleus of
+those piratical States which existed from this date until well into the
+nineteenth century, as the scourge and the terror of all those who,
+during those ages, desired to “pass upon the seas on their lawful
+occasions.” The capture of Granada was separated from the fall of the
+Byzantine Empire by a period of thirty-nine years, as it was in the
+year 1453 that Constantinople was captured by the Caliph Mahomet II.
+Byzantium fell, and perhaps nothing in the records of that Empire
+became it so well as that last tremendous struggle; and when on May
+29th, 1453, the Ottoman legions were victorious, the body of the last
+Emperor of Byzantium was found beneath a mountain of the slain only
+recognisable by his purple mantle sewn with golden bees. The Cross
+which Constantine the Great had planted on the walls 1125 years before
+was replaced by the Crescent, and the Christian Cathedral became that
+Mosque of St. Sophia which still endures.
+
+From the earliest days of the Moslem corsairs of the Mediterranean they
+were in close communication with their co-religionists of the Ottoman
+Empire; and this for a very good reason, which was that the Turk had
+not the habit of the sea, but was essentially a land warrior, and, as
+the story of the Sea-wolves progresses, we shall see how in a sense the
+Grand Turk and the pirates became interdependent in the ceaseless wars
+which were waged in the epoch of which we treat.
+
+The fall of Constantinople resounded throughout Christendom as though
+it had been the crack of doom, and all men held their breath wondering
+what next might portend. So stunned were the maritime States that
+they took no action, letting “I dare not wait upon I would.” Their
+indecision was fatal. Had the Venetians, the Genoese, and the Catalans
+at this juncture formed an alliance, they might have chased the
+Turks from off the face of the waters; but to mutual jealousy and
+indecision was added fear—fear of this new and mighty power which had
+arisen and had swept away one of the landmarks of Europe. So it fell
+out that Genoa entered into an arrangement with the Grand Turk, and
+Venice concluded a treaty of commerce on April 18th, 1454. It was the
+Caliph Mahomet who first fortified the Dardanelles, where he mounted
+thirty heavy guns before which Jacques Loredano, the Venetian admiral,
+recoiled, reporting to the Republic that henceforward none could pass
+the Straits. We have, however, nothing to do with the Grand Turk in
+these pages, save, and except in so far, as he had an effect on the
+lives of the corsairs. This effect will develop itself as we proceed.
+
+There is one body of men, however, concerning whom it may be as well
+to treat of briefly in this place, as the lives which they led and
+the deeds which they performed were inextricably entangled with those
+of the corsairs. These men were the members of that association first
+known as the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, later as the Knights
+of Malta. Between them and the corsairs it was war to the death; and
+not only with these robbers, but also with any ship which sailed
+beneath the insignia of the Crescent.
+
+In 1291 the Soldan of Egypt chased the Knights Hospitallers, as they
+were also known, from the soil of the Holy Land; Philip IV. of France
+welcomed them in the island of Cyprus, and gave them the town of
+Limasol as an asylum. This for the time the knights were bound to
+accept, but they were impatient of charity, resentful of tutelage,
+proud and independent. Considering their own order as the greatest and
+most stable bulwark of the Christian faith, they bowed before neither
+King nor Kaiser; and the only boon they asked of great potentates, when
+allied temporarily with them in their eternal warfare, was that on all
+occasions theirs should be the post of the greatest danger.
+
+This, indeed, they did not ask as a favour, but claimed as a right. It
+is easily understood that such desperate warriors, who fought only to
+conquer or die, were allies sought for eagerly by all professing the
+same faith.
+
+Fulke de Villaret, Grand Master of the order in 1310, seized upon
+Rhodes, which, though nominally belonging to Greece, was at this time
+a refuge for bad characters of all nationalities. This island was in
+the most advantageous position, as it commanded the sea-route from
+Constantinople to Egypt and the ports of Asia Minor, and was also
+in close proximity to the coast of Caramania, from whence the order
+could draw the necessary timber for the building of their galleys and
+incidentally their motive power—in the shape of slaves—for the oars by
+which they were propelled.
+
+The knights fortified the island until it was practically unassailable
+in that age. In the meanwhile their navy grew so rapidly that, in
+1436, they were actually in a position to fight the Turks in line of
+battle. To Rhodes came the younger sons of noble families from every
+nation in Europe, all aflame with ardour to fight for “the religion”;
+and the great nobles themselves did not disdain to take service in so
+chivalrous an order.
+
+Their former enemy, the Soldan of Egypt, made a descent on the island
+in 1440, and in 1444 besieged the place in form; but he was beaten off,
+after forty-two days’ ceaseless fighting, with great slaughter.
+
+“Soldier and sailor too” were the bold Knights of Saint John; for them
+no toil was too arduous, no danger too great. In heat and cold, in
+storm and tempest, they plied their trade of war, their holy crusade
+to extirpate the infidel from off the face of the waters. They looked
+for no material reward, and riches and honours they contemptuously
+rejected. Strong in their marvellous faith that on their shoulders
+rested the propagation of Christianity in these latter days, they
+swept the seas with a calm assumption of victory which caused it to be
+half assured before the fight began. And when the battle was joined,
+where could be found such paladins as these men who claimed it as an
+inalienable right to head the hurricane rush of the boarders from the
+decks of their galleys, to be ever the leaders when the forlorn hope
+should mount the breach? Life for the knights of this order was looked
+at literally with a single purpose—the advancement of Christianity and
+the downfall of that pestilent heresy which proclaimed that Mahomet
+was the prophet of God. Against all who bowed the knee in the mosques
+of the false prophet their lives were vowed, and it is but the barest
+justice to them to record that on the altar of this their faith these
+were ungrudgingly poured forth.
+
+Naturally reprisals were the order of the day. Equally fanatical was he
+who held to the Moslem faith; in consequence many were the attempts
+to stamp out, once and for all, the prime enemies of the Ottoman
+Empire. In 1480 a Turkish fleet of one hundred and forty ships issued
+from the Dardanelles, an army awaited it on the coast of Caramania
+which was rapidly embarked, and on May 23rd the fleet anchored a few
+miles from the town of Rhodes. Here, then, was a trial of strength in
+which the Hospitallers delighted. After repeated attacks in detail, on
+July 28th a grand assault was made which the Turks considered would be
+absolutely decisive: it was decisive, but not in the fashion which they
+anticipated.
+
+The standard of the Janissaries already floated on the first curtain
+of the rampart when Pierre D’Aubusson rallied the knights for one last
+desperate effort. “Shall it be said in days to come that ‘the Religion’
+recoiled before a horde of Moslem savages; that the banner of Saint
+John was soiled by their infamous touch? But this is no time for talk.
+Ye have swords, Messires; use them!”
+
+Thus the Grand Master; and then the knights, in their battered armour
+and with their hacked and dinted swords, flung themselves once more
+upon the foe. The Janissaries closed in around them; but these fine
+troops were not what they had been two months before, and the close
+contact with the Hospitallers, which had endured sixty-five days,
+had been to them a lesson fraught with disaster: they had already
+lost six thousand men, and their adversaries were still absolutely
+undismayed. His helmet gone, his banner held aloft over his head,
+Pierre D’Aubusson was ever in the thickest of the fray unconquered,
+unconquerable; and pressing close behind him came the knights, each
+jealous for the glory of his “Auberge.” French, Venetian, Catalan,
+Genoese German, none can tell who fought best that day; but the
+Janissaries were beaten, and three thousand of their corpses cumbered
+the ditch into which they were hurled by their foes; there were besides
+fifteen thousand wounded in the Turkish camp.
+
+The heart was out of that great army which had embarked to the sound
+of trumpets and the blessings of the Mullahs but ten weeks before,
+and they sailed away a beaten force. Mahomet II. swore to avenge his
+defeat, but his days were numbered, and he died at Scutari on May 3rd,
+1481, at the age of fifty-two, and in the thirteenth year of his reign.
+
+In the year 1499 Daoud Pasha, Admiralissimo to Bajazet, the successor
+to Mahomet II., defeated Antonio Grimani the Venetian admiral in
+that combat known to the Republic as “La deplorabile battaglia del
+Zonchio.” The populace of Venice demanded that Grimani should be
+instantly beheaded, but he not only escaped their vengeance but lived
+to be nominated as Doge on June 6th, 1521, at the age of eighty-seven:
+certainly a curious record for an unsuccessful admiral of that date.
+
+In 1500 was formed the “Alliance of Christian Princes” at the
+initiative of the Borgia Pope Alexander VII. Louis XII., King of
+France, and Ferdinand V. of Spain announced their adherence to this
+effort against the Turk, and Pierre D’Aubusson, the veteran Grand
+Master of the Knights of Saint John, was nominated as Captain-General
+of the Christian armies. For the purposes of this war the admiral
+of the Papal galleys in the Mediterranean, Lodovico del Mosca,
+purchased from Ferdinand, King of Naples, all his artillery, of which
+a description is given by the Padre Alberto Guglielmotti, a Dominican
+friar, author of a work entitled, “La Guerra dei Pirati e la Marina
+Pontifica dal 1500 al 1560 A.D.” “There were thirty-six great bombards,
+with eighty carts pertaining to them; some drawn by horses, some drawn
+by buffaloes harnessed singly, or two, four, or even six together; two
+waggons laden with arquebuses for ships’ boats; nine with about forty
+smaller bombards (_bombardelles_) placed three, four, or even six on
+each waggon; twelve with ordinary pieces of artillery; as many more
+for the service of twelve big guns; thirty-seven carts of iron balls;
+three with gunpowder; and finally five laden with nitre, darts, and
+bullets. Splendid artillery of most excellent workmanship and great
+power escorted by two thousand men under arms, without mentioning the
+companies who marched before and after each waggon.”
+
+The French king had prepared a fleet and army under Count Philip
+of Ravenstein; the Spaniards were under the command of Gonsalvo de
+Còrdoba, the “Great Captain.” The history of the “Alliance of Christian
+Princes” is illustrative of the methods of those potentates at that
+time. After one or two unimportant skirmishes with the Turks, in which
+no great harm was done on either side, the French and Spaniards joined
+together, and seized the Kingdom of Naples: the prudent king of this
+territory, having sold his artillery to Lodovico del Mosca, did not
+await the coming of his Christian brethren.
+
+In the territory known to the Romans as Byzacena, which stretched
+from Algiers to the confines of Tripoli, there was reigning at this
+period one Abu-Abd-Allah-Mahomed, a Berber Moslem of the dynasty of
+Hafsit. Between this dignitary and Genoa a treaty of commerce had been
+arranged and signed. But treaties on the shores of the Mediterranean
+were capable of very elastic interpretation; they never reckoned
+with the corsairs, and these latter were in the habit of intruding
+themselves everywhere, and upsetting the most carefully laid plans.
+Curtogali, a corsair who had collected a great following, was now a
+power with which to reckon, and high in the favour of the Grand Turk
+at Constantinople. This robber presented himself at Bizerta—one of
+the ports of Abd-Allah-Mahomed—with a squadron of thirty ships, and
+demanded hospitality. As Curtogali disposed of thirty ships and some
+six thousand fighting men it would probably have been impossible for
+Abd-Allah to have refused his request in any case; but he was far from
+wishing to do so, as, by a convenient interpretation of the Koran, the
+pirate had to deliver up one-fifth part of all the booty which he reft
+from the Christians to the ruler of the country in whose harbours he
+sheltered. There was no place so convenient for the purposes of the
+pirate as Bizerta: from here he could strike at Sicily, at the Balearic
+Islands, at Rome, Naples, Tuscany, and Liguria, while at the same
+time he held the trade slowly sailing along the North African littoral
+at his mercy. Great were the depredations of Curtogali, and even Pope
+Leo X. trembled on his throne, while Genoa, Venice, and Sicily seethed
+with impotent fury.
+
+In the meanwhile who so happy as Abu-Abd-Allah-Mahomed? We cannot do
+better than to take the description of his position from the pages of
+the good Padre Alberto Guglielmotti. The Franciscan says: “He [that is,
+Abd-Allah] desired peace with all and prosperity for his own interests.
+Friendly to the merchants in their commerce; friendly to the corsairs
+in their spoils. Let all hold by the law: the former contentedly paying
+customs dues, the latter cheerfully handing over a fifth part of their
+robberies, and Abd-Allah—their common friend—would ever continue at
+peace with them all. Outside his ports the merchants and the pirates
+might fall by the ears if they would: that was no reason for him to
+trouble his head. On the contrary, he would joyfully await them on
+their return either with customs dues or tribute of the fifth as the
+case might be.”
+
+However well this state of affairs may have suited Abd-Allah, the
+Genoese held that the situation was far from satisfactory. In
+consequence they sent an army against Curtogali, and on August 4th,
+1516, they captured Bizerta, set free a number of Christian captives,
+and plundered the town. But they did not capture Curtogali, who,
+only five weeks after, made a daring attempt to carry off the Pope
+in person from the sea-shore in the neighbourhood of Rome. Curtogali
+ended his days as the Governor of Rhodes, from which the Knights
+of Saint John were finally expelled by Soliman the Magnificent on
+December 22nd, 1522. This was the greatest blow which the fraternity
+ever received. On December 24th the Turks made a triumphal entry into
+the town, and it was said that “Sultan Soliman was not insensible to
+the sorrowful position of his vanquished enemies, and when he saw the
+Christian Commander, Prince Philippe Villiers L’Isle Adam, he remarked:
+‘It weighs upon me somewhat that I should be coming hither to chase
+this aged Christian warrior from his house.’” At the beginning of the
+following year the knights left the island, never to return. On the
+day of this desolate embarcation the herald blew upon his trumpet the
+“Salute and Farewell” and the identical instrument upon which this call
+was sounded is still preserved in the armoury at Malta, to which barren
+island the knights were forced to retreat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+URUJ BARBAROSSA
+
+
+In the year 1457 an obscure Roumelian or Albanian renegado named
+Mahomedi was banished from Constantinople by the Grand Turk; he
+established himself in the island of Mitylene and there married a
+Christian widow named Catalina, by whom he had two sons, Uruj and
+Khizr. The father had been a sailor and both sons adopted the same
+profession. It is from the pages of El Maestro Don Fray Prudencio
+de Sandoval that we glean these bare facts concerning the birth and
+parentage of these men who, in after-years, became known to all the
+dwellers on the shores of the Mediterranean as the “Barbarossas,” from
+their red beards. Sandoval, Bishop of Pampluna, published in the year
+1614 his monumental history of the Emperor Charles V., and through his
+splendid volumes the deeds of the Moslem corsairs run like the scarlet
+thread which is twisted through a Government rope. It is evident that
+the fact of having to deal with such rascals annoys the good Bishop
+not a little, as his severe and caustic comments frequently display.
+There was incident and accident enough in the life of the famous
+“Carlos Quinto” without the historian having to turn aside to chronicle
+the deeds of the pirates; but their exploits were so daring, the
+consequences thereof were so far-reaching, that the ominous crimson
+thread had to be woven into any narrative of the times in despite of
+the annoyance of the man by whom the rope was twisted.
+
+Of Mahomedi we possess no record save the remark concerning him to
+the effect that “el qual fue gran marinero”: in what way he displayed
+his gifts as a seaman we are not told. We have remarked before on the
+curious fact of how the “renegado,” or Christian turned Mohammedan,
+became the most implacable foe of his former co-religionists. We see in
+the case of the two Barbarossas that they had no drop of Moslem blood
+in them, as both parents came from Christian stock: and yet no greater
+scourges ever afflicted the people from whom both their father and
+mother originally sprang than did Uruj and Khizr Barbarossa.
+
+[Illustration: URUJ AND KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA.]
+
+The characters of the two brothers were widely different. The elder was
+no doubt a “first-class fighting man,” a fine seaman, a born partisan
+leader; but here his qualities came to an end. Rough, cruel, imperious,
+brutal, he imposed himself upon those who became his followers; but
+in him were to be found none of the statesmanlike qualities which
+distinguished his far greater younger brother. His was the absolutely
+finite intellect of the tactician as opposed to the strategist, who,
+seeing his objective, was capable of dealing with circumstances as they
+immediately arose; but, partly no doubt from defective education, but
+principally from the lack of intellectual appreciation of the problems
+of the time in which he lived, could never rise to the heights which
+were scaled by Khizr, better known by the title conferred upon him
+later on by the Grand Turk as “Kheyr-ed-Din,” or “The Protector of
+Religion.”
+
+The sons of Mahomed, that “gran marinero,” naturally took to the sea,
+and as a young man Uruj became possessed of a ship—how we do not know,
+and it were better perhaps not to inquire. In this small craft he
+repaired to the coast of Caramania to make war upon the Christians; or,
+in other words, to begin an independent piratical career. Uruj in these
+days was young and inexperienced, or he would not have chosen this
+locality for his first venture, as this coast was in close proximity to
+the island of Rhodes, from whence the great galleys of the Knights of
+Saint John of Jerusalem set forth to exterminate the enemies of their
+faith.
+
+So it came about that Uruj, sailing out in his little ship from under
+the shadow of a wooded point, came in full sight of _Our Lady of the
+Conception_. There was nothing for it but immediate flight, and Uruj
+put his helm up and scudded before the breeze; but the great galley
+“goose-winged” her two mighty lateen sails, and turned in pursuit. The
+ship which carried Uruj and his fortunes was both fast and handy, and
+for a time she held her own; but it was only for a time, as those on
+board _Our Lady of the Conception_, finding that they were not gaining on
+the chase, put forth their oars and soon changed the aspect of affairs.
+The galley of the knights carried twenty-seven oars a-side, and each
+of these oars was manned by nine Moslem slaves. The sea was smooth and
+favourable for rowing, and soon the ravening pursuit closed in on
+the doomed corsair. As the interval between chaser and chased became
+less and less, those on board the pirate ship could see for themselves
+the fate which was awaiting them, as on the central gang-plank, which
+separated the rowers’ benches, the boatswain and his mates were
+unmercifully flogging the bare backs of the straining oarsmen to urge
+them to greater exertions. He who was captured at sea in those days was
+set to row until he died, and the calculating mercy which causes a man
+to feed and treat his beast well in order that it may do the better
+work was not to be relied upon here, as life was cheap and slaves were
+plentiful. Very soon the beak of the galley overhung the stern of the
+little ship. Escape was impossible, to fight would have meant the
+massacre of all on board; the choice was instant submission or a watery
+grave. Uruj lowered his sail, and he and his little company were ironed
+and flung into the depths of the galley until such time as they should
+be wanted to take their turn at the oars. In this ignominious fashion
+ended his first attempt at independent piracy.
+
+But a storm was brewing, and a heavy sea got up. The sails of the
+galley were lowered, her beak was put head-on to the wind, and she
+made for the shore. In this noisome confinement Uruj could hear above
+the crash of the seas and the whistling of the wind the shrieks of the
+hapless slaves as the whips of their taskmasters bit through skin and
+flesh: the galley-slave rowed stark naked chained to his bench. This
+was to be his fate, and he was well aware of the fact.
+
+At last, after nightfall, the galley anchored under the Isle of
+Castel Rosso, at the entrance of the Gulf of Satalie. It still blew
+hard, but, in the comparative peace of the anchorage, sounds hitherto
+hidden by the war of the elements now made themselves manifest. There
+were the snores of the sleepers, the clank of the leg-chains as the
+wretched slaves shifted their positions in the attempt to gain an
+easier place on the bench, there was also the sound of men carousing
+with loud laughter in the stern of the vessel; but above them all rose
+the hollow groaning as of one in mortal agony. This proceeded from a
+slave who was quite close to Uruj. There came a spell in the laughter
+and loud voices in the stern, and presently an imperious voice spoke:
+“That noise disturbs me; see that it ceases at once.” An obsequious
+answer came from out of the prevailing darkness: “It shall cease at
+once, Excellency.” Then came men with lanterns, who unshackled the
+wretch who groaned and—flung him overboard.
+
+The night grew worse, the wind backed, and the galley began to drag her
+anchors. The slaves were roused, and the oars got ready to shift her
+from her dangerous position on what had now become a lee-shore. Uruj
+had managed to slip his shackles, a defective bolt having given him
+his liberty; for him it was now or never, and he was a bold swimmer.
+He had seen enough and heard enough of _Our Lady of the Conception_,
+and, as the great oars plunged once more into the sea, the corsair,
+preferring the mercy of the elements to that of the knights, slipped
+over the side unobserved and swam for the shore. He reached dry land by
+a miracle, and from Satalie he found his way to Egypt, where he took
+service as a mariner in a ship of the Soldan of Egypt which was bound
+for the coast of Caramania, from which province the Egyptians, as well
+as the knights, drew the timber which they required for shipbuilding.
+But again this neighbourhood proved disastrous to Uruj, as the ship in
+which he sailed was attacked by a Christian galley, and he once more
+had to save himself by swimming on shore. There was no lack of incident
+in the life of a corsair of the sixteenth century.
+
+This time he presented himself to Khorkud, the Governor of Caramania,
+brother to Sultan Selim, the Grand Turk. The Governor, recognising him
+as an intrepid mariner, ordered the Basha of Smyrna to furnish him with
+a ship fitted for that _guerre de course_, which he desired to pursue
+against the Christians. The value of the corsair as an auxiliary was
+beginning to be recognised among the high Turkish officials. For the
+complaisance of Khorkud there were two reasons: in the first place,
+he was acting in the interests of his brother in sending to sea any
+really capable man to make head against his enemies, and the fact
+that Uruj was a pirate pure and simple did not weigh for a feather in
+the balance; in the second place, it was a decidedly good mercantile
+speculation as he ordered his inferior, the Basha of Egypt, to bear
+the expense of fitting out the necessary ship—which came to some 5,000
+ducats—and doubtless received a handsome percentage on all captures
+from his grateful protégé.
+
+This latter, as may easily be imagined, had had quite enough of
+the Caramanian coast, which had turned out a veritable nest of
+hornets; also, he had no desire at present to cultivate the further
+acquaintance of the knights, and therefore put the whole width of the
+Ionian Sea between himself and them, and succeeded in taking several
+rich prizes. He avoided Mitylene and returned to Egypt, wintering at
+Alexandria. It may here be remarked that the corsairs, as a rule,
+regarded the winter as a close season, as in those early days the
+mariner did not, if he could avoid it, risk his ship by sailing her at
+this period of storm and tempest. In consequence there was nothing to
+tempt the pirates to range the seas during these months, and if they
+had had a successful summer and autumn, as they generally did, they
+could well afford to lay up and await the coming of spring.
+
+But when storm and rain gave way to the smooth waters and balmy
+breezes, the Sea-wolves were certain of their prey, as the whole length
+and breadth of the tideless sea was sure to be filled with the ships of
+the detested Christians trafficking in every direction. In the ethics
+of the Moslem all ships which sailed under the banner of the Cross, no
+matter to what nation they belonged, were fair game, even supposing
+that her insignia were the Crescent—well, supposing the spot to be
+sufficiently remote, dead men tell no tales, and the pirates were to be
+trusted to see to it that none escaped.
+
+But, however this might have been, it is quite certain that no
+qualms of conscience troubled Uruj concerning those others: Genoese,
+Neapolitans, Catalans, Andalusians, French, or the dwellers of the
+Balearic Islands, were all fish sent by a bountiful Providence to be
+enclosed in his net, and he seized upon them without distinction.
+When in the full tide of his success there was but one thing which
+preoccupied the mind of the corsair, which was to find a ready market
+for his spoils and a convenient place in which to rid himself of
+an embarrassing number of captives. This, however, did not present
+an insuperable difficulty, as we have already seen in the case of
+Curtogali, and a similar arrangement was carried out by Uruj Barbarossa
+and his brother.
+
+Uruj now established himself at the island of Jerba, on the east
+coast of Tunis, which formed an admirable base from which to “work”
+the Mediterranean from the piratical point of view. Jerba had
+originally been conquered and occupied by the Spaniards in 1431, but
+the occupation had been allowed to lapse, and the island was lying
+derelict when the Barbarossas made it their headquarters. Here Uruj was
+joined by his younger brother Khizr, destined to become so much the
+more famous of the two; he had already made himself some reputation in
+piratical circles, and now brought his cool judgment and wise counsel
+to the assistance of that fiery fighting man his elder brother. The
+first question to be decided was that which we have already mentioned,
+namely, the disposal of spoil from prospective captures, and with this
+end in view the corsairs approached the Sultan of Tunis. This potentate
+made a gracious response to their overtures, and wished them all
+success in their enterprises. He promised them succour and support on
+the same terms which Curtogali had obtained, namely, one-fifth of all
+the spoil landed in his dominions.
+
+The price to be paid was a stiff one, and was so regarded by the active
+partners in this arrangement; they were, however, young and unknown,
+and had not the least intention of holding to their bargain when more
+favourable circumstances presented themselves. Now they held fair
+speech with the puppet princes of North Africa; the day was to come
+when they should chase them from their insecure thrones. It was at this
+time, shortly after the treaty with the Sultan of Tunis was concluded,
+that the younger Barbarossa received from the Grand Turk the glorious
+name of Kheyr-ed-Din, or “The Protector of Religion.” It was a somewhat
+remarkable title for a pirate, but perhaps its bestower was slightly
+deficient in a sense of humour.
+
+Sailing from Tunis in the spring of the year 1512, the brothers, with
+three galleys, fell in with _The Galley of Naples_, an enormous nef with
+a crew of three hundred. They instantly attacked, but were repulsed,
+night falling without either side having gained an advantage. This
+audacious proceeding illustrates the hardihood of the Moslem corsairs
+at this time. They were amply strong enough to range the Mediterranean
+and to capture, with no risk to themselves, the weak and unprotected
+argosies plying their trade in this sea; but this was not the method
+of the Barbarossas. Villains they may have been according to modern
+standards, pirates they were unquestionably; but they were grim,
+hard-bitten, fighting men, who shrank from no dangers in the pursuit
+of their prey, who reckoned that the humiliation and defeat of their
+Christian antagonists was as sweet a morsel as the booty reft from
+their hands. All night the three Moslem galleys and the great nef lay
+becalmed awaiting the conflict which was to come with the break of day;
+and it is easy to imagine that there was not much quiet sleep on board
+of either the Moslem or the Christian ships, for both on the one side
+and the other the issues loomed large. The corsairs had, so far, made
+no such important capture as this, which, could it be accomplished,
+would add enormously to their prestige, in addition to such spoils as
+they might acquire; but the combatants were fairly evenly matched in
+the matter of numbers, and the fight was one to a finish. The advantage
+on the side of the corsairs lay in the fact of their being three to
+one, and their being thus enabled to attack in three separate places at
+the same time. Terrible must have been that night of waiting for the
+unfortunates on board _The Galley of Naples_; there was no escape, and
+on board of her among her passengers were many women, whose fate was
+too terrible to contemplate should the day go against them. The first
+assault had been beaten off, it is true, but the struggle had been
+hard and bitter; would they be equally successful when the assault was
+renewed?
+
+Even such a night as this, however, comes at last to an end, and the
+prospect of action must have been welcomed by the men on both sides;
+of the women with so horrible a fate impending one can hardly bear to
+think. The ghostly fingers of the dawn touched the grey sea with a wan
+yellow light, outlining the nef and the slender, wicked-looking galleys
+with their banks of oars; over the surface of the deep a slight mist
+hovered, as though some kindly spirit of the sea would hide, if such a
+thing were possible, the deeds which were to come. The three galleys
+lay close together, and Uruj and his brother held a few last words of
+counsel.
+
+“It is agreed, then,” said the elder; “you, my brother, attack the
+starboard side and I on the port side, while Hassan Ali [indicating
+the captain of the third galley] will await the time when we are fully
+engaged, and will then board over the stern.”
+
+“It is agreed,” answered Kheyr-ed-Din, and Hassan Ali.
+
+As the strong sun of a perfect May morning in the Mediterranean leapt
+above the horizon, Uruj loosed his hounds upon their prey; the oars of
+the galleys churned the clear blue waters into foam, and the air was
+filled with the yells of the corsairs. “Allah! Allah!” and “Barbarossa!
+Barbarossa!” they cried. It was a war-cry that was destined to re-echo
+over many a conflict, both by land and sea, in the years that were to
+come.
+
+In a simultaneous, and as we have seen a concerted attack, the beaks
+of the galleys crushed into the broadsides of _The Galley of Naples_,
+and, ever foremost in the fray, Uruj and Kheyr-ed-Din were the first
+two men to board. Then, when men were hand to hand and foot to foot,
+when Moslem scimitar rang on Christian sabre, and the air was filled
+with the oaths and shouts of the combatants, the third remaining pirate
+craft grappled _The Galley of Naples_ by the stern, and a tide of fresh,
+unwounded men burst into the fray. This was the end; the Christians
+were both outnumbered and outfought, for among them were many who
+were not by profession warriors, whereas no man found a footing among
+the Sea-wolves, or was taken to sea as a fighting man, unless he had
+approved himself to the satisfaction of his captain that he was a
+valiant man of his hands. We have no record or list of the dead and
+wounded in this battle, but among the latter was Uruj, who was severely
+hurt. Not so Kheyr-ed-Din, who escaped scatheless and took command now
+that his brother was incapacitated. The dead were flung overboard with
+scant ceremony, and the wounded patched up as best might be, and then
+_The Galley of Naples_ was taken in tow, and the corsairs returned in
+triumph to Tunis. Faithful to their treaty, so far, they laid one-fifth
+of their spoils at the feet of the Sultan.
+
+A great procession was formed of Christian captives marching two and
+two. Four young Christian girls were mounted on mules, and two ladies
+of noble birth followed on Arab horses sumptuously caparisoned. These
+unfortunates were destined for the harems of their captors. The Sultan
+was greatly pleased at the spectacle, and as the mournful procession
+defiled before him cried out, “See how heaven recompenses the brave!”
+Jurien de la Gravière remarks: “Such was the fortune of war in the
+sixteenth century. A man leaving Naples to go to Spain might end his
+days in a Moorish bagnio and see his wife and daughters fall a prey to
+miscreants of the worse description.”
+
+It was not till the following spring that Uruj was fit once more
+to pursue his chosen calling, so severe had been his wounds; but
+once he was whole and sound again he put to sea accompanied by
+Kheyr-ed-Din, and this time he had conceived a singularly bold and
+desperate enterprise. Two years before the famous Spanish captain,
+Pedro de Navarro, had seized upon the coast town of Bougie, and had
+unfortunately left it in the hands of a totally insufficient garrison.
+This departure from the sound rules of warfare had already been
+punished as it deserved, as the garrison was perpetually harassed and
+annoyed by the surrounding Arab tribes. The idea of Uruj was to seize
+upon Bougie by a _coup de main_. The corsair, however, was a far finer
+fighter than he was a strategist, and was possessed of a most impatient
+temper. All went well to begin with, as he managed to intercept and
+to capture a convoy of Spanish ships sent to revictual the place,
+and had he been content to wait he might have counted with certainty
+on reducing the garrison by starvation, as it depended on this very
+convoy for its supplies. In vain the wary and cool-headed Kheyr-ed-Din
+counselled prudence and delay, but these words were not to be found in
+the vocabulary of his elder brother. “What had to be done,” he replied,
+“had better be done at once,” and at the head of only fifty men landed
+and assaulted the still uncompleted ramparts of Bougie.
+
+But if Uruj were rash and headstrong, so was not the commander of the
+Spanish garrison, who, massing his men for the repulse of the assault,
+waited till the last moment, and then received them with a volley of
+arquebuses, which laid many of them low, and so badly wounded their
+leader that he had to have his arm amputated on the spot: it says
+much for his constitution that he survived the operation.
+
+For the time being the brothers had had enough of shore enterprises,
+and confined themselves strictly to their piratical business at sea,
+which prospered so exceedingly that they became exceedingly rich and
+their fame and power increased day by day. As time went on and the
+wealth of the brothers and partners increased, there entered into
+the calculating brain of Kheyr-ed-Din the idea that the payment of
+one-fifth share to the Sultan of Tunis was but money thrown away.
+Twenty per cent, was eating into the profits of the firm in an
+unwarrantable manner, he considered, and now that the active partners
+therein had established so good a business connection, they were quite
+strong enough to dispense with a sleeping partner. Times had changed
+for the better, and Kheyr-ed-Din was anxious to take full advantage of
+the fact; if possible he determined to seize upon and hold some port,
+in which, not only would they be exempt from tribute, but also in which
+he and his brother Uruj should be the supreme arbiters of the fate of
+all by whom it might be frequented.
+
+Of Bougie and its stout Spanish garrison the brothers had had quite
+enough for the present: they sought, in consequence, for some harbour
+which presented equal advantages of situation, and their choice fell
+upon Jigelli, then belonging to the Genoese, who occupied a strong
+castle in this place.
+
+Jigelli lies well outside the confines of the kingdom of Tunis, about
+equi-distant from Bougie and Cape Bougaroni, some forty miles from
+each. It would appear that on this occasion it was the younger of
+the two brothers who took charge of the enterprise, and there were no
+slap—dash, unconsidered methods employed. By this time the fame of
+the Barbarossas had gone abroad from Valencia to Constantinople, from
+Rome to the foot—hills of the Atlas Mountains, and, to circumvent the
+Genoese garrison of Jigelli, Kheyr-ed-Din called to his aid the savage
+Berber tribes of the hinterland of this part of Northern Africa.
+
+Turbulent, rash, unstable as water, were these primitive dwellers of
+the desert; but they were fighters and raiders to a man, and ready
+for any desperate encounter if only it held out the promise of loot:
+they were as veritably the pirates of the land as were the Barbarossas
+pirates of the sea.
+
+Small chance, indeed, had the five hundred Genoese soldiers by which
+Jigelli was garrisoned when attacked from the sea by the Barbarossas
+and by land by an innumerable horde of Berbers who were reckoned to
+be as many as 20,000. Invested by land and sea, the garrison did all
+that it was possible for men to do. Provisions and water ran short,
+ammunition was failing, the ring of their enemies was encircling
+them day by day closer and ever closer. From the land nothing could
+be expected but an augmentation of their foes, and day by day the
+commander of the garrison strained his eyes seaward to watch if haply
+the proud Republic, to which he and his men belonged, would send
+succour, or the redoubtable Knights of Saint John would come to his aid.
+
+But the days lengthened into weeks, and the soldiers were gradually
+becoming worn out by the perpetual strain imposed upon them. There
+was one chance left, and one alone, which was to cut their way out
+through the besieging lines. Massacre to a man was their fate in any
+case, and thus it was that the commander, whose name has not come down
+to us, mustered his men for the last supreme effort. At dead of night
+the garrison, having destroyed as far as possible all that might be of
+use to the enemy, sallied out to their doom. They fought as men fight
+who know that the end has come; but valour could not avail against the
+numbers arrayed on the side of the enemy, and they were wiped off the
+face of the earth. The tribes looted the castle of everything portable,
+and then retired from whence they had come. For this Kheyr-ed-Din cared
+nothing; they were welcome to the poor possessions of some hundreds of
+half-starved Italian soldiers—let them take the shell, for him remained
+the kernel in the shape of a strong place of arms.
+
+Hardly, however, had the brothers succeeded in this enterprise when
+that tireless fighter Uruj again attempted the capture of Bougie;
+but his second attempt was even more disastrous than his first, and
+he lost half his flotilla. Then he asked for succour from Tunis; but
+the Sultan, much offended at the idea of the brothers setting up in
+a piratical business in which he was no longer a sleeping partner,
+angrily refused.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DEATH OF URUJ BARBAROSSA
+
+
+The events recorded in the last chapter bring us down to the end of
+the year 1515, and while every endeavour has been made to present
+affairs in chronological sequence, it must be remembered that the dates
+of piratical expeditions are often impossible to obtain: the wrath
+of the chroniclers at the nefarious deeds of the corsairs greatly
+exceeding their desire for a meticulous accuracy in the matter of
+the exact time of their occurrence. Uruj, as has been seen, had by
+his headstrong folly once again placed his brother and himself in a
+decidedly awkward situation. By the losses which he had incurred in his
+second ill-advised attempt on Bougie he had so weakened the piratical
+confederation that the countenance of some potentate had again become
+necessary for their continued existence, and the Sultan of Tunis had
+now repudiated all connection with these ingrates.
+
+But, if craft and subtlety were not to be found in Uruj there was one
+who never failed to exhibit these qualities when they became necessary,
+and Kheyr-ed-Din once more came to the front. The Russian peasantry
+have a saying that “God is high and the Czar is far away.” In the
+sixteenth century the Grand Turk was in every sense “far away” from
+the struggling corsairs on the littoral of Northern Africa, and was a
+sovereign of such great and mysterious might that any man with a less
+fine instinct into the psychology of the times in which he lived than
+Kheyr-ed-Din would have hesitated long and anxiously before addressing
+him directly; would probably in the end not have done so at all. But
+desperate diseases require desperate remedies, and the politic corsair
+well knew that even the moral support of such an one as the Sultan of
+Constantinople was worth more than even material aid from a Sultan of
+Tunis.
+
+Consequently, greatly daring, he sent an embassy to the Sublime Porte
+with one of his most trusted captains at its head to lay the homage of
+the corsairs at the feet of Selim I. Very naturally these ambassadors
+did not go empty-handed, but took with them rich presents and numerous
+slaves. Selim was much pleased at the attention, coming as it did from
+such a distance—we have to remember that the coast of North Africa was
+an immense journey from Constantinople in those days—and the insight of
+Kheyr-ed-Din was triumphantly vindicated. Not only did the Sultan send
+a gracious reply in return, but—what was far more to the purpose—he
+sent a reinforcement of fourteen vessels to the corsairs bidding them
+to go on and prosper in their efforts to spread the true faith among
+the Christian heretics.
+
+There is nothing more curious in the history of the corsairs than the
+perpetual ups and downs of their lives. Thus in the present instance
+the ill-advised attack of Uruj on Bougie had reduced them to terrible
+straits; immediately afterwards the action of the Grand Turk once
+more set them upon their feet and enabled them to pursue an unchecked
+career of devastation. Aided by the reinforcements sent by Selim,
+their depredations assumed ever larger proportions, and, had they
+continued to receive this assistance, the course of history itself
+might have been changed. Ground to powder beneath the iron heel of
+their ruthless conquerors, the Moriscoes of Southern Spain were ever
+waiting the chance to rise and shake off the yoke by which they were so
+sore oppressed; from far and near reports were coming to hand of the
+continued successes of the corsairs, and all Andalusia seethed with
+passionate hope that the day of deliverance was at hand.
+
+But, alas for the vanity of human wishes! in the opening months of the
+year 1516 Selim recalled his ships and the chance was gone, never again
+to arise.
+
+It may have been that “the sorrowful sighing of the captives” never
+reached the ears of the successor of Othman in his palace on the
+shores of the Golden Horn; in any case, the Sultan was preparing for
+the conquest of Egypt, and in consequence recalled the ships which he
+had lent to assist the corsairs. The Moriscoes were thus left without
+hope, but so far as the corsairs were concerned they were enabled to
+strike another bargain with the Sultan of Tunis. This monarch had now
+got over his fit of the sulks, and discovered that customs dues from
+the peaceful trading mariners, although desirable enough, were not by
+any means so lucrative a form of revenue as was the one-fifth share
+of the booty of the pirates. Uruj and Kheyr-ed-Din for their part,
+although they had captured Jigelli, were totally unable to hold it:
+the capture had indeed been principally due to the assistance which
+they had received from the Berber tribesmen, but these nomads had
+disappeared into the deserts from whence they came, once the looting of
+the town and fortress had been completed.
+
+The corsair had to be armed at all points, in the moral as well as the
+material sense, as he was the enemy of all men, and all were vowed
+to his destruction. Every cruise which he took raised up against him
+fresh hatred and a more bitter animus, and we must remember that it
+was not only men individually, but Principalities and Powers that were
+arrayed in line of battle for his destruction. At the present juncture
+Spain was specially hostile, for not only had her possession of Bougie
+been twice attacked by the Sea-wolves, but a valuable convoy had been
+captured. An expedition, in consequence, was sent by the Spaniards
+against the Barbarossas, but this effort did not result in much damage
+being done to the offenders. The Spaniards destroyed four piratical
+vessels which had been abandoned by their crews at Bizerta, and pushed
+a strong reconnaissance into the Bay of Tunis itself. Here shots
+were exchanged between the Spanish fleet and the forts—under which
+Kheyr-ed-Din had drawn up his ships—and the Spaniards then abandoned
+the enterprise and returned from whence they had come.
+
+In the year 1510 the Spaniard, Count Pedro Navarre, had seized upon
+Algiers, which town was at this time one of the principal refuges
+of the Moorish fugitives, who had been driven from Granada, from
+Còrdoba, and from Southern Spain generally by Ferdinand and Isabella
+eighteen years previously. To say that the condition of these people
+was desperate is to speak but the bare truth, for what could exceed the
+misery of the situation in which they were left after the successful
+incursion of their Christian foes? What we are apt to lose sight of in
+the light of present-day circumstances is the fact that these Spanish
+Moors were a most highly civilised people, far more so indeed than
+their Christian contemporaries; that they had been driven with fire and
+sword from the land in which they and their forefathers had dwelt for
+over seven centuries, and that they now had been cast out literally
+to starve on the inhospitable shores of Northern Africa. So it came
+about that the common people exchanged the life of the peaceful and
+prosperous artisan or husbandman for that of the hand-to-mouth pirate,
+and the case of knight and noble among them was no better—perhaps
+rather worse—than the meanest among those who had been expropriated.
+
+Those who know the region in which these unhappy folk lived are aware
+of the material monuments which still exist and testify to the glorious
+past; and, seeing what they have seen, it is no great stretch of the
+imagination to picture to themselves the comfort, the elegance, and
+the luxury with which the inhabitants of Granada and Còrdoba lived
+surrounded. Over there, away across some few leagues of shining blue
+water, were the ruined homes of which many of the banished people
+still possessed the keys, awaiting the day when Allah and the Prophet
+should vouchsafe to them that return which they so naturally and
+ardently desired. To this day the key of the great Mosque at Cordoba
+is preserved at Rabat as a sacred relic of former dignity and power—a
+symbol to the Moslem of his perpetual banishment. If Cordoba with its
+mosque—still one of the wonders of the world, with its eleven hundred
+marble columns—were the principal shrine and holy of holies to these
+people, there were in addition hundreds of other temples of their
+faith now for ever desecrated in their eyes by the misfortune which
+had placed them in Christian hands. In Andalusia were the dishonoured
+graves of their kinsfolk, and, last and worst of all, in this land
+still dwelt thousands upon thousands of their co-religionists held in a
+degrading bondage by their implacable enemies.
+
+The capture of Algiers by Count Pedro Navarro was a crowning misfortune
+for the exiles, and when this commander seized upon the place he
+extracted from the inhabitants an oath of fidelity to the Spanish
+crown; he further erected a strong tower to overawe the town, and to
+keep its turbulent inhabitants in order. But such an oath as this,
+extracted at the point of the sword, was writ in water; it meant, of
+course, the suppression of piracy, and it also meant the starvation
+of most of those persons who dwelt in the vicinity. How the Moslem
+population existed for the six years after the incursion of Navarro
+is a mystery; but they probably moved their galleys, of which they
+possessed some twenty, further along the coast out of the range of
+the guns from Navarro’s Tower, and secure from the observation of those
+who held it for the Spanish king.
+
+In the year in which Selim descended upon Egypt the King of Spain,
+Ferdinand V., died, and grave troubles immediately broke out in Spain.
+This was an opportunity too good to be missed, as no reinforcements
+could possibly be expected for the garrison in Algiers as long as
+these disturbances lasted, and the Algerines took counsel together as
+to the best means of driving out their enemies. It is a commentary on
+the detestation in which they held the Spaniards that they should have
+allied themselves for this purpose with the savages of the hinterland.
+This, however, was what they did. As in the case of Jigelli, these
+people could always be relied upon to go anywhere in search of booty,
+and one Selim Eutemi entered the town at the head of his tribe. But
+sheer, stark, savage valour could make no impression on Navarro’s
+Tower and the ordnance that was mounted on its walls. The result was a
+stalemate, as the Spaniards could by no manner of means get out, and
+neither could their enemies, who swarmed innumerable in the town and
+the surrounding country, get in. In time, of course, they might hope
+to bring the garrison to surrender by starvation; but time pressed,
+and no man knew when the troubles in Spain might be adjusted and help
+come to the beleaguered. In the meanwhile Selim Eutemi and his men, who
+had been taught some rude lessons in the power of firearms, kept out
+of range of the cannon, while the Algerines held yet another council
+of war, the result of which was that they decided to ask help from
+Uruj and Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, and to them they appealed. By this
+time their fame was known to all men, and they could supply that which
+was lacking—namely ships, artillery, a first-class fighting force, and
+last, and best of all, the moral support which would stiffen and put
+heart into the motley horde which at present surged around the gates of
+the fortress of Navarro.
+
+The Algerines did not appeal in vain, and an instant promise of
+succour was forthcoming. Kheyr—ed—Din was away at sea, but Uruj, that
+indomitable fighter, started at once. From whence we are not told, but
+he must have been somewhere in the neighbourhood, as he and his men
+marched along the shore; while, keeping pace with them, came a fleet of
+eighteen galleys and three barques laden with stores.
+
+But before proceeding to the assistance of the Algerines Uruj had a
+personal matter to which to attend, and he wished to combine pleasure
+with serious business. One of his old companions had seceded from his
+command and had established himself at Shershell, where he lived the
+life of an independent corsair within easy striking distance of the
+Balearic Islands and the coast of Spain, his following composed of a
+horde of those broken men of whom mention has been made. Shershell was
+an unfortified town, and surrendered unconditionally upon the arrival
+of Uruj and his army. Kara-Hassan, for such was the name of this
+independent corsair, came out to greet his old-time chief; he was met
+with violent reproaches, and the altercation ended by Uruj having him
+beheaded on the spot. It was ill to quarrel with the Barbarossas.
+
+Freed from this rival, the Mitylene corsair had now uncontested
+supremacy on the coast, a supremacy none was likely to contest in
+the future, as he brooked no opposition, and had come to consider
+that independent piracy in the Mediterranean was in some sort an
+infringement of the rights of himself and his brother. One of the most
+salient peculiarities of the corsairs at this time was the apparent
+recklessness with which they assailed others who were participants in
+their nefarious business. Self-interest and policy would seem, to the
+observer in the present day, to have dictated quite a different course
+of action; but we shall see, when we come to deal with the life-history
+of Kheyr-ed-Din, that this infinitely wiser and more intellectual man
+apparently allowed himself to be swayed by gusts of passion, in which
+he savagely maltreated those with whom he was associated, and from whom
+dangerous hostility was certainly to be feared if they escaped with
+their lives. At this distance of time it is impossible to gauge the
+motives by which men such as these were actuated, more particularly in
+the case of Kheyr-ed-Din, whose character was a blend of the deepest
+subtlety and calculated ferocity.
+
+Having settled with Kara-Hassan, Uruj continued his march along the
+coast. Arrived at Algiers, he opened in form a siege of Navarro’s
+Tower; but, being unable to make any impression on its defences, he
+abandoned the siege after twenty days’ fruitless fighting, during which
+he lost a number of men in his assaults. Baffled and furious, he turned
+on the Berber chieftain, the luckless Selim Eutemi, and caused him to
+be assassinated, regarding him as being responsible for the failure.
+The Spanish chroniclers relate, with some wealth of detail, how Uruj
+personally fell upon Selim Eutemi, when that chieftain was in his bath,
+and strangled him with his own hands. However this may have been, the
+Spanish records of the deeds of the corsairs cannot well be taken _au
+pied de la lettre_; there is no doubt that Selim was murdered, and from
+that time the Berbers recognised that he who had come to help was now
+remaining to plunder. Uruj now established himself in the town, and set
+to work making raids into the adjoining country, carrying off sheep,
+cattle, and slaves. For the Berbers this was a true awakening. He who
+now oppressed them had come in the guise of a champion to assist them
+in the sack and plunder of Navarro’s Tower; they had exchanged King
+Log, who dwelt securely locked up, for a King Stork of the most active
+description. Although we cannot sympathise with such people, it is
+quite possible to understand their very natural annoyance at the turn
+which things had taken, and it does not surprise us (in this age of
+“punic faith”) that a conspiracy was set on foot between the dwellers
+of the hinterland and the Spaniards of the fortress.
+
+Uruj was informed of all that was going on through his own spies, and,
+although he kept his finger on the pulse of the conspiracy, he acted as
+though the tribesmen were still his very faithful friends and allies.
+The corsair was more patient than his wont. In this affair he wished
+for ample proof of delinquency, and also for a vengeance adequate to
+the occasion when he should discover all the guilty parties; and so
+some weeks went by while the plot was maturing, apparently, from the
+point of view of the conspirators, to a successful conclusion. But Uruj
+had bided his time with a subtlety and _finesse_ which would have done
+credit to Kheyr-ed-Din himself.
+
+It was the custom of the corsair and his chief adherents to attend the
+principal mosque on Fridays; and therefore, when the conspirators were
+cordially invited to attend on the following Friday, and, after the
+service was over, to attend Uruj to his dwelling and there confer with
+him, they went, nothing doubting, to their deaths. As the discourse of
+the Mullah came to an end a crash resounded throughout the building:
+six stalwart swordsmen had flung the great gates of the mosque
+together, and barred all exit. Excepting the conspirators, twenty-two
+in number, the remainder of the edifice was filled with the galley’s
+crews of the corsair, men who, had he given the order, would have
+cheerfully set alight to the sacred building itself and roasted the
+Mullahs themselves in the flames.
+
+To the corsairs, after they were seated in the mosque, the word had
+been passed that the Berber tribesmen had meditated this treachery
+against them, which, had it succeeded, would have meant the death or
+enslavement of them all. It was therefore a trap of a singularly deadly
+description into which the countrymen of Selim Eutemi walked on this
+Friday morning.
+
+The doors being closed, the conspirators were one by one dragged
+before Uruj, who, bitterly reproaching them, gave order for their
+instant death. They were haled out through rows of jeering pirates, and
+beheaded in the street immediately in front of the principal entrance
+of the mosque. When the slaughter of the twenty—two was accomplished
+Uruj strode from the mosque over the weltering corpses of the traitors
+amid the plaudits of his own men, ever ready to acclaim deeds of blood
+and cruelty. After this there were no more plots against the corsair
+in Algiers. News of all these desperate doings in Algiers had by this
+time filtered across into Spain, and El Maestro Don Fray Prudencio de
+Sandoval recounts how, when the tidings came to Fray Francisco Ximenes,
+the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, that that prelate, much scandalised
+that the might of Imperial Spain should be flouted by a mere pirate,
+sent Don Diego de Vera with some fifteen thousand men to recapture the
+town, and relieve the beleaguered garrison in the tower. This was in
+the month of September 1516.
+
+Don Diego landed “en el dia de San Hieronymo,” and threw up
+entrenchments within gunshot of the town. Great things were expected
+of this expedition, as Sandoval notes that in 1513 Don Diego de Vera,
+in the war against the French, had gained the approval of Count Pedro
+Navarro (“avia bien aprovado con el Conde Pedro Navarro”), and it was
+not expected that a mere pirate rabble would ever make head against
+the Spanish troops. De Vera opened fire on the walls of the town
+from his entrenchments, but hardly had he done so when Uruj, leading
+his corsairs, which formed the spearhead to an innumerable army of
+Berbers and Arabs, made a sortie.
+
+“Upon them one day did Barbarossa make an onslaught, and when he saw
+that the Spanish soldiers were ill commanded, he flung his forces upon
+them with loud cries. And so great was the fear inspired by Barbarossa
+that they were routed almost without loss to the Moors; and with much
+ease did these latter slay three thousand men and capture four hundred
+on the day of San Hieronymo in this year.”
+
+(“Salio un dia à el Barbarossa y como vio los soldados Españoles
+desmandados diò en ellos con gran gritos. Y fue tan grande el miedo que
+vieron que Barbarossa los desbaratò casi sin daño y con mucho facilidad
+mato tres mil hombres y cautivo quatro cientos dia de San Hieronymo
+deste año.”)
+
+This quotation is given in full to set out the amazing fact that in
+this battle over three thousand were killed while only four hundred
+were captured, which shows that it must have been in the nature of an
+indiscriminate massacre; the only captive of any note was the captain,
+Juan del Rio. Diego de Vera had had enough of the corsairs, and sailed
+away with the remainder of his force. Of what became of him or of them
+there is no record, but he must have been a singularly incompetent
+commander when he could not make head against a rabble of pirates and
+Moors with the army at his disposition. Sandoval does not attempt to
+minimise the defeat, which, of course, would have been impossible; he
+contents himself with the following delightfully quaint reflection:
+“But many, many times Homer nods; this disaster must have come upon
+us for our sins, upon which it is most important that we should always
+think and meditate.”
+
+Who so triumphant now as Uruj Barbarossa? It is true that the fortress
+of Pedro Navarro still remained in the hands of its splendid and
+undaunted garrison, and was destined so to remain for some years to
+come; but they were impotent for harm, and the conqueror of Don Diego
+now turned his arms in another direction. Kheyr-ed-Din was at Jigelli
+when he heard of the victory gained by his brother, and sailed at once
+with six ships to his support. The town of Tenes fell into the hands of
+the brothers, with an immense booty, and then Uruj marched on Tlemcen.
+The Sultan of Tlemcen, the last of the royal race of the Beni-Zian, did
+not await the coming of the corsair. All through the northern coasts
+of Africa the name of Barbarossa was a synonym of terror; the sad fate
+of Selim Eutemi, of Kara-Hassan, of the twenty-two conspirators of
+the mosque, had been noised abroad, and the superstitious tribesmen
+firmly believed that these red-bearded corsairs were the accomplices
+of Shaitan, even if they did not represent him themselves in their
+own persons. Who were these men, they asked one another tremblingly,
+who feared neither God nor devil, and who caused even the redoubtable
+Spaniards to fly before them like the leaves in front of an autumn gale?
+
+When men begin to talk and to think like this there is not much fight
+left in them, and so it came about that, after the most feeble of
+resistances, the Sultan of Tlemcen fled to Fez. Thus, almost without
+striking a blow, Uruj found himself master of a province from which
+the Spaniards were accustomed to draw the necessary provisions for the
+upkeep of the garrison of Oran. But Tlemcen is but some seventy miles
+from Oran, and Oran is so close to Spain as to be easily reinforced; in
+consequence Uruj was soon blockaded by the Spaniards, and remained so
+for seven months. But no blockade could keep Uruj Barbarossa for long
+within stone walls; sortie after sortie did the gallant corsair lead
+against the foe, and it was in one of these that he characteristically
+came by his death. Ever rash and impetuous, he allowed himself to be
+drawn too far away from possible shelter or support; and, as there was
+something dramatic in the whole life of this man, so also was there
+in the manner of his death. They had him trapped at last, this grim
+Sea-wolf, and he stood at bay in a stone corral used for the herding of
+goats.
+
+As the wolves in winter circle round the leaguer on the heath, So the
+greedy foe glared upward panting still for blood and death.
+
+By his side was his faithful lieutenant Venalcadi. In a breathless
+mêlée Christian sword and Moslem sabre clashed and rang. His turban
+gone, his great curved scimitar red to the hilt, the undaunted corsair
+fought his last fight as became the terror of his name. Almost had
+he succeeded in breaking through the ring of his foes when Garzia de
+Tineo, _alferez_ (or lieutenant) to Captain Diego de Andrade, wounded
+him severely with a pike. Uruj stumbled, was struck on the head with
+another weapon; he reeled and fell. The fight was over, and one of the
+Barbarossas bit the dust. Garzia de Tineo leaped upon the fallen man
+and cut off his head. It is recorded that Garzia de Tineo was wounded
+in the finger by Uruj in the course of the combat, and that for the
+rest of his life he proudly exhibited the scar as a sign that it was
+none other than he who had killed the famous corsair.
+
+Uruj Barbarossa was undoubtedly a remarkable man. At a time when the
+Mediterranean swarmed with warriors none was more feared, none was
+more redoubtable than he. By sheer valour and tenacity he had fought
+his way to the front, and the son of the obscure renegado of Mitylene
+died a king. It is true that his sovereignty was precarious, that it
+was maintained at the edge of the sword; none the less, in that welter
+of anarchy in which he lived he had forced himself to the summit, and,
+pirate, sea-wolf, and robber as he was, we cannot withhold from him a
+meed of the most hearty admiration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA
+
+
+Uruj had arrogated to himself the title of King of Tlemcen, but with
+his death this shadowy sovereignty came to an end, and the Spaniards
+seized upon the province. This, however, did not avail them much, as
+the Sultan of Fez sent against them an innumerable army, and they
+in their turn were dispossessed. It was in the year 1518 that Uruj
+fell beneath the pike of Garzia de Tineo, and now the first place in
+the piratical hierarchy was taken by Kheyr-ed-Din. In this man the
+genius of the statesman lay hidden beneath the outward semblance of
+the bold and ruthless pirate; ever foremost in the fight, strong to
+endure, swift to smite, he had by now long passed his novitiate, had
+established an empire over the minds of men which was to endure until
+the end of his unusually prolonged life. With a brain of ice and a
+heart of fire, he looked out, serene and calm, upon the turbulent times
+in which he lived, a monstrous egotist desiring nothing but his own
+advancement, all his faculties bent upon securing more wealth and yet
+more power.
+
+He played a lone hand, for he brooked even less than did his truculent
+brother any approach to an equality with himself among the men who
+followed in his train. Absolute supremacy was his in the life which he
+lived, but none knew better than he upon what an unstable basis his
+power rested. He now called himself the King of Algiers, but still that
+lean, sun-dried garrison held with desperate tenacity to the tower
+of the redoubtable Navarro, and any moment a fresh Spanish relieving
+force might be upon him and chase him forth even as Uruj had been
+chased from Tlemcen. He saw that he must consolidate his power, must
+for the present, at any rate, have some force at his back which would
+provide that material and moral backing which was essential to his
+schemes. Once before he had successfully approached the Grand Turk,
+the Padishah, the head of the Mohammedan religion, and from him he had
+received that which he had asked; on this former occasion, however, he
+had not been in the same position as he now occupied.
+
+The corsair must have meditated long and anxiously on the best way
+in which to approach the autocrat of Constantinople; in the end he
+probably hit upon the best solution of the problem by again sending
+an ambassador with precise instructions as to the manner in which he
+was to act. For this important service his choice fell upon one of his
+captains, Hadj-Hossein by name, and to him he imparted all that he was
+to say, and—what was almost as important—what he was not to say.
+
+The duty of the ambassador was to magnify the importance of his master,
+but to do so in such a manner that the Padishah was not to imagine
+that a rival to his own greatness had arisen at Algiers. Selim was at
+this time in Egypt, where he had just completed the conquest of the
+Mamelukes, and thither did Hadj-Hossein repair. He laid at the feet of
+the conqueror the respectful homage of the King of Algiers, who, he
+assured Selim, desired nothing better than to become the vassal of the
+Commander of the Faithful. Also, he informed him, that in the name of
+Selim public prayer was offered in the mosques on Fridays, that his
+image and superscription were struck on the coins, that in every manner
+possible recognition was made of the fact that he, and he alone, was
+the chosen of God upon earth. This manner of stating the situation was
+both delicate and politic. A less wise man than Kheyr-ed-Din might have
+assumed a note of equality from one Moslem potentate to another, but
+the corsair was perfectly conscious of his limitations—he knew exactly
+how the Grand Turk could be useful to him, and he was not going to mar
+his chance by the display of an untimely arrogance.
+
+Hadj-Hossein proved himself to be a tactful and successful ambassador.
+The Sultan accepted the homage offered, and made many inquiries
+concerning the war prosecuted by Hossein’s master against the enemies
+of the true faith in the distant region of Algiers. His queries were
+all answered with deep submission and the most subtle of flattery, much
+of which latter was no doubt a perfectly honest expression of opinion.
+As to the average Mohammedan of this period the Padishah was a being
+set apart by Heaven to fulfil the decrees of the Prophet.
+
+The ambassador, when he rejoined his master, must have been a proud
+man, as so well had he fulfilled his mission that he carried back with
+him to Algiers not only a gracious message, but the insignia of the
+Sanjak, Scimitar Horse and Tambour, conferred upon that loyal Moslem
+Kheyred-Din Barbarossa, who, in the words of the Padishah, “abandoning
+a sterile independence, sought in all the bloody hazards of his life
+nought but the glory of God and His Prophet” To us this hyperbole,
+addressed to a pirate, seems merely ridiculous, but in those days
+of fanaticism the beliefs of men, both Christians and Moslems, are
+something which it is impossible for us to realise. On either side the
+way of salvation was the path of conquest, and the man who was heretic
+to the faith which you professed was rightly served if you could cut
+him and his off from among the congregation.
+
+It was well for the corsair to make as many friends as possible, as
+among his enemies he counted all the kings of Christendom; and, looking
+back on his career, it seems but little short of a miracle that he was
+not crushed out of existence, not once but a hundred times. But, as has
+been said already, the root of true statesmanship was in Kheyr-ed-Din.
+He watched with eager eye the quarrels of the great kings on the
+continent of Europe; he saw his life-long rival at sea, the greatest
+of all Christian mariners, Andrea Doria, the Genoese admiral, transfer
+his allegiance from the French King Francis I. to the Emperor Charles
+V. He noted and took full advantage of the perpetual squabbles between
+the Genoese and Venetian Republics, and all the time was in touch
+with the Sea-wolves, who swarmed on the coasts of Africa, and lurked in
+every creek and harbour of the Ionian Sea. “In all the bloody hazards
+of his life,” to quote once again the words of the Grand Turk, “he
+could, in the end, depend more or less on the corsairs, whether they
+ostensibly sailed beneath his banner or whether they did not, as when
+danger threatened what name was so potent as that of Barbarossa, which
+his followers asserted to be worth ten thousand men, when shouted on
+the day of battle!”
+
+That which is most extraordinary in the life of Kheyr-ed-Din is the
+perpetual danger and stress in which it was lived. Time and again the
+heavy menacing clouds gathered around his head; strenuous and unceasing
+were the efforts made by his enemies to destroy his power, to capture
+the person of this militant robber who flung an insolent defiance to
+the whole of Christendom. The storms gathered and broke with various
+effects, which sometimes sent the corsair flying for his life a hunted
+fugitive, as others saw him once more victorious. But no reverses had
+the power to damp his ardour, or to render him less eager to arise,
+like some ill-omened phoenix, from the ashes of defeat: to vex the
+souls of those who held themselves to be the greatest men on earth.
+
+It was shortly after the death of his brother Uruj that the storm arose
+which bade fair to sweep, not only Kheyr-ed-Din but all the corsairs
+of the North African coast, clean out of their strongholds, for the
+Emperor Charles V., at this time young, eager, and enthusiastic,
+gave orders for their destruction. These robbers troubled the peace
+of Europe; they did more than this, they insulted the Majesty of the
+Emperor, and Charles regarded their perpetual incursions in the light
+of an affront to his personal dignity. The divinity which hedged such
+a monarch as the grandson of “Los Reyes Cathòlicos,” Ferdinand and
+Isabella, was a very real thing, and, if offended, was likely to find
+concrete expression in the most vigorous form. Charles, much annoyed
+at the necessity for chastising a band of robbers, determined that he
+would make an end of them once and for all. To Don Hugo de Moncada, the
+Viceroy of Sicily, to Don Perisan de Ribera at Bougie, to the Marquis
+de Comares at Oran, orders were sent to prepare their forces for an
+attack on Algiers.
+
+There was no lack of good-will on the part of the Christian princes,
+nobles, and governors. The Spanish veterans in Sicily were rusting
+for want of employment, the levies on the African littoral welcomed
+anything in the way of war as a distraction from the deadly monotony
+of their lives. The soldier in these days who rested too long upon
+his arms became in time practically useless for the purpose for which
+he existed; but such rulers as Charles V. gave their fighting men but
+small cause of complaint in the matter of want of employment. The Pope
+sent his blessing and a contingent, and, to show how serious was the
+purpose of the Emperor, who took the command in person, let us set
+forth the total of the expedition which was to utterly destroy and
+root out the corsairs and their leader:
+
+
+             FLEET.                          SAILING SHIP TRANSPORT.
+
+  Galleys of the Pope                   4  The Frigate of Malta           1
+        ”      of Malta                 4  Division of Spezzia          100
+        ”      of Sicily                4      ”    of Fernando Gonzaga 150
+        ”      of Antony Doria          6      ”    of Spain            200
+        ”      of Naples                5
+        ”      of Monaco                2
+        ”      of Marquis of Terra Nova 2
+        ”      of Vicome de Cigala      2
+        ”      of Fernando de Gonzaga   7
+        ”      of Spain                15
+        ”      of Andrea Doria         14
+                                      ———
+  Total Galleys                        65  Total Transports            451
+                                                                       ===
+  Add Transports                      451
+                                      ———
+  Total Fleet                         516
+                                      ===
+
+
+  We now come to the military side of the expedition, which consisted of:
+
+
+  The Household of the Emperor     200
+  Noblesse                         150
+  Knights of Malta                 150
+  Servants                         400
+  German Corps                   6,000
+  Italians                       5,000
+  Spanish from Naples and Sicily 6,000
+  Soldiers from Spain              400
+  Adventurers                    3,000
+  Italian Cavalry                1,000
+  Spanish Cavalry from Sicily      400
+  Light Cavalry                    700
+                                ——————
+  Total Army                    23,900
+                                ======
+
+
+We next come to the Armament of the Fleet:
+
+
+  Soldiers of the Galleys (50 in each)     3,250
+  Galley Slaves (average 70 in each)       4,500
+     ”     ”     The Frigate of Malta         80
+  540 sailing ships of all sorts, mostly
+      small (at an average of 10 each)     4,500
+                                          ——————
+  Total _Personnel_ of the Fleet          12,330
+  Add Army                                28,900
+                                          ——————
+  Total _Personnel_ of the Expedition.    36,230 men.
+                                          ======
+
+
+It was late autumn when the expedition at last set sail, and the
+imperious temper of Charles was such that he refused to be governed by
+the advice of the seasoned mariners, such as Andrea and Antony Doria,
+and others who dreaded the effect of the gales which the armada was
+likely to encounter on the coast of Africa. The Emperor was not to be
+gainsaid, and the fleet set sail. They arrived, says Sandoval, “en el
+dia de San Hieronymo,” Saint Bartholomew’s day; and there then arose
+such a storm as the Mediterranean seldom sees. Some of the army had
+landed, some were still afloat, the corsairs accounted for the luckless
+soldiers ashore, the elements destroyed many left in the ships: 26
+ships and 4,000 men were lost.
+
+Bitterly mortified, Charles, who had personally displayed valour and
+conduct of unusual distinction in this disastrous expedition, returned
+to Europe to turn his attention to his everlasting quarrels with the
+King of France. Meanwhile Don Hugo de Moncada had escaped with a
+remnant of his forces to Iviza, in the Balearics, where he wintered,
+and where his men mutinied because he was unable to pay them.
+
+As there was depression almost amounting to despair in the camps of
+Christendom, so was there concurrently the widest rejoicing in the
+tents and on board of the galleys which flew the Moslem flag. What
+mattered it that it was the elements which had saved Kheyr-ed-Din
+from annihilation? was it not a cause the more for jubilation, as had
+not the Prophet of God himself come to the assistance of those who
+were upholding his holy standard? Were not his favours made manifest
+in that he had sent, to lead his votaries to victory, such an one as
+Kbeyr-ed-Din Barbarossa?
+
+Pope and Emperor, King, Duke, and Viceroy had tried conclusions with
+the pirates, and their fleet and army had melted away as the mists melt
+in the hot sunshine on the Mediterranean; truly were the descendants of
+the dispossessed Moors of Còdoba and Granada taking a terrible revenge
+on those by whom they had been expropriated.
+
+Barbarossa was never one to let the grass grow under his feet; he had
+the Christians on the run, and he intended to take full advantage
+of this pleasing circumstance. Accordingly he despatched a trusted
+lieutenant, one Hassan, with instructions to harass the coast of
+Valentia, to ravage with fire and sword all those unfortunate towns and
+villages which he could reach. This corsair entered the Rio de Ampasta
+and destroyed all before him, the inhabitants fleeing as the news was
+carried by escaped fugitives and by the red glare of the villages
+flaming to heaven in the night. Satiated with blood, laden with spoil,
+and burdened with many wretched captives, Hassan put to sea once more
+in triumph.
+
+It may here be mentioned how terrible was the damage wrought by the
+piratical fraternity in the Mediterranean, and the manner in which
+it has been brought to light in somewhat remarkable fashion quite
+recently. Since the French occupation of Tunis it was charged against
+them that they had taken away from the natives of the country those
+fertile lands which lay upon the shores of the sea, and had given them
+to French subjects. The facts of the case were that for centuries these
+lands had been entirely out of cultivation, the reason being that,
+until the complete suppression of piracy in the Mediterranean took
+place, none dared to dwell within raiding distance of the sea for fear
+of being carried off into slavery.
+
+But to return to Hassan. That warrior, having cleared the Spanish
+coast, got separated from three of his consorts during the night.
+The next day, at dawn, he sighted a Spanish sailing-vessel, which he
+thought to make an easy prize. The wind was light, and the galleys—that
+is to say, the one on which Hassan was aboard and his remaining
+consort—were soon churning up the waters in pursuit as fast as their
+oars could carry them. Hassan reckoned on an easy capture, as he made
+certain she was but a peaceful trader with some score or so of throats
+to cut. He was, however, badly out of his reckoning, as on board of her
+was a veteran company of Spanish infantry, stark fighters to a man, who
+feared no odds, and who were skilfully commanded by Captain Robeira,
+grown grey in the Moorish wars. With bloodcurdling yells the galleys
+swept alongside with the fighting men massed on the high poops and
+forecastles of their vessels. Behind the high bulwarks of the “round
+ship” (as the sailing craft of the day were denominated to distinguish
+them from the long ships, or galleys) crouched the Spaniards, their
+muskets in their hands. Captain Robeira had them perfectly in hand, and
+not a piece was discharged until the beaks of the galleys crashed into
+her sides.
+
+Robeira then gave the order to fire, and at the short range into packed
+masses of men the volley did terrible execution. Completely surprised,
+the corsairs attempted to board, but were repulsed and driven back
+with more slaughter. His men becoming demoralised, Hassan withdrew
+amidst the ferocious taunts of the Spaniards, who had escaped almost
+unscathed. Sore and angry, the corsairs continued their voyage for
+another three days, at the expiration of which they arrived at Algiers.
+Hassan, who had acquired quite a considerable booty, expected a warm
+reception; this he received, but hardly in the way that he expected.
+He told his tale to Kheyr-ed-Din, which that commander received in
+frowning silence; when he had finished the storm burst.
+
+“O miserable coward! dost thou dare to stand in my presence and to
+confess that thou hast been whipped like a dog by those sons of burnt
+fathers, the Spaniards?”
+
+The miserable Hassan attempted to justify himself by reference to the
+booty which he had obtained and the number of captives with which he
+had returned; but this, far from assuaging the wrath of Barbarossa,
+only made it worse.
+
+“Dastard and slave! thou boastest that, thou hast destroyed defenceless
+villages and brought back many captives, but that shall avail thee
+nothing. No profit shalt thou derive from that. Let the captives be
+brought before me.”
+
+This was done, and to the horror even of those hardened men of blood
+who followed in the train of Barbarossa, they were all executed. Even
+this wholesale massacre did not assuage the wrath of the corsair.
+Standing and surveying the weltering shambles which tainted the air,
+he pulled ferociously at his red beard, and commanded that they should
+whip Hassan till the blood ran; when this was done thoroughly and
+to the satisfaction of the despot, he gave orders that he should be
+chained and thrust into the prison of the fortress.
+
+Terror stalked abroad in Algiers. No man knew when his turn might
+come after this awful example of what it meant to incur the wrath of
+Barbarossa. The corsair gave orders for the execution of Venalcadi,
+who, it will be remembered, was with Uruj when that warrior came by his
+death; but Venalcadi was popular among the pirates, and they connived
+at his escape.
+
+For so cool and politic a man as Kheyr-ed-Din this outburst is wholly
+inexplicable. Judged by our standards, the flogging of Hassan was not
+only brutal but silly, as raising up to himself enemies of the most
+bitter description in the midst of his own followers; and yet cruelty
+was so engrained in this man that he never forewent his revenge. It is
+a standing miracle that he escaped assassination in the age in which
+he lived, and the only explanation would appear to be that men were too
+much afraid of him to make the attempt.
+
+The immediate result of the flogging of Hassan and the attempted murder
+of Venalcadi was that the latter collected a following and made war
+upon Kheyr-ed-Din, who, with incredible folly, then released Hassan,
+and sent him with five hundred men to fight against Venalcadi. The
+result was what might have been anticipated: Hassan joined forces with
+Venalcadi, and together they attacked the tyrant and drove him out of
+his stronghold.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din had the one supreme merit of never knowing when he was
+beaten. Driven from the shore, there was for him always the sea to
+which to retire; so on this occasion he embarked his family and such
+of his riches as were portable, and took to the sea once more. “Yendo
+a buscar nuevos asientos y nuevos amigos” (seeking a new home and new
+friends), says Sandoval.
+
+It was well for the corsairs that the Christians had selected the
+previous year for their attack, as, had they fallen upon them when
+Barbarossa was no longer in power at Algiers and the pirates were
+fighting among themselves, the latter would have been wiped out of
+existence. It was ill fighting with Kheyr-ed-Din, whether you professed
+the religion of Christ or that of Mahomet, and this the revolting
+corsairs were very soon to discover. Barbarossa sailed away from
+Algiers a hunted fugitive, only to return again as a conqueror.
+
+Eastward the dispossessed ruler of Algiers took his course, and
+very soon discovered that which he sought—allies to assist him
+against the revolted Venalcadi and the recalcitrant Hassan. Lurking
+in the neighbourhood of Bizerta, he discovered El Judeo (the Jew),
+Cachidiablo (Hunt the Devil), Salaerrez, Tabas, and other corsairs,
+who collectively composed a formidable force. These were all old
+acquaintances and some old followers of Kheyr-ed-Din, and to them did
+he relate the piteous tale of the cowardice of Venalcadi, whom he
+accused of having deserted his brother Uruj in his direst necessity,
+thereby causing his death; the abominable conduct of Hassan, who had
+turned and bitten the hand that fed him. With tears in his eyes did
+this accomplished actor reluctantly reveal the base ingratitude of
+which he had been the recipient; so much did he contrive to work upon
+the feelings of his auditors that they one and all vowed to stand by
+him, and to replace him as ruler of Algiers, from which he had been
+thrust by men whose shameful treachery was only equalled by their
+ingratitude.
+
+Forty sail in strength, they set out to avenge the wrongs of the gentle
+and long-suffering Kheyr-ed-Din, that master of craft in every sense
+of the word. Reaching Algiers, they disembarked artillery and stores
+and began an attack in form; but Venalcadi, whose forces were equal,
+in fact slightly superior, to those of his antagonists, made a sally,
+and battle was joined in the open. A most sanguinary combat ensued,
+in which the forces of Kheyr-ed-Din were decidedly worsted. For a
+considerable period his fate hung in the balance. Then occurred one
+of those singular and remarkable things only possible in such an age
+of anarchy and bloodshed. Barbarossa had in his train sixty Spanish
+soldiers captured by him from the force of Don Hugo de Moncada. Well
+did the corsair know their value: there were no finer fighting men in
+all the Christian armies. Hastily summoning them, he promised them
+their freedom if they would now throw in their lot with him and assist
+in the downfall of Venalcadi.
+
+The offer was no sooner made than accepted, and the Spanish veterans,
+fresh and unwearied, threw themselves into the heart of the fray.
+Shoulder to shoulder and blade to blade in their disciplined valour,
+they broke through all opposition; they fought for liberty as well as
+life, to exchange the noisome confinement of the piratical galley for
+the free air of their homes and their country. Soon the soldiers of
+Venalcadi turned and fled back to the city; the day was once again with
+Kheyr-ed-Din. For four days longer did Algiers hold out, and then a
+traitor betrayed Venalcadi into the hands of his enemies. Instantly his
+head was struck off, placed on a pole, and paraded in full sight of the
+garrison, who were promised their lives on condition of surrender.
+
+The city opened its gates once more, and Barbarossa entered in triumph.
+The corsair was as good as his word to his Spanish captives, and
+restored to them their liberty. He went even further, and was liberal
+in his _largesse_ to those who had fought so well for him. If he can
+be credited with such an emotion as gratitude, he must have felt it
+for Moncada’s stout infantrymen, as, had it not been for them, it
+would have been his head and not that of Venalcadi which would have
+decorated the pole. The Spaniards departed to their own country—that is
+to say, such of them as desired to do so; but one Hamet, a Biscayan,
+declared that life was so intolerable for a common man such as he in
+his own country that he desired to throw in his lot with Barbarossa.
+Thirty-nine others followed his example, abjuring the Christian faith
+and becoming renegadoes.
+
+Those of the garrison left alive were glad enough to return once more
+to their allegiance to their former master. The episode of the mutiny
+of Venalcadi and Hassan was a lesson not only to them: the fame of it
+spread far and wide throughout the Mediterranean. Who now could be
+found to combat Barbarossa? and all along the coasts of the tideless
+sea echo shudderingly answered—Who?
+
+With the new accession to his strength Kheyred-Din had no difficulty in
+making himself master of Tunis, and he sent Cachidiablo with seventeen
+galleys to harry once more the coast of Spain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE TAKING OF THE PEÑON D’ALGER; ANDREA DORIA
+
+
+Although Kheyr-ed-Din had made himself master of Algiers, there still
+remained the fortress of Pedro Navarro in the hands of the Spaniards.
+This strong place of arms had now been in their practically undisputed
+occupation for twenty years; from out of its loopholed walls and
+castellated battlements the undaunted garrison had looked forth while
+the tide of war both by land and sea had swept by. They had been
+unmolested so far, but now their day was to come.
+
+In command of the Peñon d’Alger, as it was called by the Spaniards,
+was a valiant and veteran cavalier, by name Martin de Vargas. For
+twenty years, as we have said, the gold-and-crimson banner of Spain
+had floated from its crenulated bastions; since the days of Pedro
+Navarro it had held its own against all comers. It must have been with
+a sinking heart that Martin de Vargas and his brave garrison beheld
+the town fall once again into the hands of Kheyr-ed-Din; they knew, as
+by this time did all the Mediterranean and the dwellers on the coasts
+thereof, the implacable enmity of the corsair to the Christians, and
+how short a shrift would be theirs should they fall into his hands.
+
+On his side Kheyr-ed-Din looked with longing eyes on this remnant of
+the power of Spain in Africa. Could he but dislodge Martin de Vargas,
+he had the whole of Northern Africa practically at his disposal;
+Algiers would then be really his, to fortify for all time against
+the inroads of his foes. He was master by land and sea, the time was
+propitious; the corsair decided that the hour had come. He had seen the
+repulse of his brother Uruj, none knew better than did he the temper of
+the men by whom the Peñon was held, or the valiance and the unswerving
+fidelity of that caballero of Spain, Martin de Vargas. He tried to
+induce that officer to surrender to him, offering every inducement
+to the Spanish commander to come to terms. He was met with a haughty
+refusal, couched in the most contemptuous language. He tried the most
+blood-curdling threats, which were no empty menaces, as his adversary
+well knew: these were received in silence.
+
+One more embassy he tried, and to this he received the following answer:
+
+  “I spring from the race of the De Vargas, but my house
+  has never made it a practice to boast of the glory of
+  their long descent: they professed merely to imitate
+  the heroism of their ancestors. Spurred forward by this
+  worthy desire, I await with calmness all your efforts,
+  and will prove to you, with arms in my hands, that I am
+  faithful to my God, my country, and my king.”
+
+[Illustration: ANDREA DORIA, PRINCE OF ONEGLEA, ADMIRAL TO CHARLES V.]
+
+Barbarossa summoned to his palace his kinsman and trusted adherent
+Celebi Rabadan, and they mutually decided that there was nothing
+they could do save take up arms against this most insolent and
+uncompromising warrior. In the meanwhile they would try what craft
+would do; and accordingly two young Moors were introduced into the
+Peñon, under the pretext that they had seen the error of their ways
+and were anxious to embrace the Christian religion. Martin de Vargas,
+like all Spanish caballeros, was an ardent proselytiser, and he ordered
+the two young men to be taken into his own house and instructed by the
+chaplain of the garrison. The next day was Easter Day, and the two
+young Moors, while the entire garrison were at Mass, signalled to their
+co-religionists a prearranged sign indicating that now was the time to
+attack. Unfortunately for them, a woman in the employment of De Vargas
+saw them, and they were immediately hanged from the battlements in full
+view of Barbarossa. That potentate was filled with fury at what he
+considered an insult to the Mohammedan religion, and again consulted
+with Celebi as to the feasibility of another assault. It was true,
+he said, that his messengers had been hanged, but they had made the
+prearranged signal. Still, the walls were hardly sufficiently breached,
+he thought, and his own men were singularly disheartened by the ill
+success of their previous efforts. Did Celebi Rabadan think another
+attempt desirable?
+
+That person was in a quandary, because he could not gather what it was
+that Barbarossa wished him to say. He knew that if he recommended an
+assault, and that it proved once again unsuccessful, that the full
+fury of the tyrant would fall upon his head; at the same time he was
+almost equally afraid to broach the idea which had been prevalent in
+Algiers for some time that Martin de Vargas must assuredly be in league
+with Shaitan, or he could never have held out in the way that he had
+done. In consequence he temporised and hesitated, while Barbarossa
+pulled at his famous red beard and regarded him with scowling brows.
+
+The situation was saved for Celebi Rabadan by an accident. There
+swam off to the ship a traitor from the Spanish garrison, and this
+man informed them that his whilom comrades were positively at their
+last gasp, ammunition all but exhausted, and the food-supply barely
+sufficient to last another two days.
+
+“To such an end come those who deny the Prophet of God,” exclaimed
+Barbarossa, and gave orders that this news be communicated to all
+his men, who were to prepare for the final assault on the morrow. He
+further offered a reward for the capture of Martin de Vargas alive.
+
+On May 16th, 1530, the corsairs once again advanced to the assault. By
+this time the walls had been battered until a practicable breach had
+been formed, and over this swarmed thirteen hundred of the starkest
+fighters of the Mediterranean, In the breach, bareheaded, his armour
+hacked and dinted, stood the undaunted chieftain of the Spaniards: over
+his head floated that proud banner which had never cast its shadow on
+a worthier knight of Spain. The garrison, worn to a shadow by their
+hardships and their hunger, most of them wounded, and all of them
+sore spent, were in no case to resist this, the most formidable attack
+to which they had been subjected. It was all over in a very short time,
+and a dreadful massacre ensued.
+
+Martin de Vargas, though sorely wounded, was taken alive and conducted
+to the presence of Barbarossa. Wounded, shaken, bruised, his fortress
+in the hands of his enemy, the dying shrieks of his murdered garrison
+still ringing in his ears, the amazing spirit of the man was still
+utterly unsubdued. “It is to the treason of a ruffian that you owe
+your triumph,” he said to his captor, “and not to your valour: had I
+received the smallest relief I could still have repulsed and kept you
+at bay. You have my maimed and mutilated body in your possession, and I
+hope that you are satisfied. But my body is accustomed to pain, and I
+therefore defy you and your dastardly cruelty.”
+
+To do Barbarossa justice he admired the undaunted spirit of his
+prisoner, and he replied:
+
+“Fear nothing, De Vargas, I will do all in my power to ease your hurts
+if you will do that which I ask of you.”
+
+De Vargas replied:
+
+“As an earnest of your faith, I demand the punishment of the traitor
+through whose information you were enabled to take the citadel.”
+
+Barbarossa ordered the soldier to be brought before them, and, having
+nearly flogged him to death, had him beheaded. He then presented the
+head to De Vargas, saying:
+
+“You observe my complaisance. I now ask you to embrace the Mohammedan
+faith; then I will overwhelm you with benefits and honours, and make
+you the Captain-General of my guards.”
+
+De Vargas looked at him in indignation and replied:
+
+“Dost thou believe that I, who but now demanded the just punishment of
+a man who had forsworn himself, could stoop to such an act of baseness
+as this? Keep your ill-gotten riches; confer your dignities on others;
+insult not thus a caballero of Spain.”
+
+There was a breathless pause. None had ever used such language to
+Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa and lived to tell the tale. Nor was it to be so
+in this case.
+
+“You and yours have caused me too much trouble,” he answered
+indifferently. He made a sign to the executioner who had beheaded the
+soldier, and the next moment the head of De Vargas was swept from his
+body.
+
+The gallant Spaniard, it is to be hoped, came by his end in the way
+just narrated; but the chroniclers disagree among themselves, and
+“El Señor Don Diego de Haedo, Arcobispo de Palermo y Capitan General
+del Reyno de Sicilia por El Rey Felipe nuestro señor,” states that
+Barbarossa kept De Vargas in confinement for three months and then had
+him beaten to death. One can only sincerely hope that the first account
+is the true one; but Haedo was nearer to the time of the occurrence,
+and, as he wrote in the reign of Philip II., is more likely to have
+known the facts. But however this may have been, there was an end for
+all time of Spanish domination on the north coast of Africa, and from
+this we may date the permanent establishment of those piratical States
+in that part of the world.
+
+The star of Kheyr-ed-Din was once more in the ascendant. Not only had
+he crushed out the incipient mutiny of Venalcadi and taken his life,
+but he had consolidated his power by the taking of the Peñon d’Alger.
+He celebrated this occasion in the most practical manner possible: a
+stop was put to the indiscriminate massacre of the garrison, and five
+hundred of the Spaniards were captured alive; it was their dreary
+fate to pull down entirely the tower of Pedro Navarro, which they had
+defended so gallantly and to utilise the material in making a causeway
+from the Peñon to the shore. Barbarossa was determined that on no
+future occasion should his enemies have the chance of dominating his
+town of Algiers. He was now a sovereign in fact and in deed, regarding
+even so mighty a monarch as Charles V. with comparative equanimity.
+Terrible was the wrath of the latter when the news of the fall of
+the Peñon, the massacre of the garrison, and the death of his trusty
+servant De Vargas, was brought to him. The Sea-wolves seemed to exist
+but to exasperate him, and this latest news came just at one of the
+most prosperous epochs of his career.
+
+The titles of “Carlos Quinto,” as recorded by Sandoval, read like the
+roll of some mighty drum. Nor were these titles mere vain and empty
+boastings, as was so often the case at that time among the minor
+rulers of the earth. On February 22nd, 1580, just before the fall of
+the Peñon, he had placed on his own head the iron crown of Lombardy;
+his viceroys ruled in Naples and Sicily, his dukes and feudatories
+in Florence and Ferrara, in Mantua and in Milan; there was no more
+Italy. All these recent acquisitions had been rendered possible by
+the defection of Andrea Doria, the Genoese seaman, from Francis I. of
+France to the side of the Emperor. From henceforward it was against
+this modern Cæsar that Barbarossa had to contend; the monarch under
+whose banner swarmed the terrible Schwartz-Reiters of Germany, for
+whose honour marched the incomparable infantry of Spain, for whom the
+fleets of the gallant Genoese sailed in battle-array under the orders
+of the greatest admiral of the day, Andrea Doria. All these disciplined
+legions of Christendom were arrayed against the corsair king; banded
+together for the destruction of that daring pirate whose flag floated
+in insolent triumph above the white walls of Algiers.
+
+As from this time onwards we shall hear much concerning Andrea Doria,
+it is fitting that some account should here be given of this great
+patriot, great soldier, and still greater seaman. Andrea Doria, of
+the family of the Princes of Oneglia, of Genoa, was born at Oneglia
+on November 30th, 1468, and was the son of Andrea Coeva and Marie
+Caracosa, both of the family of Doria. At the death of his mother the
+young Andrea, then nineteen years of age, was sent to Rome, where his
+kinsman Dominique Doria, of the elder branch of the family, was captain
+of the Papal Guard of Pope Innocent VIII. Here he rose rapidly: owing
+to his extraordinary address in all military exercises, he was marked
+out for preferment, and would probably have succeeded his kinsman as
+grand officer, had it not been for the death of Innocent VIII. The
+successor to Innocent, Alexander VI., was not favourable to the claims
+of the Dorias; so young Andrea, acting on the advice of Dominique,
+repaired to the court of Duke Urbino, then regarded as the best school
+for young nobles desirous of following a military career. After some
+time spent at the court of Urbino, Dominique counselled that Andrea
+should enter some other service, as there was no glory to be obtained
+under a prince who was never at war. Accordingly Andrea passed into the
+service of the King of Aragon, who, having invaded Naples, was giving
+plenty of employment to all would-be warriors.
+
+In the record of his early days we find that in the year 1495 he made
+a journey to Jerusalem to visit the holy places, and that he then
+returned to Italy, where Ferdinand of Aragon was attempting to recover
+the kingdom of Naples. “The Great Captain,” Gonsalvo de Cordoba, was
+warring against Doria’s kinsman, Juan Roverejo; this commander had
+rendered a great service to the Dorias by rescuing David Doria from
+imprisonment at Ancona, and Andrea decided to throw in his lot with
+him. He accordingly armed twenty-five cavaliers at his own expense,
+and joined Roverejo, who put him in charge of the fortress of Rocca
+Guillelma. In this place Andrea was besieged by Gonsalvo de Cordoba,
+the first warrior of the age; here he displayed such extraordinary
+ability in defence that, on the occasion of a truce, Gonsalvo urged
+upon Andrea to join the Spaniards. Andrea made answer that
+honour bound him to Roverejo, but, could he be released from his
+arrangement with him, he might then consider the proposition of “The
+Great Captain.” Roverejo refused, but, as Charles VIII. immediately
+afterwards evacuated Italy, Andrea was free to follow his own
+inclinations, and took service with Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.
+
+From this time onward until 1503 Andrea was constantly employed in war,
+and made for himself such a reputation that in this year the Republic
+of Genoa requested him to take command of their navy. This offer he
+refused, as he said that he knew nothing about the sea. They pressed
+him, saying that to a man of his genius nothing was impossible, and
+in the end he gave a somewhat reluctant consent. He soon proved his
+competence in his new sphere of activity, as his first act was to
+capture the Fort of the Lantern, in the neighbourhood of Genoa, which
+was then held by the French for Louis XII. The Republic confirmed his
+appointment as General of the Galleys with many compliments, and he
+put to sea and captured three of the war-galleys of the corsairs, also
+two Turkish ships laden with valuable merchandise. He fitted out the
+galleys for his own service, sold the merchantmen, and made an immense
+sum of money.
+
+His next act was to defeat the corsair, Cadolin, who had eight galleys
+to Doria’s six; these he added to his own fleet, which now consisted
+of fourteen vessels, he having begun with three. As Cadolin was one
+of the most famous corsairs of the day, this capture made an immense
+sensation, and all men, Moslems as well as Christians, were asking
+one another, “Who was this Doria?”
+
+They had their answer, as time passed, in the career of this
+astonishing warrior, who in his time played so many parts, who served
+under so many flags, and yet who remained consistently a patriot all
+the time. As this is not a history of Doria, we have no space to trace
+out his life step by step as it was lived; suffice it to say that,
+disapproving of the government of his native Republic under the family
+of the Adorno, Andrea offered his sword and his fleet to the King of
+France, Francis I. His offer was received with joy, and he was made
+Captain-General of the Galleys of France. In his new capacity he sailed
+for the coast of Provence, which was being devastated by the fleet of
+Charles V. He sank several of the Spanish vessels, captured others, and
+secured sufficient booty to pay his soldiers and sailors—a fact most
+welcome to Francis, who was in desperate straits for money.
+
+Eventually, however, a dispute arose between Francis and Doria, which
+was to have disastrous effects for the King. At this time Charles V.
+was suzerain of Genoa, which was held for him by the Adorno. Philippin
+Doria, nephew of the admiral, met at sea with Hugo de Moncada outside
+the Gulf of Salerno; a battle ensued, in which Philippin was victorious
+and Moncada was slain. Amongst others who were captured was the Marquis
+de Guasto and Camille Colonna; these high officers, together with three
+of the captured galleys, were sent by Philippin to his uncle at Genoa.
+
+In the meantime some malcontents reached the Court of France and
+complained to the King that Andrea Doria had not captured Sicily, which
+they averred he could easily have done. These men were backed up by
+a certain number of the courtiers, who were bitterly jealous of the
+fame of Doria and the esteem in which he had been held by Francis.
+The monarch, easily swayed by any determined and persistent attack,
+decided to levy a fine on the inhabitants of Genoa as a punishment for
+the supineness of their countryman, who was his Captain-General of the
+Galleys; his argument being that they must pay him for the plunder
+Doria had missed by not taking Sicily when he should have done so.
+
+This was worse than a crime—it was blunder of the very first magnitude,
+and such a blunder as could only have been made by a very stupid as
+well as a very arrogant man. Doria by this time was a warrior of
+European celebrity, and one to whom even kings used the language of
+persuasion; to attempt to browbeat him was to court disaster.
+
+Francis sent the Vicomte de Tours to Genoa to levy the fine, but the
+Vicomte did not prosper on his mission. Outside of Genoa he was met by
+the outraged admiral on horseback at the head of some fifty Genoese
+nobles and a numerous company of foot-soldiers. De Tours reported that
+the name and authority of the King of France was held in derision
+by the fierce old admiral, who so alarmed the envoy himself that he
+thought it prudent to retire to Florence, from whence he wrote a long
+letter to his master complaining of his reception by Doria.
+
+This attempt to levy a fine on Genoa was not, however, the only
+deadly blow which the King of France was aiming at her. The children of
+Francis were at this time in Madrid, as hostages for the good behaviour
+of their father, and that monarch was in treaty secretly with Charles
+to restore Italy to the _status quo ante bellum_, which would have had
+the effect of handing over Genoa to Antony Adorno. He also began the
+fortification of Savona, in order that from there he might be in a
+position to strike at the Genoese—from a military point of view, if
+necessary—but in any event to cripple the trade of that city. Andrea
+Doria, as soon as he became aware of this latter action on the part of
+Francis, was thoroughly roused, and wrote him the letter quoted below,
+which illustrates the fact that he was quite aware of his own great
+importance in Europe. It was not a time in which men held such language
+as did Doria on this occasion unless they were very sure of themselves
+and their followers.
+
+  “GREAT PRINCE,
+
+  “It is an ill use of power to reverse order in human
+  affairs. Genoa has always been the capital of Liguria,
+  and posterity will see with astonishment that your
+  Majesty has deprived it of this advantage with no
+  plausible pretext. The Genoese are well aware how
+  inimical to their interests are your projects with regard
+  to Savona. They beg of you that these may be abandoned,
+  and that you will not sacrifice the general good to the
+  views of a few courtiers. I take the liberty to add my
+  prayers to theirs, and to ask of you this grace as the
+  price of the services I have rendered to France. Should
+  your Majesty have been put to expense, I shall join to
+  my request the sum of forty thousand gold crowns.
+
+  “With the humble duty of Andrea Doria,
+
+  Captain-General of the Galleys of France.”
+
+Theodore Trivulce, who held Savona for the King of France, was roundly
+told by Doria that “the people of Genoa would never suffer the taking
+of Savona by the King of France, as it had from time immemorial
+belonged to them,” and added, “for myself I will sacrifice the
+friendship of the King in the interests of my fatherland.”
+
+The last straw came, however, when the Marshal de Lautrec demanded
+from Andrea the prisoners taken by Philippin Doria at Salerno. To this
+Doria returned a curt negative, whereupon Francis sent one Barbezieux
+to supersede Doria and to seize upon the person of the veteran admiral.
+But that seaman, now sixty years of age, was not to be taken by any
+king or soldier. He moved his twelve galleys from Genoa to Lerici, on
+the east coast of the Gulf of Spezzia, and when Barbezieux arrived
+he sarcastically told him to take the galleys. Barbezieux had no
+better fortune than his predecessor, the Vicomte de Tours, and retired
+discomfited and boiling over with rage to report matters to the King.
+
+It has been said that among the prisoners of Philippin Doria was the
+Marquis de Guasto. This nobleman had been an interested spectator
+of the quarrel, and now approached Doria suggesting that he should
+throw in his lot with Charles. The admiral, who all through had been
+acting in the interests of his native country, seeing its ruin
+approaching from the ambitions of Francis, consented, and wrote to
+his nephew Philippin telling him of his decision, and his reasons
+for that which he proposed to do. Philippin therefore rejoined his
+uncle at Lerici with his eight galleys. The negotiations were short,
+sharp, and decisive, and were conducted through the medium of De
+Guasto. Charles offered the admiral sixty thousand ducats a year;
+this was accepted. The only other stipulation made by the Emperor was
+natural enough, which was that all the Spanish galley-slaves in the
+fleet of Andrea should be released and their places taken by men of
+other nationalities. This was of course conceded, and the transaction
+was complete. Henceforward the most formidable force at sea on the
+Christian side was at the disposal of the Spanish King.
+
+This transference took place in the year 1528, and it was in the same
+year that the citizens of Genoa, in recognition of the unexampled
+services of the admiral to the State, elected him perpetual Doge.
+
+This honour Doria declined, declaring that it was more glorious to have
+deserved than to possess the honour, and that he considered he could be
+of more use to his fellow citizens by gaining for them the protection
+of great princes than by remaining as chief judge in his own country.
+
+The Senate of Genoa, astonished by his noble modesty, hailed him as
+the father and liberator of his country, ordered that a statue of him
+should be erected in the public square, that in the same place a palace
+should be built for him at the public expense, and that it should be
+called Plaza Doria; further, that he and his posterity should be
+for ever exempted from taxation, and that a device should be engraved
+on a plate of copper and attached to the walls of the palace, where it
+could be seen of all men, announcing to posterity the services that
+this great man had rendered to his fellow citizens, to be for ever a
+memorial of their gratitude.
+
+The chronicler of these events draws a parallel between Doria and
+Themistocles, who, when discontented with the Athenians, passed into
+Persia and offered his services to Xerxes, to the great joy of that
+monarch, who cried aloud, “I have Themistocles, I have Themistocles.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE CORSAIR KING
+
+
+If Charles V. made no such outward manifestation of his joy as did the
+Persian monarch, he possibly was no less pleased than Xerxes; this he
+showed by his acts, and the value that he attached to the services of
+Doria was instanced in the directions which he gave. He ordered the
+Governors of all his possessions in Italy to do nothing without first
+consulting the admiral; to lend him prompt aid, whether he demanded
+it in his own name or in that of the Republic of Genoa. He made him
+Admiralissimo of his navy, with power to act as he liked without even
+consulting him, as his Emperor. It will be seen that Charles had in him
+sufficient greatness to trust whole-heartedly when he trusted at all;
+the faith which he reposed in the Genoese seaman was amply justified
+by events, and no action of his during the whole of his singularly
+dramatic reign was ever to result so entirely to his profit. When in
+after-life Charles had received from the Pope the Imperial Crown, and
+when, on his return, he put into Aigues-Mortes in Doria’s galley, he
+there met with Francis, who, in a burst to confidence, advised the
+Cæsar never to part with his admiral.
+
+On that stage, which was the blue waters of the tideless sea, we
+shall, from this time forward, watch the fortunes of those two great
+sea-captains, Andrea Doria and Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa. With them the
+ebb and flow of conquest and defeat alternated. Great as was the one,
+it cannot be said that he was greater than the other; but when the
+supreme arbitrament was within the grasp of both, as it was at the
+naval battle of Prevesa, neither the Christian admiral nor the Moslem
+corsair would reach out his hand and grasp the nettle of his fate.
+Hesitation at this moment, when, in the fulness of time, the rivals
+stood face to face with arms in their hands, was the last thing that
+would have been expected of such dauntless warriors, such born leaders
+of men! and the battle of Prevesa presents a psychological problem
+of the most baffling and perplexing description. We are, however,
+anticipating events which will fall into their proper sequence as we
+proceed.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din, now firmly established in Algiers, devoted his energies
+to the undoing of his Christian foes by the systematic plunder of their
+merchant-vessels. At this period he, personally, seems to have remained
+ashore, and sent his young and aspiring captains to sea to increase his
+wealth by plunder, his consequence by the hordes of slaves which they
+swept into the awful bagnios of Algiers; and Sandoval, that quaint and
+delightful historian, is moved to indignation and complains with much
+acrimony of “las malas obras que este corsario hizo a la Christiandad”
+(the evil deeds done to Christianity by this corsair). These were on
+so considerable a scale at this time that he had to devote to them far
+more space than he considered consonant with the dignity of history.
+
+But if all were going on well on the coast of Africa for the Crescent,
+such was far from being the case in the northern waters of the
+Mediterranean; for Andrea Doria, serving His Most Catholic Majesty at
+sea, had defeated the Turks at Patras and again in the Dardanelles,
+which unpleasant fact caused no little annoyance to Soliman the
+Magnificent. On land the Sultan was sweeping all before him; at sea
+this pestilent Genoese was dragging into servitude all the best
+mariners who sailed beneath the banner of the Prophet. There was
+wrath and there was fear at Constantinople, and the captains of the
+galleys which sailed from the Golden Horn felt that their heads and
+their bodies might at any moment part company—the Grand Turk was in
+an ill humour, which might at any moment call for the appeasement of
+sacrifice; so it was that men trembled.
+
+It was at this time, in 1533, that Soliman bethought himself of
+Kheyr-ed-Din. There was no better seaman, there was no fiercer fighter,
+there was no man whose name was so renowned throughout the length and
+breadth of the Mediterranean, than was that of the corsair king who was
+vassal to the Sublime Porte. Soliman was confronted with a new, and, to
+him, an almost mysterious thing, for the onward conquering step of the
+Moslem hosts was being checked by that sea-power so little understanded
+of the Turk, and the imperious will of the Sultan seemed powerless to
+prevent the disasters conjured from the deep.
+
+[Illustration: SOLIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.]
+
+Soliman the Magnificent, who was not inaptly described by this title,
+for he was successful as both warrior and statesman, meditated both
+long and anxiously on the new development of affairs before he made up
+his mind to the step of calling to his assistance the corsair king. But
+he possessed that truest attribute of greatness in a ruler, the faculty
+of discerning the right man for any particular post. Brave and reckless
+fighters he possessed in super-abundance, but somehow—somehow—none of
+these fiery warriors had that habit of the sea which enabled them to
+make head against such a past-master in the craft of the seaman as
+Andrea Doria. The Genoese was chasing the Turkish galleys from off the
+face of the waters. Constantinople itself was a sea-surrounded city; it
+was necessary that a check should be administered to the arms of the
+Christians on this element. It is easy to imagine the preoccupations
+of the Turkish monarch. The despot rules by force, but he also holds
+his power by the address with which it is wielded, and he can by no
+means afford to disregard his personal popularity if he is to make the
+best use of his fighting men in such a turbulent epoch as was the first
+half of the sixteenth century. Soliman had the wit to know that he had
+no mariner who was in any way comparable to Doria; he was also aware
+that Kheyr-ed-Din had risen from nothing to his present position by his
+sheer ability as a seaman. It would appear, therefore, a very natural
+thing that he should invite the co-operation of the King of Algiers,
+but that with which he had to reckon was the furious jealousy that such
+an appointment must inevitably arouse among his own subjects.
+
+It says much for the steadfast moral courage of the man that he
+eventually decided to take the risk; it says even more for the absolute
+correctness of his judgment that he never afterwards repented of the
+step which he then took.
+
+Once the mind of the Grand Turk was made up he hesitated no longer. The
+Capitan de Rodas, one of his personal guard, was sent to Barbarossa to
+request him to come to Constantinople and take command of the Ottoman
+fleet. There were no conditions attached; the honour was supreme.
+Barbarossa loaded the messenger with rich gifts, and overwhelmed him
+with honours. For Kheyr-ed-Din this was in a sense the apotheosis of
+his career. The Grand Turk, the head of the Mohammedan religion, had
+not only recognised his kingship, but had conferred on him an honour
+unprecedented, unlooked for, and one of the highest value to a man of
+such an insatiable ambition. Into the cool and crafty brain of this
+prince among schemers instantly sprang the thought that now at last his
+kingdom was secure, that in future the whole of the Barbary coast would
+own no other lord than he.
+
+Preparations for the voyage were immediately begun, and, as an earnest
+of the new importance which he derived from the advances of Soliman,
+the corsair actually sent presents to the King of France and proffered
+him his aid against his enemies. To such a pass as this had one of the
+most powerful monarchs in Christendom been reduced by the defection of
+Andrea Doria. Algiers he left in the keeping of his son Hassan, and
+in charge of Hassan his kinsman Celebi Rabadan and a captain of the
+name of Agi. In the middle of August, 1533, Barbarossa left Algiers,
+his fleet consisting of seven galleys and eleven fustas. Sailing
+northward, he fell in with a fleet which he at first feared was that
+of Doria, but which, fortunately for him, was that of a corsair named
+Delizuff from Los Gelues. Courtesies were interchanged between the two
+leaders, and Barbarossa succeeded in persuading Delizuff to accompany
+him to Sicily, where it was possible they might fall in with Doria, and
+with their combined forces inflict defeat upon the Christian admiral.
+Delizuff was nothing loath to join forces with so noted a commander as
+Kheyr-ed-Din, as he had no desire to tackle Doria single-handed, and at
+the same time wished to extend the sphere of his plunderings, which had
+been cruelly restricted recently by the wholesome fear instilled into
+the Sea-wolves by the new admiral of Charles V.
+
+Accordingly, reinforced by the fifteen fustas and one galley of
+Delizuff, the Algerian fleet once more proceeded on its voyage.
+Although bound for Constantinople at the request of Soliman, at a time
+when it would have been thought that delay was not only dangerous but
+impolitic, and although the corsair was endeavouring to merge the
+pirate in the king who dealt on terms of equality with those whom
+he now regarded as his brother monarchs, still the old instinct of
+robbery was too strong to be resisted; the lust of gain and the call
+of adventure were still inherent in the man whose famous beard was now
+far more white than red. Advancing age had not tamed the spirit nor
+weakened the frame of this leader among the Moslems.
+
+Sailing through the Straits of Bonifacio, they touched Monte Cristo,
+a small island where they found a slave who had formerly belonged to
+Delizuff. This man was base enough to betray his own native island
+of Biba into the hands of the corsairs, who sacked it thoroughly and
+carried off its inhabitants; they also captured thirteen large ships
+going to Sicily for wheat, and burnt them, making slaves of their
+crews. In the fight with these vessels Delizuff was killed. Shortly
+after this, some disagreement arising between the crews of the ships
+of Barbarossa and the men in Delizuff’s fleet, the Algerian commander
+seized a man out of one of Delizuff’s galleys and had him summarily
+shot. The death of Delizuff naturally caused some confusion in his
+command, and the high-handed proceeding of Kheyr-ed-Din caused great
+resentment, not unmixed with fear, as the terror inspired by the
+Barbarossas was a very real sentiment. Under their command no man knew
+when or at how short notice his life might not be required of him;
+but the glamour of success was ever around them, and they never, in
+consequence, lacked for followers. But the taking out and shooting of
+one of their comrades was too much for the pirates from the islands of
+Los Gelues, from whence Delizuff was in the habit of “operating.” In
+the words of Sandoval, “they were not used to such tyranny and cruel
+usage.” In consequence they concerted among themselves and one dark
+night sailed off, leaving Kheyr-ed-Din to continue his voyage with
+his original following.
+
+That warrior, nothing disconcerted, pursued his way to the island of
+Zante, where he fell in with a Turkish “flota,” under the command
+of the Bashas Zay and Himeral. To these officers of the Grand Turk
+Barbarossa used most injurious language, bitterly reproaching them with
+not having sought out and destroyed Andrea Doria, which he declared
+they ought to and should have done. This is yet another instance of
+the extraordinary character of the man. These persons were the highest
+officers in the fleet of the Ottoman Empire; it was more than possible
+that they would be placed under the command of Barbarossa as soon as
+his new position as Admiralissimo was adjusted at Constantinople; and
+yet, in spite of these facts, the corsair had taken the very first
+opportunity which presented itself grossly to insult these men. It is
+true, as we shall see, that his injurious words came home to roost in
+the future; but arrogant, conquering, contemptuous, Barbarossa seems to
+have shouldered his way through life, fearing none and feared by all.
+
+The fact of his known cruelty accounts for much of the dread which he
+inspired, but it was something far more than this which caused the son
+of the Albanian renegado to ride roughshod as he did over all with whom
+he was brought into contact. Men felt, in dealing with Barbarossa,
+that here was a rock against which they might dash themselves in vain.
+In all his enterprises he spared not himself. He asked no man to do
+that which he was not prepared to do, but if any failed him there
+was no mercy for that man; and, although in deference to modern
+susceptibility no mention is made of the tortures he so frequently
+caused to be inflicted on his victims, they were none the less a daily
+spectacle to those who lived under his rule. He possessed, it is true,
+the rough geniality of the fighting man, a certain “Hail fellow, well
+met!” manner in greeting old comrades, and yet none of these men there
+were who did not tremble in an agony of fear when the bushy brows were
+bent, when the famous red beard bristled in one of his uncontrollable
+furies. The real secret of his success must have been that, no matter
+how uncontrollable did his passions appear to be, the man was always
+really master of himself. Further, he possessed a marvellous insight as
+to where his own interests lay. He used as his tools the bodies and the
+minds of the men who were subject to him, and he carried his designs to
+an assured success by the aid of that penetrating, far-seeing mental
+power with which, above all else, he must have been gifted. He could
+drive men, he could lead them, he could invariably persuade when all
+else failed him. In this we have had an instance when he was chased
+from Algiers by the combined efforts of Venalcadi and Hassan, whom he
+had flogged; for no sooner did he meet with other corsairs than he
+persuaded them to take up his quarrel—which, it must be understood, was
+none of theirs—and to replace him on that precarious throne from which
+he had been so rudely thrust. We have already said that he was a man
+who never knew when he was beaten, and in the years which we have yet
+to chronicle this characteristic appears again and again; for age
+had no effect apparently, either mentally or physically, on this man of
+iron who had by this time reached the age of seventy-seven.
+
+Leaving the high officers of his future master, the Grand Turk,
+smarting under the opprobrium which he had heaped upon their heads,
+Barbarossa fared onward with his fleet to Salonica, capturing a
+Venetian galley on the voyage: from thence he made his way to the
+Dardanelles, where he anchored and remained several days, to make ready
+his fleet for the spectacular entry which he intended to make into
+Constantinople.
+
+The city on the Golden Horn was all agog for the arrival of Barbarossa;
+no matter what private opinions the inhabitants might have had
+concerning him, of which we shall hear more presently, they were none
+the less all curious to a degree to catch sight of this man, so famous
+in his evil supremacy on that distant shore of Northern Africa.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din, among his other qualities, possessed in the highest
+degree that of a successful stage-manager; no pageant which he
+undertook was ever likely to fail from the want of the striking and
+the dramatic. It was now his business to impress the citizens of
+Constantinople with an idea of his greatness, and none knew better
+than he that it is the outward and visible sign which counts among
+the orientals, more perhaps than the inward and spiritual grace: he
+may also possibly have felt that he did not possess the latter to any
+overwhelming extent.
+
+Even before he left Algiers this entry to the chief city of the
+Ottoman Empire had been in the mind of Barbarossa, who had caused to
+be embarked a quantity of flags and pennons for the decoration of
+his grim war-galleys when they should stream into the Golden Horn.
+There were also bands of music, which, it is to be presumed, utilised
+the delay in the Dardanelles to attain to something like “a concord of
+sweet sounds,” as the incidents of the voyage from Algiers, so far,
+had hardly been conducive to much time to spare for band-practice. The
+galleys were scrubbed and gaily painted; round the ship of Kheyr-ed-Din
+ran a broad streak of gold on the outer planking to denote the presence
+of a King of Algiers, and at last all was ready. The fleet weighed
+anchor, and, with banners flying and bands playing, entered the
+harbour. The shores were black with spectators; even the Sultan himself
+deigned to look forth on the coming of the man from whom he expected
+such great things.
+
+Ceremonial was the order of the day. Soliman the Magnificent was too
+wise a man not to know what was being said in his capital that day;
+it was his part to accustom the minds of men to the fact that he,
+Soliman, had chosen Barbarossa to command his fleet, and that there
+could be no looking back. The decree had been signed, the invitation
+had been sent, the man had arrived, there could be no possible retreat
+from the situation. The anchors splashed into the placid waters close
+to the shore, and the ships were soon so surrounded by boats as to be
+almost unapproachable; then came official persons from the Sultan with
+greetings to the famous seaman; also came Bashas and officers (“con
+carga de guerra,” says Sandoval), to offer a welcome and to stare
+in undisguised curiosity at the man chosen by their sovereign to
+make head against the famous Andrea Doria. This preliminary courtesy
+completed, there came the next act in the drama, which consisted in the
+immemorial custom of the East in the offering of gifts from Barbarossa
+to the Sultan, from the vassal to his suzerain. The Janissaries,
+splendid in scarlet and gold, tall above the ordinary stature of man,
+bristling with weapons inlaid in gold and silver, cleared the common
+vulgar from the streets approaching the palace of the Sultan; they
+formed the spearhead of the procession clearing a way for the King
+of Algiers, who, mounted on a splendid bay stallion, the gift of the
+Sultan on his arrival, headed the captives who bore the gifts. Of these
+the exact number is not stated, but the procession was headed by two
+hundred women and girls, each of whom carried in her hand a gift of
+gold or silver; one hundred camels were loaded with silks and golden
+ornaments, and other “curious riches” (“con otras mil cosas de que hizo
+ostentacion”), says Sandoval. There were also lions and other animals,
+brocades and rich garments.
+
+All of this reads no doubt somewhat too like the tales in the “Arabian
+Nights”; but we have to remember that, if you have led a long and
+eminently successful life as a robber, you have necessarily accumulated
+a store of riches. In the case of Barbarossa he had begun in extreme
+youth, and was now an old man; he had been quite in the wholesale way
+as a thief, and now desired to pay a good price for that which he
+coveted, namely, the post of Admiralissimo to the Grand Turk. It may
+be objected that he had already been offered and had already accepted
+the post; this is quite true, but there were certain conventions to
+be fulfilled on the side of the recipient of the bounty of the Sultan
+quite understood on both sides, although no word had passed on the
+subject. In those days the man who desired the favour of an Eastern
+potentate never dreamed of approaching him empty-handed, and the more
+liberal that he was in the matter of gifts the greater was the favour
+with which he was regarded. Therefore the principle acted upon by
+Kheyr-ed-Din on this occasion was both wise and politic; that is to
+say, he placed certain of his riches in a perfectly sound investment,
+certain to yield him an admirable percentage, not only in added
+personal prestige, but also in the placing under his command of such a
+force as he had never before commanded, with unlimited opportunities
+of preying on the detested Christian on a far larger scale than it had
+ever been his good fortune to do before.
+
+The Sultan Soliman was not called “the Magnificent” without just cause;
+his life was splendid in its social prodigality, as it was in war and
+in statesmanship; yet even he was somewhat astonished at the amazing
+richness of the gifts which were laid at his feet by a man whom he knew
+to be, in spite of the kingly title which he had assumed, merely a
+rover of the sea. Therefore, in spite of himself, he was impressed. To
+him, it is true, in his splendour and magnificence, the intrinsic value
+of that which was brought to him by Barbarossa mattered but little; but
+the fact that the corsair was in a position to do so opened the eyes
+of the Sultan to the manner of man with whom he had to deal. Hitherto
+he had but known of him by hearsay, as the one Moslem seaman who
+was likely to be capable of making a stand against the terrible Doria,
+who had now become the plague of the Sultan’s existence. He now knew
+that the man who disposed of such incredible riches must be, no matter
+what his moral character, a man who stood a head and shoulders over any
+commander in the Ottoman fleet sailing out of the Golden Horn.
+
+Both materially and psychologically this man somewhat bewildered the
+despot: and his _alter ego_, the Grand Vizier, happening to be away on a
+mission to Aleppo, Soliman had no one with whom to confer in a strictly
+confidential manner; for, after the manner of autocrats, he had but
+few familiars, in fact it may be said none at all save the statesman
+mentioned. His reception of the corsair lacked, however, nothing in
+cordiality. He inquired after the incidents of the voyage, interested
+himself graciously in all that he was told concerning Africa and the
+conflicting claims of Christian and Moslem in that region, and was
+generally courteous to his distinguished visitor. He placed at his
+disposal a palace and attendants on a scale commensurate with the state
+of a reigning sovereign, and sent his most distinguished generals to
+confer with Kheyr-ed-Din. The latter, for the first time in his life,
+was thoroughly out of his element. His had been the life of the seaman
+and the soldier to begin with, and of later years that of a rude and
+unquestioned despot on a savage coast, surrounded by myrmidons to whom
+his voice had been as the voice of a god. Never had it been his lot
+before to dwell within the limits of such a comparative civilisation
+as that which obtained in Constantinople at this date; never before
+had it been necessary for him to restrain that naturally fiery and
+impetuous temper of his and to speak all men fairly.
+
+The strain must have been great, the effort enormous, and he knew,
+as he was bound to know, that his coming had unloosed jealousies and
+heart-searchings innumerable, with which he could not deal in the usual
+drastic fashion common to him. The winter was coming on, which was,
+as we have before remarked, very much of a close season both for the
+pirate and the honest merchant seaman. In consequence there was not
+very much chance against the foes of Soliman for the present. When that
+opportunity offered he promised himself that the courtiers and the
+soldiers of the Grand Turk would very soon discover that the fame of
+Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa was no empty matter, and that there existed no
+seaman in all the Ottoman dominions with whom they could compare the
+“African pirate,” as he had reason to believe that he was scornfully
+called behind his back.
+
+A weaker man would have been daunted by his surroundings, by the
+manifestly unfriendly atmosphere in which he lived, and by the dread
+that perhaps, after all, Soliman might go back upon his word. There
+were no lack of counsellors, he knew very well, who would advise the
+Sultan to his undoing, if that monarch gave them the opportunity;
+and, as time passed, so his anxiety grew. Soliman also could not have
+felt particularly comfortable at this juncture, with a sullen spirit
+possessing his men “con carga de guerra,” bitterly resenting the
+step which he had taken, and the appointment which he had made. For
+the present, however, he made no sign, treating Kheyr-ed-Din with
+distinguished courtesy, but making no reference to the future. Soliman
+was revolving the problem in his acute mind, doubtless weighing the
+unpopularity of the step which he had taken against the services likely
+to be rendered to him by his strange guest. And thus several weeks
+passed at Constantinople, probably amongst the most trying of all those
+in the unusually prolonged life of Kheyr-ed-Din.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE RAID ON THE COAST OF ITALY; JULIA GONZAGA
+
+
+The Grand Turk had spoken, the appointment had been made, Barbarossa
+had arrived; but though autocrats can cause their mandate to be obeyed,
+they cannot constrain the inward workings of the minds of men. In
+spite of the awe in which Soliman the Magnificent was held, there
+were murmurs of discontent in the capital of Islam. The Sultan had
+been advised to make Barbarossa his Admiralissimo by his Grand Vizier
+Ibrahim, who was, as we have said, his alter ego. This great man had
+risen from the humblest of all positions, that of a slave, to the giddy
+eminence to which he had now attained by the sheer strength of his
+intellect and personality. The Grand Vizier it was who had pointed out
+to his master that which was lacking in the Ottoman navy: brave men
+and desperate fighters he had in plenty, but the seaman who cleared
+the Golden Horn and made his way through the archipelago into the open
+sea beyond had forces with which to contend against which mere valour
+was but of small avail. Out there, somewhere behind the blue line of
+the horizon, did Andrea Doria lie in wait; and if the Moslem seaman
+should escape the clutches of the admiral of the Christian Emperor,
+were there not those others, the Knights of Malta, who, under the
+leadership of Villiers de L’lsle Adam, swept the tideless sea in an
+unceasing and relentless hostility to every nef, fusta, and galley
+which flew the flag of the Prophet?
+
+It had come to a pass when the Ottoman fighting man was by no means
+anxious to go to sea. He was still as brave as those marvellous
+fanatics of seven centuries before, who, in the name of God and of
+His Prophet Mahomet, had swept all opposition aside from the path of
+Islam, had conquered and proselytised in a manner never paralleled
+in the world before. At the call of the Padishah, for the honour of
+the Prophet, the sons of Islam were as ready to march and to fight as
+had ever been the warriors of the earlier Caliphs. But they had ever
+been soldiers; the habit of the sea was not theirs, and they found
+that, time after time, such sea-enterprises as they did undertake were
+shattered by the genius of Doria, or broken into fragments by the
+reckless, calculating assaults of the knights. And so it came about
+that there was but little heart in the navy of the Padishah, and those
+who served therein had but slight confidence in those by whom they
+were led. To use a metaphor from the cricket-field, it was time “to
+stop the rot” by sending in a really strong player. He was not to be
+found within the confines of orthodox Islam, and must be imported from
+outside.
+
+The man had been found; could he be forced on an unwilling and
+discontented populace?
+
+Who, it was asked in Constantinople, was this man who had been called
+in to command the ships of the Ottomans at sea? They answered their own
+question, and said that he was a lawless man, a corsair: were there not
+good seamen and valiant men-at-arms like the Bashas Zay and Himeral,
+who should be preferred before him; this man who had come from the ends
+of the earth, and of whom nobody knew anything good? Again, could he be
+trusted? Something of the history of the Barbarossas had penetrated to
+the capital of Turkey, and it was known that scrupulous adherence to
+their engagements had not always characterised the brothers: who should
+say that he might not carry off the galleys of the Grand Turk on some
+marauding expedition designed for his own aggrandisement? There was yet
+more to be urged against him: not only was he infamous in character,
+but he was no true Mussulman, for had not his father been a mere
+renegado, and—worst of all—had not his mother been a Christian woman?
+
+It was thus that the talk ran in that blazing autumn in Constantinople.
+Naturally there were plenty of persons who carried reports to
+Kheyr-ed-Din, and that astute individual soon made up his mind as
+to the most advantageous course for him to pursue. With the full
+concurrence of the Sultan, he left Constantinople and journeyed to
+Aleppo to see Ibrahim. The latter was both cunning and tenacious.
+Removed from the capital, the tide of gossip and discontent only
+reached him at second-hand; but he was not to be deterred by popular
+clamour even had he been in the midst of it. None knew better
+than he who and what was Barbarossa; in fact, it may be confidently
+asserted that none in Constantinople had anything like the same
+knowledge of this man and all that concerned him. Ibrahim had not named
+Barbarossa to his sovereign without weighing all the pros and cons of
+the matter, and that which was now happening in the capital had been
+fully anticipated by him. It pleased the Grand Vizier very much that
+Kheyr-ed-Din should take this long journey to see him; not from any
+ridiculous idea that this was an act of homage due to the dignity of
+his position—Ibrahim was far too great a man for such pettiness—but
+because it enabled him to see for himself what manner of man was this
+redoubtable pirate on whom he was relying to defeat the enemies of the
+Sublime Porte at sea. The corsair must have made the most favourable
+impression possible on the Grand Vizier, as that statesman wrote to
+Soliman:
+
+  “We have put our hands on a veritable man of the sea.
+  Name him without hesitation Basha, Member of the Divan,
+  Captain-General of the Fleet.”
+
+The Grand Turk had no intention of going back upon the appointment
+already made, but he was none the less pleased to receive from his
+Vizier so strong an endorsement of his policy; and now the time had
+come to stop the mouths of the murmurers and scandal-mongers of
+Constantinople. Accordingly he formally recalled Barbarossa from
+Aleppo, gave him, with his own hand, a sword and a royal banner, and
+invested him with plenary power over all the ports of his kingdoms,
+over all the islands owning his jurisdiction, command of all ships,
+vessels, and galleys, and of all soldiers, sailors, and slaves therein.
+The die was cast, the erstwhile corsair, the son of the renegado of
+Mitylene and his Christian wife was henceforward the supreme head of
+the Ottoman fleet.
+
+The following description of the famous corsair may be found
+interesting at this juncture.
+
+Barbarossa was at this time seventy-seven years of age. Courageous
+and prudent, he was as far-seeing in war as he was subtle in peace.
+A tireless worker, he was, above all things, constant in reverse of
+fortune, for no difficulties dismayed him, no dangers had power to
+daunt his spirit. His ruddy skin, his bushy eyebrows, his famous red
+beard, now plentifully streaked with white, his square, powerful frame,
+somewhat inclined to stoutness, above all, his penetrating and piercing
+eyes, gave to his aspect a certain terror before which men trembled and
+women shrank appalled.
+
+All this harmonised well with his reputation as a chief so resolute,
+so pitiless, that it was the boast of his followers that his very
+name shouted in battle put to flight the Christian vessels. His smile
+was fine and malicious, his speech facile, revealing beneath the rude
+exterior of the corsair the subtle man of affairs, who, from nothing,
+had made himself King of Algiers, and was now, by the invitation of
+Soliman the Magnificent, Admiralissimo of the Ottoman navy.
+
+Well may Jurien de la Gravière say that “in the sixteenth century
+even the pirates were great men.”
+
+It has been stated that in speech Barbarossa was facile. He was not
+only so, but he possessed a power of addressing such a man as Soliman
+in terms which, while delicately flattering that mighty monarch, gave
+him also a lead which he might follow in the future disposition of such
+power as he possessed at sea.
+
+On his return from Aleppo Kheyr-ed-Din was received in audience by
+the Sultan. We must be pardoned if we give the long speech which he
+addressed to his new master in its entirety; and we have to remember
+that the man who made it was now an old man who, all his life, had been
+absolutely free and untrammelled, owing allegiance to no one, following
+out his own caprices, and sweeping out of his path any whom he found
+sufficiently daring as to disagree with him. That this ruthless despot
+should have been able so to change the whole style and manner of his
+address so late in life is only one proof the more of the marvellous
+gifts which he possessed.
+
+It was in the following words that the corsair addressed the Sultan:
+
+  “Dread Sovereign, fortune itself has made it a law
+  to second you in all your enterprises because that
+  you are always ready to declare war upon the enemies
+  of Mahomet the Prophet of God, on whom be peace. You
+  have extended the limits of your vast possessions, you
+  have vanquished and slain the King of Hungary, you
+  have humiliated Charles V., this Emperor with whom the
+  Christians dare hold you in comparison. These have been
+  the recompenses received by you for the pure flame
+  with which your zeal for the religion of Mahomet has ever
+  burned.
+
+  “But these successes and these triumphs are not capable
+  of contenting that thirst for glory with which your being
+  is animated, and I am humbly desirous of indicating to
+  you the means of culling fresh laurels. Experience has
+  taught me the way, and I can assert, without fear of
+  being accused of vanity, that in this matter I can be of
+  great assistance to your Majesty.
+
+  “That which fortune has done for me in the past that
+  will it continue to do for me in the future. Age has
+  not enfeebled me, continual exercise has but rendered
+  me stronger; I can therefore promise to you the most
+  ready service both by land and sea. The desire which has
+  always been mine to persecute the Christians caused me to
+  conceive the idea of serving in your sea-army.
+
+  “If Heaven is favourable to my vows, the Spaniards will
+  soon be chased from Africa; the Carthaginians, the Moors,
+  will soon be your very submissive subjects; Sardinia,
+  Corsica, Sicily, will obey your will. As for Italy, it
+  will soon be desolated by famine when I attack it in
+  formidable force, without fearing that the Christian
+  Princes will come to its aid.
+
+  “Mahomet II., your illustrious grandfather, formed
+  the project of conquering this country; he would have
+  succeeded had he not been carried off by death. If I
+  counsel you, dread Sovereign, that you should carry war
+  into Europe and Africa, it is not that I desire your arms
+  should be turned back in Asia from against the Persians,
+  the ancient enemies of the Ottomans. I require but your
+  sea-army, which is no use against the Persians. While you
+  shall be conquering Asia I shall be subduing Africa.
+  The first enterprise which I shall undertake will be
+  against Muley Hassan, the King of Tunis; he has all the
+  vices and possesses not one single virtue. He is a man of
+  sordid avarice, of unexampled cruelty; he has rendered
+  himself odious to the entire human race.
+
+  “He had twenty-two brothers, all of whom he has caused
+  to be murdered. That which is a common failing among
+  tyrants is his: he dare not place himself at the head of
+  his troops. He prefers to endure the outrages which he
+  suffers at the hands of the Moors to taking up arms and
+  inflicting upon them a salutary vengeance. He had the
+  baseness to enter into an alliance with the Spaniards,
+  and to favour their conquests in Africa. It will be all
+  the easier for me to exterminate this wild beast because
+  I have with me his brother, who prayed me to save him
+  from the cruelty of Muley Hassan.
+
+  “When I besiege Tunis I shall present him to the
+  inhabitants, who love him as much as they hate Muley
+  Hassan. They will open their gates to me, and I shall
+  gain the town without the loss of a single man: it will
+  be then you who will be master. On my way thither I will
+  do what harm I can to the Christians; I will endeavour
+  to defeat Andrea Doria, who is my personal enemy and my
+  rival in glory: should I succeed in defeating him your
+  Majesty will possess the empire of the sea. Be then
+  persuaded, great Prince, by me, and believe that he who
+  is master of the sea will very shortly become master on
+  land.”
+
+It is somewhat difficult to fathom the reasons which induced
+Barbarossa to treat Soliman to his sanctimonious diatribe concerning
+the King of Tunis; coming, as it did, from a pirate, it was merely
+ludicrous, and could not for one instant have deceived the remarkably
+shrewd person to whom it was addressed. The corsair stated the facts
+correctly, but the reasons which led to an Eastern autocrat disposing
+of his family in this manner were so obvious at the time that, if
+Soliman felt any emotion at all concerning the event, it was probably
+one of admiration! Regarded from the practical, apart from the
+sentimental side, what the proposition amounted to was that Barbarossa
+should attack a king with whom the Grand Turk had no sort of quarrel,
+and that, once his territory had been reft from him, that it should be
+handed over to the ruler of Constantinople for the greater glory of the
+Sublime Porte. What mental reservations there were on the part of the
+corsair we are not told, but had Soliman known him better he would have
+been aware that never had Barbarossa pulled any chestnuts from the fire
+of life which were not intended for his own eating; and that it was
+extremely unlikely, at his time of life, that he was now going to alter
+the habits of his long and strenuous career.
+
+There was one thing, however, that Kheyr-ed-Din was not; he was no
+bragger or boaster, and, whatever may have been his mental reservations
+in his interview with the Sultan, that which he stated he would do,
+that he did. And now the time had come when the grim old Sea-wolf had
+done with intrigue and the unaccustomed atmosphere of a Court and went
+back to his native element, the sea.
+
+Soliman, it must be said to his credit, was no man to deal in
+half-measures, and when once he had given his trust he gave it
+whole-heartedly, generously. In consequence he gave Barbarossa
+eighty galleys, eight hundred Janissaries, eight thousand Turkish
+soldiers, and eight hundred thousand ducats for expenses (some three
+hundred thousand pounds sterling of our money). All the necessary
+preparations were carried out under the orders of Barbarossa, who
+was given a roving commission to do what seemed best to him for the
+advancement of the glory of his master and the discomfiture of his
+Christian foes. The commission which he now received was practically
+that which had been given by Charles V. to Doria, the most flattering
+with which any man can be entrusted, as in his hands were left issues
+of peace and war usually only vested in the sovereign.
+
+All through the early summer of 1534 the dockyards and the arsenals
+of Constantinople hummed with the note of preparation; Ibrahim had
+returned from Aleppo and threw himself, heart and soul, into these
+activities, which meant the sailing of the Ottoman fleet under the
+command of “that veritable man of the sea,” Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa.
+Stilled were the murmurs of the year before; the corsair, invested with
+plenary powers by the Sultan himself, was now in a position to make his
+authority felt; added to this, the more sensible of the malcontents had
+been won round by the Grand Vizier to the view that as, so far, the
+Ottoman navy had been conspicuously unsuccessful at sea, it was just as
+well to make use of the most capable Moslem seaman upon whom they could
+lay their hands. As to his moral character, that they could afford to
+discount, and as to the question of his faithfulness or the reverse,
+it was pointed out with irresistible logic by Ibrahim, that never
+before had the Sea-wolf had such glorious opportunities of plunder as
+now, when he could count ten ships for every one that had followed in
+his wake before.
+
+It was in July 1534 that the Ottoman fleet left Constantinople, and
+Kheyr-ed-Din began operations by a descent upon Reggio, which he
+sacked. On August 1st he arrived at the Pharos of Messina, where he
+burnt some Christian ships and captured their crews; then he worked
+north from Reggio to Naples, ravaging the coast and depopulating
+the whole littoral, burning villages, destroying ships, enslaving
+people. In this expedition he is said to have captured eleven thousand
+Christian slaves. There is perhaps nothing more amazing in the whole
+history of this epoch than the number of the slaves captured by the
+corsairs, and the damnable cruelties exercised upon them; these were,
+of course returned by the Christians with interest whenever possible.
+As an instance of the treatment to which the slaves were subjected
+it is only necessary to mention the course taken by Barbarossa when
+he left Algiers in the previous year. There were at that time seven
+thousand Christian captives in his power; immediately before starting
+he had the entire number paraded before him, and, under the pretext
+of having discovered a plot, which in no circumstances could possibly
+have existed, owing to the supervision of the slaves, he caused twenty
+of them to be beheaded on the spot in order to strike terror into the
+remainder during his absence.
+
+Back to the Golden Horn streamed ship after ship laden with plunder
+and with slaves. “The veritable man of the sea” was proving the
+correctness of the choice of the Sultan, the acumen of the Grand Vizier
+who had recommended his appointment. Barbarossa was determined to leave
+nothing undone to prove to Soliman that his choice had indeed been
+a worthy one when he had selected him as admiral of his fleet: also
+he had in his mind those others who spoke slightingly of him as “the
+African pirate”; they should know as well as their master of what this
+pirate was capable. Northward the devastating host of Barbarossa took
+its way; the fair shores of Italy smoked to heaven as the torches of
+the corsairs fired the villages. Blood and agony, torture and despair,
+followed ever on the heels of the Sea-wolves of the Mediterranean. And
+now a fresh pack had been loosed, as it was, of course, in enormously
+increased strength that Barbarossa returned to the scene of so many of
+his former triumphs.
+
+Plunder and slaves were all very well in their way, and acceptable
+enough on the shores of the Golden Horn; but Kheyr-ed-Din had a pet
+project in view on this particular cruise, which was to capture Julia
+Gonzaga and to present her to Soliman for his harem. The lady destined
+by him for this pleasant fate was reported to be the loveliest woman
+in Europe, a fitting gift for such an one as the Grand Turk. The fame
+of her surpassing loveliness had reached even the corsairs. She was
+the widow of Vespasian Colonna, Duchess of Trajetto, and Countess of
+Fundi; she had now been a widow since 1528, and lived at Fundi, some
+ninety miles north-east of Naples. Barbarossa laid his plans with
+his accustomed acuteness, and it was only through an accident that they
+miscarried.
+
+There was one undeniable advantage in the system which swept off into
+slavery the whole of the inhabitants of a country-side, and that was,
+if at any time you required a guide at any particular point on the
+coast, he was sure to be forthcoming from one of the vessels in the
+fleet. Now Barbarossa did not exactly know where Julia Gonzaga was to
+be found, so he set his captains to work to discover the necessary
+slave. This was soon accomplished, and there was really no occasion for
+a slave on this occasion, as a renegado of Naples knew the castle in
+which Julia Gonzaga was residing at the time, and readily agreed to act
+as guide to the expedition sent to accomplish her capture. Kheyr-ed-Din
+had made a sudden dash along the coast with some of the swiftest of his
+galleys for the purposes of this capture. In consequence the people in
+Naples and the neighbourhood were not even aware that the piratical
+squadron was on the coast before they anchored, as near as it was
+practicable to do, to the residence of the Duchess of Trajetto. The
+fleet actually arrived after dark, having kept out to sea and out of
+sight during the day.
+
+As soon as the anchors were down a party of two thousand picked men
+were landed and marched silently and with all expedition to the castle
+of Fundi. The escape of the Duchess was really providential. She had
+already gone to bed, and the fierce marauders were actually within the
+grounds of the castle before her distracted people became aware of
+their presence. But fortunately some among them kept their heads,
+and it also so happened that her bed-chamber was the opposite side
+of the castle to that by which the pirates approached. A horse was
+brought round under the window of the room, and, in her night-dress
+with nothing but a shawl wrapped around her, was Julia Gonzaga lowered
+out of her window on to the back of her horse. As she galloped for dear
+life down the avenue of her home she heard the shrieks of her miserable
+household murdered in cold blood by the furious pirates who had thus
+been balked of their prey.
+
+Dire was the vengeance taken by the corsairs. They sacked Fundi and
+burned the town; they killed every man on whom they could lay their
+hands, and carried off the women and girls to the fleet.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din was furious with anger and disappointment. “What is the
+value of all this trash?” he demanded, with a thundering oath, of
+the commander of the unsuccessful raiders, surveying as he spoke the
+miserable, shivering women and girls. “I sent you out to bring back a
+pearl without price, and you return with these cattle.”
+
+Thus balked of his prey, Barbarossa swung his fleet round to the
+southward and westward and sailed for Sardinia, where, from the Straits
+of Bonifacio to Cape Spartivento, he left no house standing that would
+burn, or man alive who was not swept in as a captive. The descent of
+the corsairs in force, such as Kheyr-ed-Din now had at his disposal,
+was one of the most awful calamities for a country that it is possible
+to imagine. When Sardinia had ceased to yield up either booty or
+slaves the fleet sailed for Tunis, where it arrived before Bizerta on
+August 15th. The arrival of the corsairs was totally unexpected, and
+caused the greatest consternation. The story which Barbarossa had told
+to Sultan Soliman concerning the reigning King Muley Hassan was correct
+in every detail, and there is no doubt that he was a bloody and cruel
+tyrant of the worst description.
+
+Therefore when the wily Barbarossa sent on shore and informed the
+sheiks and ulemas of the place that he had come in the name of the head
+of the Mohammedan religion to free them from this monster by whom they
+were oppressed, and that he intended to place on the throne the brother
+of Muley Hassan, Raschid, who had miraculously escaped from the fate
+which had overtaken all the other members of his house, the townspeople
+were inclined to listen to his advances and to admire the picture which
+he drew of the peace and prosperity which would accrue to them should
+Raschid, and not Muley Hassan, be on the throne of their country. That
+which he inferred in all his dealings with these people was that he had
+Raschid with him ready to step into the shoes of his unpopular brother
+as soon as the latter should be deposed by a justly indignant populace.
+The fact of the matter was that Kheyr-ed-Din had taken the fugitive
+prince with him to Constantinople, thinking to make use of him, and
+that, when he was sailing, Soliman had absolutely forbidden him to
+remove Raschid from his capital.
+
+Completely deceived, the townspeople allowed the landing of eight
+hundred Janissaries. The tyrant, who was, as Barbarossa had told the
+Sultan, a craven coward, waited for no further demonstration of force,
+but incontinently fled into the interior with such valuables as he
+could carry. As soon as this was reported to Barbarossa he landed in
+force and entered the town, and then the townspeople noticed that the
+soldiers were all shouting for Soliman and for Barbarossa. They then
+demanded that Raschid should be produced according to promise, but
+naturally he was not forthcoming. Those who had acclaimed the soldiers
+of Soliman as liberators now began to arm against them, and they very
+shortly discovered, from some Tunisians who had come in the fleet from
+Constantinople, that Raschid had been left behind in that city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+BARCELONA, MAY 1535; THE GATHERING OF THE CHRISTIAN HOSTS
+
+
+Some idea of the terror inspired by the actions of the Sea-wolves at
+this date is contained in the following extract from “The Golden Age of
+the Renaissance,” by Lanciani:
+
+  “The Bastione del Belvedere, which towers in frowning
+  greatness at the north-east end of the Vatican Garden and
+  commands the approach to the Borgo from the upper-end
+  valley of the Tiber, was begun by Antonio de Sangullo
+  the younger, and finished by Michel Angelo after the
+  death of Antonio, which took place on September 30th,
+  1546. This great piece of military engineering must not
+  be considered by itself, but as a part of a great scheme
+  of defence conceived by Paul III, to protect the city
+  against a hostile invasion from the sea. The Pope could
+  not forget that, in August 1534, the fleet of infidels
+  commanded by Barbarossa had cast anchor at the mouth of
+  the Tiber to renew its supply of water, and that if its
+  leader had thought fit they could have stormed, sacked,
+  and plundered the city, and carried off the Pope himself
+  into slavery without any possibility of defence on the
+  Christian side. This point has not been taken into due
+  consideration by modern writers; the fortifications of
+  Rome, designed or begun or finished at the time of
+  Paul III., have nothing to do with the sack of 1527, with
+  the Connétable de Bourbon, or with the Emperor Charles V.
+  All the bastions, that of the Belvedere excepted, point
+  towards the sea-coast, which was perpetually harried and
+  terrified by Turkish or Barbary pirates. These would
+  appear with lightning-like rapidity in more than one
+  place at a time, and carry off as many unfortunate men,
+  women, and children as they could collect.... To prevent
+  the recurrence of such disasters the sea-coast was lined
+  with watch-towers, the guns of which could warn the
+  peasants of the approach of suspicious vessels.”
+
+That Paul III. had good warrant for the precautions which he designed
+to take is not only instanced by the fact of Barbarossa anchoring in
+the mouth of the Tiber on the occasion of the raid with which we are
+at present concerned, but from what had occurred to his predecessor on
+the Papal throne in 1516. Pope Leo, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent,
+was accustomed to leave Rome in the autumn for hunting, and fishing in
+the sea, of which latter pastime he was particularly fond. One of his
+favourite resorts was the castle of Magliana, five miles from Rome,
+on the banks of the Tiber. On September 18th, 1516, he left Rome and
+proceeded to Civita Lavinia, on the Laurentian coast. Here he was
+waited for by the corsair Curtogali, who, with fifteen ships off the
+coast and an ambush on shore, was ready to carry him off. Curtogali is
+supposed to have derived his information as to the movements of the
+Pope from some traitor about the Papal Court who desired the downfall
+of “the fatal House of Medici.”
+
+Some one, however, warned the Pope, who fled, accompanied by his
+retinue, at a headlong gallop to Rome, never drawing bridle until he
+reached the safe seclusion of the Vatican.
+
+We must now return, however, to that eagle who fluttered so sorely the
+dovecotes, both Christian and Moslem, and whose loudly proclaimed faith
+in the Prophet never permitted his religion to stand inconveniently
+in the way of his material advancement in the world. The soldiers
+and sailors of the corsair entered Bizerta shouting for Soliman and
+Barbarossa. There was no mention of Raschid, that Prince of the Hafsit
+dynasty, whom Kheyr-ed-Din had declared to the townspeople he had
+come to restore to the throne of his ancestors. Too late the town
+sprang to arms, under a chief named Abdahar, and in the first instance
+accomplished a considerable success. Barbarossa’s men were unprepared,
+and a number of them were slain. Driven into a bastion of the walls,
+a party of the corsairs were desperately defending themselves, when
+one Baetio, a Spanish renegado, discovered that a cannon behind them
+pointing seawards was loaded. He succeeded, with the assistance of
+others, in slewing it round and discharged it at close quarters into
+the packed masses of the enemy. This caused a frightful demoralisation
+to set in; the corsairs rallied and soon swept all before them. The
+massacre turned from the one side to the other, and it is said that no
+less than three thousand of the unfortunate townspeople were slain.
+Barbarossa only called off his men when they were wearied out by the
+slaughter.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din now graciously accepted the submission of the
+townsfolk; that is to say, such of them as were left, and took charge
+of the entire kingdom as governor for the Sultan of Turkey. He sent
+out ambassadors to the neighbouring Arab and Berber chieftains of
+the hinterland, repaired fortifications, appointed magistrates—all
+ostensibly in the name of that phantom prince whom the Tunisians were
+destined never to see, and who never returned to his native country.
+
+King of Algiers, _de facto_ King of Tunis, Admiralissimo to Soliman the
+Magnificent, his name a portent in Christendom, his fame reaching from
+Spartel to Tunis, and from the shores of France to the foothills of the
+Atlas, Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa was at the height of his power. Never
+before had a corsair risen to such eminence, never again was there
+destined to be so magnificent a sea-robber. Thus it was that the year
+1535 opened gloomily for all those Powers whose coasts were washed by
+the tideless sea. Italy, torn and bleeding, her strong men slain, her
+fairest matrons and maids carried off into the most odious captivity,
+was lamenting the terrible fate to which she had been exposed by the
+raids of the pirate admiral. In Catalonia, in Genoa, in Venice, along
+what is now known as the Riviera, men trembled and women wept; for who
+could say that it might not be upon them that the next thunderbolt
+might fall? In Venice taxation was raised to the breaking strain
+to provide galleys wherewith to combat the foe, while the Genoese
+fortified their coasts and poured out money like water upon arms,
+armaments, and ammunition. Says Sandoval:
+
+“Desde el Estrecho de Meçina hasta el de Gibraltar ninguno de la parte
+de Europa pudiera tomer comida ni sueño seguro de lo que viviera en las
+riberas del mar.” (From the Straits of Messina to those of Gibraltar
+none living in Europe on the shores of the sea were able to eat in
+peace or to sleep with any sense of security.)
+
+The Emperor Charles V. was roused to action, stung by the intolerable
+humiliation of the position into which he had been placed by a mere
+corsair.
+
+King of Sicily, Naples, and Spain, as well as Emperor of Germany, in
+any direction he might turn he would find a trail of blood and fire
+over the fair face of his dominions in the Mediterranean. Although it
+might gall his pride to admit that his enemy was formidable, Charles
+was too wise a man, too experienced a warrior to underrate his foe.
+He repaired the fortifications of Naples and Sicily at great cost:
+he wrote letters to the Pope, to Andrea Doria, to the Viceroys of
+Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, to the Marquis de Vasto, and Antonio de
+Leyva to collect all the arms and munitions necessary for the attack
+on Barbarossa. He sent orders to Don Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis
+de Mondejar, Captain-General of the Kingdom of Granada, to collect
+money and to have men ready in the ports of Andalusia. He gave orders
+for eight thousand German soldiers to hold themselves in readiness;
+these were to be joined by the veterans of Coron and Naples, which
+body counted four thousand more; in Italy he also raised another eight
+thousand men. All this was done under the seal of secrecy, which the
+Emperor most peremptorily ordered was to be observed.
+
+But news travelled in the first half of the sixteenth century, although
+newspapers, war correspondents, and telegraphs were not; when all
+the feudatories of the greatest king in Christendom were busy it was
+impossible for the matter to remain hidden. Even had it been within
+the range of possibility to conceal what was going on there was one
+circumstance which would have rendered all effort to this end nugatory.
+Charles had invited Francis of France to join in this holy war against
+the scourge of Christendom: not only did Francis refuse to join, but
+he had the incredible baseness to betray the scheme to Barbarossa.
+It would be pleasanter to think that some mistake had been made in
+this matter, but unfortunately it is beyond dispute, as the facts
+have been placed on record by Sandoval, whose history, it must be
+remembered, was published in 1614. In this matter he is quite precise,
+as he states that a “Clerigo Francese,” one Monsieur de Floreta, was
+sent with despatches from Francis to Barbarossa at Tunis, and that
+this treacherous envoy from Christendom gave the corsair king all the
+available information that he had been able to collect before starting.
+
+This was typical of that “Golden Age of the Renaissance” in which it
+took place; when real devotion to all arts, sciences, and amenities of
+a higher civilisation went hand in hand with crime of the vilest and
+treachery of the basest description. Well might Barbarossa, and such as
+he, laugh to scorn the pretension that his Christian enemies were
+one whit better than were they, when they could point to the fact that,
+to serve a private revenge, a great Christian king could betray his
+co-religionists to their Moslem foes. Shamelessly did the Sea-wolves
+seek their prey wherever it was to be found; their methods were
+villanous and seemingly without excuse, but, after all, there was some
+colour, some shadow of right in what they did, for their argument was
+that they were merely getting back from Christendom that which had been
+reft from them in the near past in the kingdoms of Còrdova and Granada.
+But who shall find excuse for the Christian kings, governors, and
+princes at this epoch? They sought their prey no less ravenously than
+did the pirates, and with just about the same amount of justification:
+witness the sacking of Rome by Charles V. in 1527, and the unexampled
+act of treachery just recorded of Francis of France.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din had lived all his turbulent life among wars and rumours
+of wars: the head of the tiller, the hilt of the scimitar, the butt of
+the arquebus, had been in his hand since early youth; bloodshed and
+strife were the atmosphere in which he lived and breathed. Desperate
+adventures by land and sea had been his ever since he could remember;
+there was no hazard that he had not run, no peril which he had not
+dared. But now even he, the veteran of far more than one hundred
+fights, was grave and preoccupied when he considered the greatness,
+the imminence of his peril. The “Clerigo Francese” had put him in
+possession of the fact that Carlos Quinto was exerting all his strength
+for the combat which was to come; and Barbarossa was far too old
+a fighter, far too wise a warrior, to underrate by one soldier or by
+one galley the forces that the Emperor could put into line against
+him; from far and near his foes were gathering for his destruction,
+and he did not deceive himself in the least as to what the fate of his
+followers and himself would be should the Christian hosts be victorious.
+
+But, nevertheless, such an emergency as this found the man at his
+best: ready to take fortune at the flood when she smiled upon him,
+he was perhaps at his very greatest in adversity; and when all
+around him trembled and paid one of their infrequent visits to the
+Mosque to implore the aid of the Prophet, the veteran corsair was
+coolly reviewing the situation, seeking a way to weather the tempest
+before which lesser men shrank appalled, declaring that the end had
+come. The storm was coming in a squall of such violence as even he
+had never before experienced, but, thanks to his friend the King of
+France, he had been forewarned. He sent at once to his master, Soliman
+the Magnificent, at Constantinople, to impart to him the direful
+intelligence; then the bagnios were thrown open, and, under pitiless
+lash and scourge, the Christian captives toiled from dawn till dark
+to repair the fortifications of Tunis. Silent and unapproachable,
+conferring with none, the grim old Sea-wolf sat in his palace
+overlooking the bay and considered the question of whether he should
+give battle by land or sea when the time came. If it were possible,
+he came to the conclusion that it should be the latter; he had been
+evicted from his kingdom on land once before, but he knew that in
+the open ocean few cared to face Barbarossa, and he might fall on Doria
+first and the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem second if matters
+turned out favourably for him. In any case, he must summon all the aid
+that was possible.
+
+East and west flew the galleys of Kheyr-ed-Din, scudding before the
+wind if that were favourable, or churning the surface of the sea with
+straining, strenuous oars should the wind be foul or a calm prevail.
+
+It was an appeal for aid to the Moslem corsairs from Algiers, from
+Tlemcen, from Oran, from Los Gelues (or Jerbah), and from all the
+countless islands of the Archipelago, where they lurked to seize
+their prey—Tunis, which flew the Crescent flag of the Prophet, was in
+danger—let them rally against the grandson of the man who expelled the
+Moors from Spain.
+
+Grim and sinister, the corsairs came flocking to the standard of
+Barbarossa. Well they knew that, should he fall, it was but a matter
+of time for them all to be chased from off the face of the waters. Of
+cohesion there was but little among them, and, in spite of the bond
+of a common religion and a common hatred of the Christian, they were
+swayed far more by a lust for plunder than by such considerations as
+these. In times of imminent danger, however, men naturally crave for
+a leader, and in piratical circles all was now subordinated to the
+instinct of self-preservation.
+
+Meanwhile, in Christendom their great enemy was maturing his plans.
+To the Marquis de Cañete, Viceroy and Captain-General of the Kingdom
+of Navarre, Charles wrote, confiding to his care the charge of
+the Empress, with instructions that her orders were to be implicitly
+obeyed during his absence. Having done this he journeyed to Barcelona,
+at which city he arrived on April 8th, 1535. Here he was immediately
+joined by the armada of Portugal—twenty caravelas raised, armed, and
+paid for by the King, Don Juan of Portugal. This fleet was commanded by
+the Infante Don Luis, brother to the Empress, and carried on board the
+vessels of which it was composed a whole host of nobles and gentlemen
+of quality, who had come to fight under the approving eyes of the Cæsar
+of the modern world.
+
+On May 1st came Andrea Doria with twenty-two galleys, and those already
+in the harbour crowded the sides of their vessels to watch the arrival
+of the famous Genoese seaman.
+
+Four abreast in stately procession the great galleys swept into
+the harbour. With that love of “spectacle” so inherent in the
+southern nature, everything was done to ensure the military pomp and
+circumstance of the coming of the first sea-commander of the Emperor.
+At first with furious haste, and then slowing down to make the approach
+more stately, the fleet of Andrea moved on. From mast and yard and
+jackstaff of the galleys of the admiral floated twenty-four great
+banners of silk and gold embroidered with the arms of the Emperor,
+with those of Spain, of Genoa, and of the Dorias, Princes of Oneglia.
+The principal standard bore upon it a crucifix, broidered at the sides
+with pictures of Saint John and the Virgin Mary; another represented
+the Virgin with her Son in her arms. With the sound of trumpets,
+clarions, chirimias, and atambours the fleet moved to within a short
+distance of the Portuguese and saluted them; then, as the thunder of
+the guns ceased and the light wind blew away the smoke, they circled
+round and stopped abreast of the royal vessel on which Charles had
+embarked. Once again the guns barked a royal salute, while knights and
+nobles, seamen and soldiers hailed their Emperor with frenzied shouts
+of “Imperio! Imperio!”
+
+Then Andrea Doria stepped into his boat and was rowed across the
+shining water to visit the Emperor, who received him, we are told,
+“with great honour and many tokens of love.”
+
+On May 12th arrived Don Alvaro de Bazan, General of the Galleys of
+Spain. This magnificent caballero made an entrance in much the same
+state and circumstance as did Doria, and during the remainder of the
+stay of the armada in Barcelona there was much banqueting and feasting
+and drinking of healths to the Emperor and confusion to the Moslem foe.
+It was once again as it had been in those days in which Ferdinand and
+Isabella had descended upon the doomed city of Granada, and had built,
+in full sight of its defenders, the town which they called Santa Fe (or
+the Holy Faith) as an earnest that they would never leave until that
+symbol of their faith had triumphed. To witness this victory the best
+blood of Europe had flocked, and now, forty-three years later, when
+the audacious Moslem had raised his head once more, the descendant of
+the warriors who had followed “Los Reyes Católicos” rallied to that
+standard which Carlos Quinto, their grandson, had set up on the
+shores of Catalonia. Sandoval devotes pages of his work to the names,
+styles, and titles of the noble caballeros who joined the army for the
+destruction of Barbarossa.
+
+On May 16th Charles embarked in the _Galera Capitana_ of Andrea Doria,
+accompanied by many grandees and caballeros of the Court, as well as
+illustrious foreigners like Prince Luis of Portugal, and held a review
+of the armada. There was much expenditure of powder in salutes to the
+Emperor, and all vied with one another in shouting themselves hoarse
+in honour of the great monarch who deigned to lead in person the hosts
+of Christendom against the infidel, who had defied his might and dared
+to offer him battle. On May 28th the Emperor travelled some leagues
+inland, starting before dawn, to visit the Monastery of Nuestra Señora
+de Monferrato, in which was kept a singularly holy image of the Virgin.
+Here he confessed and received the sacrament, and then returned to
+Barcelona.
+
+[Illustration: THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.]
+
+On May 30th he embarked in the Royal Galley, the _Galera Bastarda_,
+which had been prepared for him by Andrea Doria, his Captain-General
+of the Galleys. This vessel seems to have somewhat resembled the barge
+of Cleopatra in the magnificence of its appointments, as its interior
+was gilded, and it was fitted up with all the luxury that could be
+devised at this period. Silken carpets and golden drinking-vessels,
+stores of the most delicate food and of the rarest wines, were embarked
+to mitigate, as far as possible, the inevitable hardships of a
+sea-passage, and there were not lacking instruments of music wherewith
+to beguile the Cæesar with concord of sweet sounds. Perhaps that
+which strikes the modern seaman most in this recital of all the useless
+matters with which the vessels of the great were burdened at this
+period is the extraordinary number of flags and banners with which they
+went to sea.
+
+The catalogue of those in the _Galera Bastarda_ makes one rather wonder
+how there was room for anything else of more practical usefulness when
+it came to fighting. There were in this galley twenty-four yellow
+damask banners, inscribed with the imperial arms; a pennon at the
+main of crimson taffeta of immense length and breadth, with a golden
+crucifix embroidered thereon. Two similar ones bore shields with the
+arms of the Emperor, and there was a huge flag of white damask sewn
+with representations of keys, communion chalices, and the cross of
+Saint Andrew, in crimson, with a Latin inscription. There were yet two
+others of scarlet damask “of the same grandeur,” embroidered round the
+edge with “Plus Ultra,” the device of Spain. Among a further varied
+assortment was one which bore the inscription: “Send, O God, thine
+angel to guard him in all his goings.”
+
+The fleet under the command of Andrea Doria numbered sixty-two galleys
+and one hundred and fifty nefs. There were also a miscellaneous
+assortment of small craft, known in those days as “brigantines,”
+employed in the carriage of stores and ammunition. We have seen, on a
+former occasion, what terrible losses attended one of these armadas
+when really bad weather was encountered, and therefore it is not
+surprising that, on his second venture, Charles should have selected
+the finest season of the year for his descent upon the coast of Africa.
+They were brave men, these Mediterranean seamen, and the risks which
+they ran in their strangely formed, unseaworthy craft were of course
+much enhanced when they were loaded to the gunwale with stores,
+provisions, horses, banners, and last, but by no means least, a mob of
+seasick soldiery.
+
+Into this armada were crowded twenty-five thousand infantry and six
+hundred lancers with their horses.
+
+Cagliari, in Sardinia, was the last rendezvous of the expedition, and
+here it arrived in the early part of June, where a week was spent in
+making the final preparations; and at last, on June 10th, a start was
+made for the coast of Africa.
+
+Meanwhile in Tunis Kheyr-ed-Din was working double tides. He was
+kept well informed by his spies of all that was going on, and his
+preparations for defence were as adequate as they could be made;
+the corsairs, as we have said, had come flocking in at his call. He
+had withdrawn as many of his fighting men from Algiers as he deemed
+prudent. Knowing that the attack was directed against him personally,
+he had not much fear that it would be diverted at the last moment.
+It would have been true strategy on the part of Charles to have done
+this, but the Emperor considered that his honour required that the
+attack should be an absolutely direct one, and so Algiers was left on
+one side, to the ultimate upsetting of his plans. We say this because,
+although in this case he was to take Tunis and to restore to the
+throne of that country the puppet King Muley Hassan, and although
+he was to rescue some twenty thousand Christian captives, he did not
+capture Barbarossa, who was to live for many years to continue and to
+carry on his unceasing war against the Christians.
+
+There was no artifice left untried by the despot of Tunis. To the
+African princes, Moors as well as Arabs and Berbers, did Kheyr-ed-Din
+send embassies. For these he chose cunning men well versed in the means
+of exciting the furious passions of these primitive and ferocious
+peoples, and it was their mission to represent Muley Hassan as an
+infamous apostate who was prompted by ambition and revenge, not only
+to become the vassal of a Christian king, but to conspire with him
+to extirpate the Mohammedan faith. The subtle policy inflamed these
+ignorant and bigoted Mohammedans to the point of madness, and from
+far and near they threw in their lot with the man who represented
+himself to be the rallying-point for all those in Africa who desired
+not only to preserve their holy religion but also their personal
+liberty. From Tripoli and Jerba, from Bougie and Bona, from the shores
+of Shott-el-Jerid, through all the dim hinterland that stretches from
+thence north-westwards to Algiers, the tribesmen came flocking in. The
+wild riders of the desert had been rounded up, and it is said that
+no less than twenty thousand horsemen, in addition to an innumerable
+crowd of infantry, responded to the call of the master schemer who
+was but using these guileless savages to further his own personal
+ends. The land-pirates of the desert, those stormy petrels whose
+lives only differed from those of the followers of Kheyr-ed-Din in
+that they carried on their depredations on the land instead of on the
+sea, camped in their thousands in the environs of Tunis and boasted of
+the deeds which they were about to perform. Kheyr-ed-Din stimulated
+their enthusiasm with presents of the most costly description. Ever
+wise and politic, he knew when it was necessary to pay royally, and
+on this occasion surpassed himself in prodigality. For all this he
+himself cherished no illusions; he had the measure of the fighting
+men of his foes at his fingers’ ends, and the most that he expected
+from these wild irregulars was that they might, perchance, stay an
+onset and worry the imperial army with dashing cavalry raids. But that
+they should hold their own with the incomparable infantry of Spain,
+or make head against the stolid valour of the German men-at-arms, was
+not contemplated by Barbarossa. In his Janissaries, in his hard-bitten
+fighting men from the galleys, he could expect much; but there were but
+some few thousands of these, while the disciplined host against which
+he was called upon to combat was at the least twenty-five thousand—the
+flower of the imperial forces. The situation was unique, one on which
+the world had never looked before—all the might of Christendom going
+up against one who, no matter by what titles he might choose to
+describe himself, was no more than a vulgar robber. He was, however, a
+robber on such a scale as had never before been equalled—a force which
+remained unsubdued during the whole of his extraordinary and unusually
+protracted career.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE FALL OF TUNIS AND THE FLIGHT OF BARBAROSSA
+
+
+Autocracy in the sixteenth century was a very real and concrete fact.
+The orders of great kings were, as a rule, implicitly obeyed, and, when
+they were not, there was likely to be trouble of the worst description
+for those by whom they had been contravened. It is this that causes us
+to regard as most extraordinary one of the happenings in the armada
+which sailed from Barcelona for the coast of Africa. A most peremptory
+order was issued that no women, no boys, no one, in fact, save fighting
+men of approved worth, should find a place in the ships. Says Sandoval,
+“No se consintiesen en la armada mugeres ni muchachos ni otra gente
+inutil, mas de aquellos solos que eran para pelear.” (There were not
+allowed in the armada women, boys, or useless persons, but only those
+who were capable of fighting.) It appears, however, that the women
+paid no sort of attention to this ordinance, and the historian gravely
+relates that “it was no use turning them out of the ships as, as soon
+as you sent them down one side they returned and climbed up the other,”
+It seems almost incredible, but is none the less a fact, that four
+thousand women accompanied the expedition and landed at Tunis. The
+autocracy of the Emperor apparently stopped short where women were
+concerned, or else he was indifferent whether they came or not.
+
+On June 16th the armada arrived before Tunis, and the army disembarked
+to attack the fortress known as La Goletta. Into this strong place of
+arms Barbarossa had sent some six thousand of his best men, mostly
+Turkish soldiers, under the command of Sinan-Reis, a renegado Jew, and
+one of the fiercest and most faithful of his followers. To the camp of
+the Emperor came the fugitive King, Muley Hassan, in whose cause the
+armada had nominally been assembled—how nominal this was we shall see
+later by the light of the treaty concluded between him and the Emperor.
+Charles had complete command of the sea for the time being, and, in
+consequence, the ex-Sultan was amazed at the profusion and luxury which
+reigned in the camp of the Christians; and he concluded that these
+indeed must be the lords of the earth, as luxury and profusion was
+hardly the note of such courts as then existed in the northern portion
+of the African continent.
+
+Although the army was landed, and with it artillery for the bombardment
+of the Goletta, there remained, of course, “the army of the sea,”
+under the orders of the redoubtable Doria; and while the Marquis del
+Guasto, who was in supreme command on shore, prepared to batter down
+the defences of the fortress on the land side, the attack was carried
+on simultaneously from the sea by the galleys. The actual presence of
+the Emperor stimulated the various nationalities under his eyes
+to vie with one another in deeds of daring, and they contended among
+themselves for the posts of the most honour and danger. The attacks of
+the African horsemen were brushed on one side by the disciplined valour
+of the Andalusian cavalry, while the great guns thundered from land
+and sea against the walls of the doomed Goletta. Sinan and his Ottoman
+soldiers performed prodigies in the way of repairing breaches in the
+walls as soon as they were made; but Kheyr-ed-Din from the city watched
+the progress of the bombardment gloomily, as he saw and knew that the
+fall of the Goletta was but a matter of days. All this time he was far
+from idle; sortie after sortie did the dauntless old warrior lead in
+person against those engaged in the task of bombardment. Time and again
+he heartened the Arab and Berber levies to attack, but the sallies were
+repulsed, and the lightly armed Africans were driven like chaff before
+the wind when they swooped down on the lines of investment.
+
+But the time came at last when Sinan and his gallant Turks could hold
+the place no longer; the walls were breached in six or seven places,
+and Spaniards, Germans, and Italians made a simultaneous attack. Sinan
+fighting to the last, evacuated the fortress, and retired actually
+through the water across a shallow part of the bay to the city, with
+the remnant of his once magnificent force; and now Barbarossa knew that
+the end was come, and that Tunis must pass from his hands to those of
+the Christian Emperor. It was not only the fall of the Goletta that
+troubled him, but the equally important fact that by this the fleet
+of the enemy was enabled to lay hands upon his own fleet, consisting
+of eighty-seven galleys and galliots, together with his arsenal, and
+no less than three hundred cannon, mostly brass guns of excellent
+construction, mounted on the walls and planted on the ramparts. The
+surprising amount of this artillery gives a measure of the strength of
+the fortress and the efforts it must have cost the besiegers with such
+a man as Sinan in command.
+
+That the end was near was known to all, and not the least of their
+embarrassments was the presence within the city walls of some twenty
+thousand Christian captives. The city was large, the defences were
+spread out over a great area, it was abundantly evident that it could
+not be held, and, in consequence, Barbarossa summoned his principal
+officers and communicated to them his decision.
+
+  “We will not remain here to be slain like rats in a trap
+  by the accursed of God by whom we are attacked. No,
+  rather will we perish, sword in hand, as our fathers
+  have done before us; but first there is a danger against
+  which we have to guard. Within these walls are twenty
+  thousand prisoners who will rise against us at the first
+  opportunity; let us, then, first put them to death, and
+  then we will leave this place and show our enemies how
+  the true Moslems can die.”
+
+Even those hardened men of blood shrank before the horror which was
+proposed to them by their chief, and Sinan-Reis took up his parable and
+spoke the minds of all when he said that follow him to the death they
+would cheerfully do, but stain themselves with so awful a massacre
+was to place themselves outside the pale of humanity for ever. It was
+seldom that they crossed his mood, and Barbarossa listened in frowning
+silence, accepting as a partial excuse that time pressed, and to put
+to death twenty thousand persons would occupy longer time than they
+could spare. On the morrow a battle was fought which, as Kheyr-ed-Din
+anticipated, ended in the complete rout of the Moslems. Everywhere the
+Corsair King was in the forefront of the battle, and it is said that he
+disposed of fifty thousand men on this occasion; but this is probably
+an exaggeration, and in any case the bulk of his forces consisted
+of those African levies which, in a pitched battle against European
+troops, were practically useless owing to their want of discipline
+and cohesion. Very soon the hosts of the Emperor had prevailed, and
+the Arabs and Berbers had fled back into the wilderness from whence
+they had come and whither it was useless to pursue. Barbarossa, at the
+head of such of his corsairs and Turks as were left—a number estimated
+at some three to four thousand—burst through all opposition and also
+escaped, travelling so rapidly that pursuit was abandoned almost at
+once. And then the event happened which the Moslem leader had foreseen:
+some of the Christian captives managed to get free from their shackles
+within the city and released others; they overpowered those left to
+guard them, and threw open the gates to the soldiery of the Emperor.
+
+Then occurred one of those awful horrors of which this time was so
+prolific: before Charles or his generals could prevent them the
+soldiery had swept into the town and commenced to slay, to plunder,
+and to ravish, without distinction of age, sex, or nationality.
+Ostensibly these Christian warriors had come to rescue the inhabitants
+of Tunis from the oppression of Barbarossa, but while that chieftain
+was in full flight across the mountains to Bona, those by whom he
+had been defeated entered the town, which they had come to save,
+and perpetrated a massacre so awful that it is said that no less
+than thirty thousand people perished. It is a terrible blot on the
+escutcheon of the Emperor; as, although he and his generals deprecated
+the massacre—and indeed to do them justice tried to prevent it—this is
+no excuse for allowing their men to get out of hand, when they must
+have been aware of the inevitable result: as the Moslem corsairs at
+their worst were equalled in their iniquities by the European soldiery,
+once the strong hand of discipline had relaxed its grip.
+
+It may have been that the Emperor was displeased with this excess of
+zeal on the part of his army; but, if it were so, the chroniclers are
+silent concerning the matter, being far too busy singing the praises
+of the Cæsar to think of such a trifle as the massacre of most of
+the persons whom he had come to deliver. The wretched inhabitants of
+Tunis must have found it somewhat difficult to distinguish between the
+corsair, who killed three thousand of their fellow townsmen, and the
+Christian Emperor, who had massacred ten times that number. Charles,
+however, reaped great glory from an expedition which had but one good
+result, which was, that he succeeded in rescuing twenty thousand
+captives; these men, very naturally, on their return to their homes
+in every corner of Europe, magnified the wonderful deeds of that prince
+who had been instrumental in securing their release, and the massacre
+of the Tunisians was conveniently ignored. Charles had defeated
+Barbarossa and expelled him from Tunis; he had now displayed his
+magnanimity and altruism by the terms which he imposed on the miserable
+Muley Hassan. As far as that individual was concerned, he certainly
+deserved nothing better; but, as a _finale_ to an expedition blessed by
+the Pope, and looked upon almost in the light of a modern crusade, it
+certainly displays a remarkably keen eye for the main chance.
+
+The preamble of the treaty runs as follows:
+
+  “That the King of Tunis, recognising that he had been
+  expelled from his kingdom by Barbarossa, and that the
+  Emperor in person, with a powerful armada, had come
+  and expelled this tyrant, taking from him the fortress
+  and town of Tunis and restoring them to the King
+  Muley Hassan: that this monarch is most grateful for
+  so magnificent a service, and in recognition thereof
+  contracts to liberate all Christian captives who may be
+  in his realm, to give them a free passage to their homes,
+  and from this time forward binds himself to extend to all
+  Christians kind and generous treatment.”
+
+There can be no exception taken to this, which was the least which the
+Emperor had the right to expect; but this was only, as we have said,
+the preamble.
+
+Muley Hassan was further made to contract to hold his kingdom in fee to
+the Spanish Crown, to covenant that no corsair should use his ports
+for any purpose whatsoever, that the Emperor should not only retain
+the Goletta but that all other fortified seaports should be put into
+his hands, that the King of Tunis should in future pay twelve thousand
+crowns per annum ‘for the subsistence of the Spanish garrison of the
+Goletta, that he should enter into no alliance with the enemies of
+the Emperor, and should annually present, as an acknowledgment of his
+vassalage, six Moorish horses and six hawks.
+
+Muley Hassan had exchanged the comparatively dignified position of a
+prince in exile, who has been expropriated by the strong hand, for that
+of the puppet of one of the greatest enemies of his religion. Neither
+he nor his people were one whit the better for the change, and, as far
+as vassalage was concerned, they would in all probability, in the state
+of religious feeling at the time, have sooner been subordinate to the
+Moslem corsair than to the Christian King.
+
+[Illustration: MULEY HASSAN, KING OF TUNIS.]
+
+Barbarossa, as we have seen, frankly acknowledged that he sought
+his own advantage, and, when he possessed himself of Tunis, made no
+pretence of any altruistic motive. The Emperor, on the other hand,
+having come in the guise of a Christian reformer, simply stole the
+kingdom from Barbarossa and kept it for himself. Incidentally he
+released the captives, which enabled him to pose once more as the great
+champion of the oppressed. But, however this may have been, there is
+no doubt that he had performed a notable feat of arms, and even the
+most mighty monarch then in Europe felt uplifted by the fact that he
+had defeated the greatest of the corsairs: accordingly, on July 25th
+Charles wrote to England, France, Portugal, Milan, Florence, Venice,
+Genoa, Siena, Mantua, and Naples: “De manera que en pocas dias se supo
+in toda Europa su buena fortuna.” (So it was in a few days the whole of
+Europe was acquainted with his good fortune.)
+
+Martin Nunez, “Caballero de Toledo,” was sent on a special embassy to
+the Pope to acquaint the Pontiff at first hand of all that happened,
+and the success which had attended the arms of the Emperor, and also to
+thank his Holiness for the assistance which he had rendered by sending
+the Papal galleys. Jorge de Melo, a Portuguese caballero, was sent to
+his own country with despatches, and other nobles and high officials
+were despatched to the Emperor’s Viceroys in the various parts of his
+dominions. In the long circular letter which Charles addressed to all
+these potentates—and which is reproduced in its entirety by Sandoval—he
+says “that the Christian captives found in Tunis amounted to something
+like eighteen to twenty thousand, that Barbarossa had escaped with some
+five thousand Turks, corsairs, and renegadoes, of which three thousand
+were on horseback and two thousand afoot; that, as they suffered from
+great scarcity of provisions, and the almost total lack of water, many
+were falling by the way, and many others were being murdered by their
+quondam allies for such goods as they possessed, or for the value of
+their arms and clothing.”
+
+We must now return to Kheyr-ed-Din. What the sufferings of that
+chieftain and the remnant of his gallant army must have been in their
+flight to Bona they alone knew. It was the height of summer,
+and burning tracks of desert and rugged mountain passes had to be
+surmounted; naturally they could have carried but very little food,
+and water they had to find on the way. In addition to this, as we have
+seen in the despatch of Charles, the tribesmen turned against them,
+cutting off stragglers and murdering and plundering as opportunity
+offered. Barbarossa himself was an old man, so old that it seems
+nothing short of a miracle that he should have survived the hardships
+of this awful march. Not only did he do this, but apparently arrived
+at Bona in condition to continue his journey by sea at once, had he
+cared to do so. He had lost his newly acquired kingdom, he had lost
+nearly his entire fleet, his arsenal and stores were in the hands of
+his enemies; if ever a man was completely crushed it was he on this
+memorable occasion. As we have said before, however, it was in times of
+the greatest stress when the indomitable character of this man rose to
+meet the occasion, and, while his foes were congratulating one another
+that at last there was an end of the scourge of the Mediterranean and
+the bugbear of Christendom, the hunted fugitive was merely preparing
+himself for fresh acts of aggression.
+
+The real fact of the matter was that he was above all and before all
+a seaman. The defeat of Kheyr-ed-Din meant merely the transference of
+his malign activities from one sphere to another—from the sea to the
+land, or from the land to the sea. King he called himself, and king _de
+facto_ he was both in Algiers and Tunis, reigning with unexampled
+cruelty, a prototype of those other corsair kings by whom he was
+succeeded. But the real source of his power lay, not in stone walls
+and fortifications, nor in ill-trained levies of African tribes, but
+in his own genius for command at sea, and the manner in which he was
+able to inspire with his own dauntless and desperate spirit those hardy
+mariners who followed in his train, the descendants of the “Moriscoes”
+who hailed from the ancient Moorish kingdoms of Cordoba and Granada.
+
+Thus it was in the present instance. He had been unable to withstand
+the might of Cæsar and his legions, but Tunis was not the whole
+of Northern Africa, nor had quite all his eggs been kept in that
+one basket. He had kept fifteen galleys in reserve at Bona, and,
+in consequence, on his arrival there, was able to embark at once.
+This he did, and hardly had he done so when there appeared upon the
+scene fifteen galleys commanded by Adan Centurion and John Doria.
+Kheyr-ed-Din had had enough of fighting just for the present; his
+men and he were wearied out by the hardships of their flight, and
+accordingly he drew up his galleys under the fort at Bona and awaited
+an attack, should the enemy care to deliver one. But Adan Centurion’s
+heart failed him; to cut out the old Sea-wolf from under one of his
+own batteries was more than he had the stomach for, and he accordingly
+sailed away. “Fue sin duda la perdida grande” (this no doubt was a
+great pity), is the comment of Sandoval, who goes on to say that, had
+the Genoese been the men that they had been aforetime, this would never
+have been, and that they would have gone in and burnt or disabled
+the galleys of the corsair, slain their leader, or driven him ashore.
+Hot on the tracks of Adan Centurion and his nephew John came the
+veteran Andrea Doria with forty galleys, but he was too late, and the
+bird had flown; had it been he who had arrived in the first instance,
+then it is more than probable that matters would have turned out
+differently, and Kheyr-ed-Din had then and there terminated his career.
+It is true that Andrea possessed himself of Bona, and the Corsair King
+was shorn of yet another of his land-stations, but for the time he had
+cut himself adrift from the land, and had gone back to that element in
+which he was particularly at home.
+
+Doria left Bona in the charge of Alvar Gomez and a company of
+Spanish troops and then sailed away, if possible to find and capture
+Barbarossa, thus to set the seal of completeness on the victory which
+had been won by his master the Emperor. Another stronghold of the
+corsairs was now in most competent hands, as Alvar Gomez Zagal was
+one of the most renowned caballeros of Spain, son of that Pero Lopez
+de Horusco on whom the Moors themselves had bestowed the title of “Al
+Zagal,” or “The Valiant,” on account of his extraordinary bravery.
+
+On August 17th Charles re-embarked his army and evacuated the country,
+leaving, however, one thousand Spanish veterans, under the command of
+Bernard de Mendoza, in charge of the Goletta, as a permanent memorial
+of the expedition, and as a guarantee that the wretched Muley Hassan
+should fully comply with the treaty obligations which had been
+imposed upon him. It is true that Barbarossa had not been captured,
+but his city had been taken, his fleet had been destroyed, and he
+himself was now a fugitive, unable any further to trouble the peace
+of Christendom or the dignity of the Emperor by whom he had been so
+soundly chastised. In consequence the Cæsar departed well pleased with
+himself and with those who had been acting under his orders, to whom he
+distributed orders and titles, as a memento of the occasion upon which
+they had finally broken up the power of those by whom his peace had so
+long been troubled.
+
+One of the difficulties in dealing with the career of Kheyr-ed-Din
+Barbarossa is that, in times when he was unsuccessful, or when, as on
+the present occasion, he had received a severe setback, it is next
+to impossible to find out what he was doing or where exactly he was
+preparing for his next coup. In this case, in particular, the old-time
+historians were thanking God that the Emperor had rid the world of a
+particularly pestilent knave, and ceased to trouble themselves much
+about him until he forced himself once more upon their notice. Had
+Charles at this time recognised the greatness of the man whom he had
+just so signally defeated he might have changed the course of history.
+Had he, instead of sailing back to Europe, content with that which
+he had accomplished in Tunis, pushed his attack home on Algiers, he
+might have made himself master of the whole of Northern Africa, as,
+in the disorganised state in which the corsairs now found themselves,
+they could certainly have offered no effective resistance. But to
+the Emperor these rovers of the sea presented themselves merely in
+the light of robbers. Robbers, it is true, on a somewhat large scale,
+but still not persons of sufficient importance to detain him from the
+infinitely more pressing affairs which awaited him on the opposite
+shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
+
+In addition to the fifteen galleys which Kheyr-ed-Din picked up at Bona
+he had in reserve at Algiers some fifty others. Escaping the attention
+of Adan Centurion and John Doria, and the infinitely more formidable
+squadron of Andrea, he headed once more for Algiers, and for a time
+seems to have remained quiet, no doubt recuperating from the fatigues,
+disappointments, and physical hardships which he had so recently
+undergone. He was apparently undisturbed during the winter by his
+Christian enemies, and was in consequence able to think out his future
+plans of campaign and to collect and put heart into his scattered
+followers, who, in ones and twos, were gradually, such of them as were
+left, finding their way back to the headquarters of piracy and its
+indomitable chieftain.
+
+That cool calculator of the chances of life knew that this must be so;
+the power of the corsairs generally had received the worst blow it had
+ever encountered since the dispossessed Moriscoes had taken to the sea
+for a living; those of them who remained alive were without ships—that
+is to say, without their only means of making a livelihood—and that
+they should gravitate towards Algiers and its master was as nearly a
+certainty as anything human could be. And, as was anticipated by the
+chief, so it came to pass. Into the city straggled broken, starving,
+sullen men who had lost their all, for whom the future held nothing but
+misery and despair unless they could get to sea once more.
+
+It was on occasions such as this that the intellectual eminence of
+Barbarossa was so marked. Rough and cruel as he was, he possessed
+nevertheless a magnetic power over the minds of men, on which, when
+it so pleased him, he could play with the most extraordinary effect.
+And now, when the rank and file of the corsairs were ragged, hungry,
+and smarting under defeat, he dealt with them tenderly and graciously;
+and the sum of his teaching was to the effect that they had but to
+follow him once more and all the evils from which they were suffering
+would be presently remedied. So it came about that men who, before the
+defeat, had commanded ships of their own, were glad enough to become
+units on board the galleys of Kheyr-ed-Din, animated by the pleasing
+hope that soon again, under the leadership of this man, they might
+regain all, nay more, than they had lost. It must be remembered that
+Barbarossa argued from sound premises when he held out such hopes as
+these to the desperate remnant of the corsairs in Algiers in that sad
+winter of 1535. He was the greatest of them all, and they, as well as
+he, knew this to be a fact: if they had lost their all in the past
+battles, they had been fighting in a common cause to preserve their own
+lives and their liberty to plunder the Christian at sea. And now there
+was work and there was bread to eat for those who once again would
+throw in their lot with their old leader; and, although it may be
+said that these men had no alternative, still they threw themselves
+with heartiness into that which the master mind decreed should be their
+work, and this was none other than the preparation of the galleys for
+another campaign against the Christian.
+
+“What matter, comrades?” said the veteran on one occasion when he was
+superintending the fitting out of the galleys. “These dogs have gone
+back from whence they came, and they have left that creature, Muley
+Hassan, to do their will in Tunis. It is true that there is Mendoza and
+his thousand Spaniards in the Goletta, but did not Martin de Vargas
+hold the Peñon here? And where is De Vargas, and in whose hands is
+the Peñon now? We know from whence the garrisons of Spain draw their
+supplies, and believe me that there will be hungry men in the Goletta
+in this coming year. Once we get to sea again, there will be more than
+enough for every good man who believes in the Prophet, and who has the
+sense to follow Barbarossa. For every ducat that you have lost see, in
+the coming year, if you do not gain ten; the Christians are off their
+guard now, and they think that they have done with me because they have
+captured Tunis.” He laughed his great, jovial laugh. “By the beard of
+the Prophet—upon whom be peace!—they have yet to find out the man with
+whom they have to deal.”
+
+It took a master mind to instil heart of grace into men who so recently
+had had so bad a beating as these; but in the end they began to cheer
+up, and to recollect how Barbarossa had sooner or later always risen
+from defeat as strong or stronger than before; also they recalled the
+fact that he was the chosen of the Padishah, and that that potentate,
+the representative of the Prophet on earth, would assuredly come to his
+assistance now that Tunis, which had been taken in his name, had been
+reft from Barbarossa by the Christians. Gradually hope took the place
+of despair, and when the corsairs took to the sea in the early part of
+the following year it was with renewed confidence in both themselves
+and their leader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ROXALANA AND THE MURDER OF IBRAHIM
+
+
+At the coming of spring Barbarossa was at sea again with thirty-two
+ships ready for any eventuality, his crews aflame with ardour for
+revenge against those by whom they had been so roughly handled. He
+chose for the scene of operations a place on the coast of Majorca some
+fifteen miles from Palma; from here he commanded the route of the
+Spaniards from their country to the African coast, and it was against
+this nation that he felt a great bitterness owing to recent events.
+Eagerly did the corsair and his men watch for the Spanish ships, the
+heavier vessels lying at anchor, but the light, swift galleys ranging
+and questing afar so that none might be missed. Very soon the vigilance
+of the Moslems was rewarded by the capture of a number of vessels,
+sent by Bernard de Mendoza laden with Turkish and Moorish slaves,
+destined to be utilised as rowers in the Spanish galleys. These men
+were hailed as a welcome reinforcement, and joyfully joined the forces
+of Kheyr-ed-Din when he moved on Minorca, captured the castle by a
+surprise assault, raided the surrounding country, and captured five
+thousand seven hundred Christians, amongst whom were eight hundred
+men who had been wounded in the attack on Tunis—all these unfortunates
+were sent to refill the bagnio of Algiers.
+
+This private war of revenge was, however, destined soon to come to
+an end, as Soliman the Magnificent in this year became involved in
+disputes with the Venetian Republic, and recalled “that veritable
+man of the sea,” as Barbarossa had been described by Ibrahim, to
+Constantinople.
+
+In this city by the sea there had taken place a tragedy which,
+although it only involved the death of a single man, was nevertheless
+far-reaching in its consequences; for the man was none other than that
+great statesman Ibrahim, Grand Vizier, and the only trusted counsellor
+of the Padishah. He who had been originally a slave had risen step by
+step in the favour of his master until he arrived at the giddy eminence
+which he occupied at the time of his death. It is a somewhat curious
+commentary on the essentially democratic status of an autocracy that a
+man could thus rise to a position second only to that of the autocrat
+himself; and, in all probability, wielding quite as much power.
+
+Ibrahim had for years been treated by Soliman more as a brother than
+as a dependent, which, in spite of his Grand Viziership, he was in
+fact. They lived in the very closest communion, taking their meals
+together, and even sleeping in the same room, Soliman, a man of high
+intelligence himself, and a ruler who kept in touch with all the
+happenings which arose in his immense dominions, desiring always to
+have at hand the man whom he loved; from whom, with his amazing grip
+of political problems and endless fertility of resource, he was certain
+of sympathy and sound advice. But in an oriental despotism there are
+other forces at work besides those of _la haute politique_, and Ibrahim
+had one deadly enemy who was sworn to compass his destruction. The
+Sultana Roxalana was the light of the harem of the Grand Turk. This
+supremely beautiful woman, originally a Russian slave, was the object
+of the most passionate devotion on the part of Soliman; but she was as
+ambitious as she was lovely, and brooked no rival in the affections of
+Soliman, be that person man, woman, or child. In her hands the master
+of millions, the despot whose nod was death, became a submissive slave;
+the undisciplined passions of this headstrong woman swept aside from
+her path all those whom she suspected of sharing her influence, in no
+matter how remote a fashion. At her dictation had Soliman caused to be
+murdered his son Mustafa, a youth of the brightest promise, because, in
+his intelligence and his winning ways he threatened to eclipse Selim,
+the son of Roxalana herself.
+
+This woman possessed a strong natural intelligence, albeit she was
+totally uneducated; she saw and knew that Ibrahim was all-powerful with
+her lover, and this roused her jealousy to fever-heat. She was not
+possessed of a cool judgment, which would have told her that Ibrahim
+was a statesman dealing with the external affairs of the Sublime Porte,
+and that with her and with her affairs he neither desired, nor had he
+the power, to interfere. What, however, the Sultana did know was
+that in these same affairs of State her opinion was dust in the balance
+when weighed against that of the Grand Vizier.
+
+Soliman had that true attribute of supreme greatness, the unerring
+aptitude for the choice of the right man. He had picked out Ibrahim
+from among his immense entourage, and never once had he regretted his
+choice. As time went on and the intellect and power of the man became
+more and more revealed to his master, that sovereign left in his hands
+even such matters as despots are apt to guard most jealously. We have
+seen how, in spite of the murmurings of the whole of his capital, and
+the almost insubordinate attitude of his navy, he had persevered in the
+appointment of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, because the judgment of Ibrahim
+was in favour of its being carried out. This, to Roxalana, was gall
+and wormwood; well she knew that, as long as the Grand Vizier lived,
+her sovereignty was at best but a divided one. There was a point at
+which her blandishments stopped short; this was when she found that her
+opinion did not coincide with that of the minister. She was, as we have
+seen in the instance of her son, not a woman to stick at trifles, and
+she decided that Ibrahim must die.
+
+There could be no hole-and-corner business about this; he must die,
+and when his murder had been accomplished she would boldly avow to her
+lover what she had done and take the consequences, believing in her
+power over him to come scatheless out of the adventure. In those days,
+when human life was so cheap, she might have asked for the death of
+almost any one, and her whim would have been gratified by a lover who
+had not hesitated to put to death his own son at her dictation. But
+with Ibrahim it was another matter; he was the familiar of the Sultan,
+his _alter ego_ in fact. It says much for the nerve of the Sultana that
+she dared so greatly on this memorable and lamentable occasion.
+
+On March 5th, 1536, Ibrahim, went to the royal seraglio, and, following
+his ancient custom, was admitted to the table of his master, sleeping
+after the meal at his side. At least so it was supposed, but none knew
+save those engaged in the murder what passed on that fatal night; the
+next day his dead body lay in the house of the Sultan.
+
+Across the floor of jasper, in that palace which was a fitting
+residence for one rightly known as “The Magnificent,” the blood of
+Ibrahim flowed to the feet of Roxalana. The disordered clothing, the
+terrible expression of the face of the dead man, the gaping wounds
+which he had received, bore witness that there had taken place a
+grim struggle before that iron frame and splendid intellect had been
+levelled with the dust. This much leaked out afterwards, as such things
+will leak out, and then the Sultana took Soliman into her chamber
+and gazed up into his eyes. The man was stunned by the immensity of
+the calamity which had befallen him and his kingdom, but his manhood
+availed him not against the wiles of this Circe. Ibrahim had been
+foully done to death in his own palace, and this woman clinging so
+lovingly around his neck now was the murderess. The heart’s blood of
+his best friend was coagulating on the threshold of his own apartment
+when he forgave her by whom his murder had been accomplished. This was
+the vengeance of Roxalana, and who shall say that it was not complete?
+
+The Ottoman Empire was the poorer by the loss of its greatest man, the
+jealousy of the Sultana was assuaged, the despot who had permitted
+this unavenged murder was still on the throne, thrall to the woman
+who had first murdered his son and then his friend and minister. But
+the deed carried with it the evil consequences which were only too
+likely to occur when so capable a head of the State was removed at so
+critical a time. Renewed strife was in the air, and endless squabbles
+between Venice and the Porte were taking place. With these we have no
+concern, but, in addition to other complaints, there were loud and
+continuous ones concerning the corsairs. Venice, “The Bride of the
+Sea,” had neither rest nor peace; the pirates swarmed in Corfu, in
+Zante, in Candia, in Cephalonia, and the plunder and murder of the
+subjects of the Republic was the theme of perpetual representations to
+the Sultan. The balance of advantage in this guerilla warfare was with
+the corsairs until Girolame Canale, a Venetian captain, seized one of
+the Moslem leaders known as “The Young Moor of Alexandria,” The victory
+of Canale was somewhat an important one as he captured the galley of
+“The Young Moor” and four others; two more were sunk, and three hundred
+Janissaries and one thousand slaves fell into the hands of the Venetian
+commander. There being an absence of nice feeling on the part of the
+Venetians, the Janissaries were at once beheaded to a man.
+
+The whole story is an illustration of the extraordinary relations
+existing among the Mediterranean States at this time. Soliman
+the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey, had lent three hundred of his
+Janissaries, his own picked troops, to assist the corsairs in
+their depredations on Venetian commerce. Having done this, and the
+Janissaries having been caught and summarily and rightly put to death
+as pirates, the Sultan, as soon as he heard of what had occurred,
+sent an ambassador, one Yonis Bey, to Venice to demand satisfaction
+for the insult passed upon him by the beheading of his own soldiers
+turned pirates. The conclusion of the affair was that the Venetians
+released “The Young Moor of Alexandria” as soon as he was cured of the
+eight wounds which he had received in the conflict, and sent him back
+to Africa with such of his galleys as were left. There was one rather
+comical incident in connection with this affair, which was that when
+Yonis Bey was on his way from Constantinople to Venice he was chased by
+a Venetian fleet, under the command of the Count Grandenico, and driven
+ashore. The Count was profuse in his apologies when he discovered
+that he had been chasing a live ambassador; but the occurrence so
+exasperated Soliman that he increased his demands in consequence.
+
+Barbarossa, who had spent his time harrying the Spaniards at sea ever
+since the fall of Tunis, was shortly to appear on the scene again. He
+received orders from the Sultan, and came as fast as a favouring wind
+would bring him. Kheyr-ed-Din had been doing well in the matter of
+slaves and plunder, but he knew that, with the backing of the Grand
+Turk, he would once again be in command of a fleet in which he might
+repeat his triumph of past years, and prove himself once more the
+indispensable “man of the sea.”
+
+Soon after his arrival his ambitions were gratified, and he found
+himself with a fleet of one hundred ships. Since the death of Ibrahim,
+and the incident which terminated with the despatch of Yonis Bey to
+Venice, the relations between the Grand Turk and the Venetian Republic
+had become steadily worse, and at last the Sultan declared war. On May
+17th, 1537, Soliman, accompanied by his two sons, Selim and Mohammed,
+left Constantinople. With the campaign conducted by the Sultan we are
+not concerned here; it was directed against the Ionian Islands, which
+had been in the possession of Venice since 1401. On August 18th Soliman
+laid siege to Corfu, and was disastrously beaten, re-embarking his men
+on September 7th, after losing thousands in a fruitless attack on the
+fortress. He returned to Constantinople utterly discomfited. It was
+the seventh campaign which the Sultan had conducted in person, but the
+first in which the ever-faithful Ibrahim had not been by his side.
+
+This defeat at the hands of the Venetians was not, however, the only
+humiliation which he was destined to experience in this disastrous
+year; for once again Doria, that scourge of the Moslem, was loose
+upon the seas, and was making his presence felt in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Corfu, where the Turks had been defeated. On July
+17th Andrea had left the port of Messina with twenty-five galleys,
+had captured ten richly laden Turkish ships, gutted and burned
+them. Kheyr-ed-Din was at sea at the time, but the great rivals
+were not destined to meet on this occasion. Instead of Barbarossa,
+Andrea fell in with Ali-Chabelli, the lieutenant of Sandjak Bey of
+Gallipoli. On July 22nd the Genoese admiral and the Turkish commander
+from the Dardanelles met to the southward of Corfu, off the small
+island of Paxo, and a smart action ensued. It ended in the defeat of
+Ali-Chabelli, whose galleys were captured and towed by Doria into Paxo.
+That veteran fighter was himself in the thickest of the fray, and,
+conspicuous in his crimson doublet, had been an object of attention
+to the marksmen of Chabelli during the entire action. In spite of the
+receipt of a severe wound in the knee, the admiral refused to go below
+until victory was assured. He was surrounded at this time by a devoted
+band of nobles sworn to defend the person of their admiral or to die
+in his defence. His portrait has been sketched for us at this time by
+the Dominican Friar, Padre Alberto Gugliel-motto, author of “La guerra
+dei Pirati e la marina Pontifica dal 1500 al 1560.” The description
+runs thus: “Andrea Doria was of lofty stature, his face oval in shape,
+forehead broad and commanding, his neck was powerful, his hair short,
+his beard long and fan-shaped, his lips were thin, his eyes bright and
+piercing.”
+
+Once again had he defeated an officer of the Grand Turk; and it may be
+remarked that Ibrahim was probably quite right in the estimation, or
+rather in the lack of estimation, in which he held the sea-officers of
+his master, as they seem to have been deficient in every quality save
+that of personal valour, and in their encounters with Doria and the
+knights were almost invariably worsted. For the sake of Islam, for the
+prestige of the Moslem arms at sea, it was time that Barbarossa should
+take matters in hand once more.
+
+The autumn of this year 1537 proved that the old Sea-wolf had lost
+none of his cunning, that his followers were as terrible as ever.
+What did it seem to matter that Venetian and Catalan, Genoese and
+Frenchman, Andalusian and the dwellers in the Archipelago, were
+all banded together in league against this common foe? Did not the
+redoubtable Andrea range the seas in vain, and were not all the efforts
+of the Knights of Saint John futile, when the son of the renegado from
+Mitylene and his Christian wife put forth from the Golden Horn? What
+was the magic of this man, it was asked despairingly, that none seemed
+able to prevail against him? Had it not been currently reported that
+Carlos Quinto, the great Emperor, had driven him forth from Tunis
+a hunted fugitive, broken and penniless, with never a galley left,
+without one ducat in his pocket? Was he so different, then, from all
+the rest of mankind that his followers would stick to him in evil
+report as well as in the height of his prosperity? Men swore and women
+crossed themselves at the mention of his name.
+
+“Terrible as an army with banners,” indeed, was Kheyr-ed-Din in this
+eventful summer: things had gone badly with the crescent flag, the
+Padishah was unapproachable in his palace, brooding perchance on that
+“might have been” had he not sold his honour and the life of his only
+friend to gratify the malice of a she-devil; those in attendance on the
+Sultan trembled, for the humour of the despot was black indeed.
+
+But “the veritable man of the sea” was in some sort to console him
+for that which he had lost; as never in his own history—and there
+was none else with which it could be compared—had the Corsair King
+made so fruitful a raid. He ravaged the coasts of the Adriatic and
+the islands of the Archipelago, sweeping in slaves by the thousand,
+and by the end of the year he had collected eighteen thousand in the
+arsenal at Stamboul. Great was the jubilation in Constantinople when
+the Admiralissimo himself returned from his last expedition against
+the infidel; stilled were the voices which hinted disaffection—who
+among them all could bring back four hundred thousand pieces of gold?
+What mariner could offer to the Grand Turk such varied and magnificent
+presents?
+
+Upon his arrival Barbarossa asked permission to kiss the threshold
+of the palace of the Sultan, which boon being graciously accorded to
+him, he made his triumphal entry. Two hundred captives clad in scarlet
+robes carried cups of gold and flasks of silver behind them came thirty
+others, each staggering under an enormous purse of sequins; yet another
+two hundred brought collars of precious stones or bales of the choicest
+goods; and a further two hundred were laden with sacks of small coin.
+Certainly if Soliman the Magnificent had lost a Grand Vizier he had
+succeeded in finding an admiral!
+
+All through the earlier months of 1538 the dockyards of Constantinople
+hummed with a furious activity, for Soliman had decreed that the
+maritime campaign of this year was to begin with no less than one
+hundred and fifty ships. His admiral, however, did not agree with this
+decision; to the Viziers he raged and stormed. “Listen,” he said, “O
+men of the land who understand naught of the happenings of the sea.
+By this time Saleh-Reis must have quitted Alexandria convoying to the
+Bosphorus twenty sail filled with the richest merchandise; should he
+fall in with the accursed Genoese, Doria, where then will be Saleh-Reis
+and his galleys and his convoy? I will tell you: the ships in Genoa,
+the galleys burned, Saleh-Reis and all his mariners chained to the
+rowers’ bench.”
+
+The Viziers trembled, as men did when Barbarossa stormed and turned
+upon them those terrible eyes which knew neither fear nor pity. “We be
+but men,” they answered, “and our lord the Sultan has so ordained it.”
+
+“I have forty galleys,” replied the corsair; “you have forty more. With
+these I will take the sea; but, mark you,” he continued, softening
+somewhat, “you do right to fear the displeasure of the Sultan, and I
+also have no wish to encounter it; but vessels raised and equipped
+in a hurry will be of small use to me. In the name of Allah the
+compassionate and his holy Prophet give me my eighty galleys and let me
+go.”
+
+In Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa sound strategical instinct went hand in hand
+with the desperate valour of the corsair. To dally in the Golden
+Horn while so rich a prey was at sea to be picked up by his Christian
+foes was altogether opposed to his instincts: never to throw away a
+chance in the game of life had ever been his guiding principle.
+
+Soliman, great man as he undoubtedly was, had not the adamantine
+hardness of character which enabled his admiral to risk all on the
+hazards of the moment; or possibly the Grand Turk was deficient in that
+clearness of strategical instinct which never in any circumstances
+forgoes a present advantage for something which may turn out well in
+a problematical future. Soliman, sore, sullen, and unapproachable,
+dwelt in his palace brooding over the misfortunes which had been his
+lot since the death of Ibrahim. Barbarossa, who so recently had lost
+practically all that he possessed, and who had reached an age at which
+most men have no hopes for the future, was as clear in intellect, as
+undaunted in spirit, as if he had been half a century younger: to be
+even once more with those by whom he had been defeated and dispossessed
+was the only thing now in his mind. The capture of Saleh-Reis and
+his convoy would be a triumph of which he could not bear to think.
+Further, it would add to the demoralisation of the sea forces of the
+Sultan, which were sadly in need of some striking success after the
+defeats which had so recently been their portion. The Sultan had
+decided that one hundred and fifty ships were necessary; his admiral
+thought otherwise. There was too much at stake for him to dally at
+Constantinople; his fiery energy swept all before it, and in the
+end he had his way. On June 7th, 1538, he finally triumphed over the
+hesitations of the Viziers and put to sea with eighty sail.
+
+The Sultan, from his kiosk, the windows of which opened on the
+Bosphorus, counted the ships.
+
+“Only eighty sail; is that all?” he asked.
+
+The trembling Viziers prostrated themselves before him.
+
+“O our Lord, the Padishah,” they cried, “Saleh-Reis comes from
+Alexandria with a rich convoy; somewhere lurking is Andrea Doria, the
+accursed; it was necessary, O Magnificent, to send succour.”
+
+There was a pause, in which the hearts of men beat as do those who know
+not but that the next moment may be their last on earth.
+
+The Sultan stared from his window at the retreating ships in a silence
+like the silence of the grave. At last he turned:
+
+“So be it,” he answered briefly; “but see to it that reinforcements do
+not lag upon the road.”
+
+If there had been activity in the dockyards before it was as nothing to
+the strenuous work that was to be done henceforward.
+
+Before starting on this expedition Kheyr-ed-Din had made an innovation
+in the manning of some of the most powerful of his galleys, which
+was of the utmost importance, and which was to add enormously to the
+success of his future maritime enterprises. The custom had always been
+that the Ottoman galleys had been rowed by Christians, captured and
+enslaved; of course the converse was true in the galleys of their foes.
+There were, for the size of the vessels, an enormous number of men
+carried in the galleys of the sixteenth century, and an average craft
+of this description would have on board some four hundred men; of
+these, however, the proportion would be two hundred and fifty slaves
+to one hundred and fifty fighting men. That which Kheyr-ed-Din now
+insisted upon was that a certain proportion of his most powerful units
+should be rowed by Moslem fighting men, so that on the day of battle
+the oarsmen could join in the fray instead of remaining chained to
+their benches, as was the custom with the slaves. It is, however, an
+extraordinary testimony to the influence which the corsair had attained
+in Constantinople that he had been able to effect this change in the
+composition of some of his crews; it must have been done with the
+active co-operation of the Sultan, as no authority less potent than
+that of the sovereign himself could have induced free men to undertake
+the terrible toil of rower in a galley. This was reserved for the
+unfortunate slave on either side owing to the intolerable hardship of
+the life, and results, in the pace at which a galley proceeded through
+the water, were usually obtained by an unsparing use of the lash on the
+naked bodies of the rowers.
+
+This human material was used up in the most prodigal manner possible,
+as those in command had not the inducement of treating the rowers well,
+from that economic standpoint which causes a man to so use his beast of
+burden as to get the best work from him. In the galley, when a slave
+could row no more he was flung overboard and another was put in his
+place.
+
+The admiral, however, even when backed by the Padishah, could not
+man a large fleet of galleys with Moslem rowers, and, as there was a
+shortage in the matter of propelling power, his first business was to
+collect slaves, and for this purpose he visited the islands of the
+Archipelago. The lot of the unhappy inhabitants of these was indeed a
+hard one. They were nearer to the seat of the Moslem power than any
+other Christians; they were in those days totally unable to resist an
+attack in force, and in consequence were swept off in their thousands.
+
+Seven islands cover the entrance to the Gulf of Volo. The nearest
+to the coast is Skiathos, which is also the most important; it was
+defended by a castle built upon a rock. This castle was attacked by
+Barbarossa, who bombarded it for six days, carried it by assault, and
+massacred the garrison. He spared the lives of the inhabitants of the
+island, and by this means secured three thousand four hundred rowers
+for his galleys. He had to provide motor-power for the reinforcements
+which he expected. In July he was reinforced from Constantinople by
+ninety galleys, while from Egypt came Saleh-Reis, who had succeeded
+in avoiding the terrible Doria, with twenty more; the fleet was thus
+complete.
+
+Barbarossa ravaged Skios, Andros, and other islands, putting them under
+contribution, and in this manner raised some eight thousand ducats;
+from a pen of guinea-fowl to a king’s ransom, nothing escaped the maw
+of this most rapacious of corsairs. Candia and some other islands
+yielded up some small spoil, but the sufferings of such insignificant
+folk as the wretched islanders were soon lost to the sight of the
+Christian world in the magnitude of the events which were now
+impending.
+
+Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, Corsair, Admiral, and King, the scourge of
+the Mediterranean, and Andrea Doria, Prince of Oneglia, Admiral of the
+modern Cæsar, Charles V., Emperor and King, were at last to meet face
+to face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE PREVESA CAMPAIGN; THE GATHERING OF THE FLEETS
+
+
+Some thirty-five miles to the south-eastward of Cape Bianco (the
+southernmost point of the island of Corfu) lies Prevesa, at the
+entrance of the Gulf of Arta, or, as it was known in classic times,
+the Ambracian Gulf. In these seas, in the year 31 B.C., was fought
+one of the most memorable battles of antiquity, for it was here that
+Octavius, afterward Augustus Cæsar, defeated the forces of Antony and
+Cleopatra. There have been many controversies of late years as to
+whom the original idea of breaking the line in naval combats is due:
+anyhow, it can claim a respectable antiquity, as it was practised at
+the battle of Actium by Octavius, who by a skilful manoeuvre caused
+Antony to lengthen his line, which he then cut through and attacked the
+ships of Cleopatra, which were in support: this was too much for the
+lady, who fled with her sixty ships, followed by Antony, to his eternal
+disgrace. The remainder of his fleet fought bravely for a time, but
+was eventually defeated, the land army also surrendering to Octavius.
+The date of the actual battle of Actium was September 2nd, 31 B.C.:
+it was in September 1538 that the battle of Prevesa between Andrea
+Doria and Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa took place, and the conditions of the
+battle were almost exactly similar.
+
+To this very place came, 1569 years later, the Christian and the
+Moslem, the Crescent and the Cross, each under its most renowned
+leader, each side burning with an inextinguishable hate. It was one of
+the peculiarities of this warfare that into it entered so much actual
+personal feeling, each side hating the other for the love of God in
+the most poisonous fashion. Save and except the battle of Lepanto in
+1571 (with which we shall deal later in the story of Ali Basha, or
+Occhiali as he was called by his Christian opponents) the contest
+at Prevesa was far the most important ever fought by those strange
+oar-propelled vessels known as galleys. It was memorable in many ways,
+but particularly so for the ages of the men in chief command. Andrea
+Doria was at this time seventy years of age; in fact, Guglielmotti
+gives the date of his birth as 1466, thus making him two years older.
+That amazing veteran Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, who died in his bed at
+Constantinople on July 4th, 1546, at the age of ninety, must have been
+eighty-two. Vicenzo Capello was sixty-eight, as the epitaph on his
+tomb at Venice in the church of Santa Maria Formosa says that he was
+seventy-two in the year of his death, 1542.
+
+Once again Christendom was nerving itself for a supreme effort against
+the corsairs, and, during the time that Barbarossa was raiding and
+ravaging among the islands of the Archipelago, the Christian fleet
+was gradually assembling. At first it numbered some 150 galleys,
+81 Venetian, 36 Pontifical, and 30 Spanish; Charles V. sent, at the
+last moment, 50 ships on which were embarked 10,000 troops. The force
+totalled altogether 59,000 to 60,000 men, 195 ships, and 2,594 cannons.
+This was no doubt a most formidable armada, but the policy of those
+by whom it was composed was not all directed to the same end. While
+Charles desired, above all things, to exterminate the corsairs for
+good and all, which was, in the circumstances, the only sound view
+of the matter, the Venetians were for fighting defensive actions to
+maintain their supremacy in the Ionian Islands, and were disposed to
+let the future take care of itself. There was not, in consequence, that
+absolute unanimity among the various commanders of the expedition as
+was necessary for its complete success.
+
+The concentration of the Christian fleet took place at Corfu. The
+Venetians arrived first, with Vincenzo Capello in command; Marco
+Grimani brought thither the Papal contingent; they anchored and waited,
+but Andrea Doria did not appear. Days lengthened into weeks, and
+Grimani and Capelli chafed and fumed; provisions were running low and
+the dignity of Venice and of the Pope were flouted by this strange
+remissness on the part of the Admiral of the Emperor. At last, furious
+with impatience, Grimani made a raid into the Gulf of Arta, which was
+defended at the entrance by the fortress of Prevesa. The only result
+of this ill-timed attack was that two Papal captains and a number of
+soldiers were killed. Grimani then returned to Corfu, to find Capello
+irritated to the last extent by the non-appearance of Doria.
+
+At last, on September 5th, the Imperial fleet hove in sight. It was
+composed of forty-nine galleys, but these were supplemented by a great
+number of sailing ships; the sailing craft, however, did not arrive
+till September 22nd. These vessels were gradually making way among the
+Spaniards since the discovery of the new world.
+
+At this time the Venetians possessed fourteen nefs. Doria had augmented
+these by twenty-two of his own, and the total number of thirty-six
+was commanded by Franco Doria, a nephew of the admiral. The Venetian
+nefs were commanded by Alessandro Condalmiero, captain of the _Galleon
+of Venice_. This was the most formidable fighting vessel in the
+Mediterranean; she was reckoned an excellent sailor, she was by far the
+most heavily armed sailing ship then afloat; in fact, in the opinion of
+contemporary seamen, she was “an invincible fortress.”
+
+Doria, Grimani, and Capello had now nearly 200 ships carrying nearly
+60,000 men. Such a force, in all ages, has been considered great.
+William the Conqueror conquered Britain with a less number; it is
+almost half the total of the personnel of the British fleet in the
+present day which has to defend a country with 40,000,000 inhabitants,
+and all this force had been raised, armed, and equipped to combat with
+a Moslem corsair.
+
+Barbarossa had succeeded in assembling 122 ships. He was accompanied
+by all the most famous corsairs of the day, among whom was Dragut,
+who fell at the siege of Malta, and of whom we shall have more to say
+in due time. Far and wide ranged the swift galleys of the Ottoman
+fleet, for the plan of the commander of the Moslems was to locate and
+destroy his enemies in detail if possible. At last news came to him
+that Grimani’s ships had been sighted in the Gulf of Arta. Not one
+moment did he lose; he would fall upon the Papal contingent with his
+whole force and destroy it utterly. Such, at least, was his plan when
+he sailed for Prevesa; but, notwithstanding his haste, he was too late.
+Happily for himself, Grimani had returned to Corfu before the arrival
+of his enemy.
+
+At this juncture Barbarossa hesitated; had he not done so, and had
+he followed Grimani to Corfu, he might have destroyed both him
+and Vincenzo Capello in detail before the arrival of Doria. The
+Prevesa campaign is a curious study of hesitation on both sides, and
+the idea naturally occurs were not the corsair and the Christian
+commanders-in-chief too old for the work on which they were engaged?
+Men of over seventy are not impetuous, but grave and deliberate as
+a rule; but there is no rule without its exceptions, and Doria and
+Barbarossa were not as other leaders. Up to the present their dash and
+initiative had been unimpaired. There was no question that Barbarossa
+not only made a mistake in hesitating, but that by it he lost the
+game. Instead of striking at once he did what he had never done before
+in the whole of his career, which was to send to Constantinople for
+instructions. Some of his galleys had captured a fishing-boat off
+Corfu, the crew of which had seen Doria’s fleet. The Moslem leader
+sent the fishermen themselves to report to Soliman exactly what they
+had seen, and to ask for and bring back instructions from that
+potentate. What Barbarossa had discovered was that the odds were very
+much against him; so much, in fact, that he would have to act on the
+defensive. In consequence, he steered for Prevesa and entered the Gulf
+of Arta, which is approached by a long narrow strait, dominated by
+the castle of Prevesa. Once inside he anchored his galleys in such a
+position that they could fire direct out to sea, thus overwhelming with
+their fire any vessel attempting to enter.
+
+Barbarossa now occupied the same position as did Octavius in his
+combat with Antony. The rôle of the latter general was now taken by
+Doria. Antony, like Doria, had heavy ships which could not advance
+to the attack owing to their too great draught. Octavius, with his
+light-draught ships, could both attack and retreat into safety if
+overmatched.
+
+On September 22nd Doria, having collected all his ships, gave orders
+to fill up with wood, water, and fresh provisions. On the 25th, to
+the sound of the trumpet, the Commander-in-Chief, with his fleet of
+two hundred sail, weighed anchor and sped before the wind rapidly
+southwards. Grimani commanded the advance-guard, Doria was in the
+centre, Vincenzo Capello, with his Venetians, brought up the rear.
+Formed in two columns, the nefs followed the galleys; the _Galleon of
+Venice_, commanded by Condalmiero, a squadron in herself, preceded them.
+
+[Illustration: GALEASSE UNDER SAIL.]
+
+From the anchorage at Corfu to the entrance of the Gulf of Arta is
+about fifty-eight miles, and, traversing this distance during the hours
+of daylight, the fleet anchored, as night fell, under Cape Prevesa.
+The Galleon which acted as what we should now call the guide of the
+fleet, anchored in sixteen feet of water, which was barely sufficient
+to keep her afloat.
+
+The Gulf of Arta, in which, as we have said, the fleet of the Moslems
+were now anchored, presents very curious physical peculiarities: it
+is twenty-two miles in length from east to west, and fifteen miles in
+breadth from north to south. This sheet of water is formed into an
+immense bay by the configuration of the land, and its depth, in places,
+is from one hundred and thirty to two hundred feet. Inside it all the
+navies in the world might ride at anchor, were it not for the fact that
+the entrance is closed by a bar upon which the depth varies from six
+and a half to thirteen feet. With his light-draught ships Barbarossa
+occupied the interior position, while the heavy ships of Doria must in
+any event remain outside. A strong sea-breeze was blowing on shore;
+all night the nefs and the galleys were nearly rolling their gunwales
+under. In these packed and crowded vessels the misery and discomfort of
+their crews may be imagined. On the morning of the 26th, however, the
+west wind dropped, and a light wind sprang up from the northward.
+
+The position at this time was one of surpassing interest. Here at long
+last the two most renowned sea-captains of the time were face to face.
+Each was aware that his antagonist was worthy of his steel, also that
+great issues, political and national, hung upon this conflict; which
+was no mere affair of outposts, but a struggle to the death as to
+whether the Crescent or the Cross was in time to come to be supreme
+in the tideless sea. And yet—such is the irony of fate—this battle
+proved indecisive, and it was not until thirty years later, at the
+battle of Lepanto, that this momentous question was set at rest for a
+time.
+
+Would Doria, greatly daring, go in and risk all in attacking a
+fortified position; or would Barbarossa make a sally and fight it out
+to the death on the element on which he was so supremely at home?
+
+But Doria had no mind to attack a fleet anchored under the guns of
+a fortress; Barbarossa would not risk all in an encounter with a
+foe possessed of great numerical superiority without orders from
+Constantinople. On Doria’s side nothing but a disembarkation and a
+land-attack would offer a fair security for success, Kheyr-ed-Din,
+who held, as we have said, the interior position, was well aware of
+this fact, and in this supreme moment of his career was not disposed
+to give away any advantage. The situation occupied by Kheyr-ed-Din
+at the battle of Prevesa was, in a sense, different from any which
+he had held before, as he was in this case hampered by his sense of
+responsibility as Admiralissimo to the Grand Turk. What happened on the
+distant shores of Africa mattered but little to that monarch, and he
+had been content to allow his admiral an entirely free hand; here in
+Europe, on the shores of Greece, so close relatively to his own capital
+city, it was a very different matter, and Soliman was kept in touch
+with the happenings of his fleet as far as was possible in those days.
+But if the great corsair did not add to his reputation in this eventful
+campaign he still displayed an aptitude in realising the situation
+which, it is safe to say, was shown by none of those under his
+command.
+
+Prevesa illustrates for us more than any other action the difficulties
+with which the path of the partisan leader in these days must always
+have been filled; and how it was that personal ascendancy was the only
+force to which such a leader had to trust Sheer dominance of the minds,
+the wills, and the bodies of others had placed Kheyr-ed-Din where he
+was; all his life he had commanded undisciplined pirates, and yet now,
+when he was the properly accredited officer of a mighty monarch, when
+he might have expected far more discipline and subordination than had
+ever been his lot in the past, he was met with a contumaciousness which
+he was unable to quell, and was forced into taking steps which, in his
+own unequalled knowledge of war, he knew to be doomed to disaster.
+
+Around him the Reis, or captains of the Moslem galleys, clamorously
+demanded that he should take precautions against a land-attack. It
+was true that the raid which had been made by Grimani had been easily
+repulsed, but in present circumstances there was no question of a mere
+raid, as, should the Christian admiral so decide, he could land twenty
+thousand men. Sinan Reis, an old Osmanli warrior, furious with jealousy
+that the chief command should be in the hands of a corsair, sustained
+his opinion in a manner which augured ill for the hearty co-operation
+of all the Turkish forces. Sinan was just one of those blindly valiant
+fighters from whom the politic Ibrahim had desired to deliver his
+master when he had urged the appointment of Kheyr-ed-Din: brave as
+a lion, keen as the edge of his own good scimitar, fanatical, as
+became a Hodja who had visited the Holy Places, Sinan was a type of
+the Turkish sea-officer: devoid of strategical instinct and tactical
+training, his one idea was a headlong attack, then victory or the
+houris of Paradise. It will be seen that Barbarossa had not only Doria
+and the Christian fleet and army against which to contend on this
+occasion.
+
+The peril conjured up by Sinan Reis on this occasion was not altogether
+an imaginary one: the idea of a disembarkation had, in point of fact,
+been seriously discussed that very morning by Andrea Doria and his
+council of war, at which Hernando de Gonzaga, Generalissimo of the
+troops embarked, had advised a landing. His argument, embodied in a
+long and technical harangue, may be reduced to the following:
+
+  “If we cannot go straight at the enemy and force our way
+  through the entrance under his cannon why should we not
+  reduce the fortress of Prevesa by a siege? Once masters
+  of this height, we could close the strait by sinking
+  in it vessels laden with stones, and we then have the
+  Ottoman fleet at our mercy.”
+
+But Doria the sailor was not to be led by Gonzaga the soldier. He said:
+
+  “The advice seems sound, but in reality it would prove
+  most dangerous if followed. Barbarossa must have
+  landed some of his men, the cavalry which defeated
+  Grimani’s raid will no doubt come again from the
+  interior, if necessary. If we deprive our ships of their
+  soldiers we expose ourselves to a sea-fight under most
+  disadvantageous conditions. But most, important of
+  all is the fact that time presses; the season is far
+  advanced; at any time the fleet may be driven off these
+  shores by a storm, in which case what would become of
+  the troops left on shore? Again, if it comes on to blow
+  a tempest from the westward we may lose not only our
+  troops, but our ships, in fact the whole expedition.”
+
+At the battle of Actium, Octavius occupied the shore upon which
+Hernando Gonzaga wished to land and assault; but notwithstanding this
+fact Octavius did not attempt the passage of the gulf but waited for
+his enemy outside. Doria was therefore all the more justified in not
+sacrificing ships and men in attempting to force an entrance now
+that this same shore was in the hands of the enemy. He was asked, he
+said, to thrust his head into the mouth of the wolf, and this he was
+determined not to do.
+
+In the meanwhile Barbarossa was using much the same language to his
+captains as was Doria.
+
+“My brothers,” said he, “you wish to transport cannon and raise
+redoubts on this uncovered shore because you think that the Christians
+will disembark and seize it: if you attempt this I tell you that the
+guns of the enemy will annoy you terribly., Not only this, supposing
+that Doria, profiting by the moment that our vessels are empty of
+troops, should attack in force, we cannot with five thousand men
+repulse twenty thousand. The fort of Prevesa will defend itself quite
+sufficiently well with its own garrison; our business is to think
+of the fleet and not to weaken in any way our means of attack and
+defence, If the infidels force, or attempt to force, an entry into
+the port, they will be most likely merely losing time and ammunition
+in cannonading us. You know that it is principally in this that these
+accursed dogs do trust, whereas we, O men of Islam, will place our
+confidence in God, in Mahomet his Prophet, in the strength of our right
+arms, in the keenness of our scimitars; we will carry them by boarding,
+therefore we must keep our crews on board,”
+
+But Barbarossa had not that absolute domination of the forces under
+his command which should be the prescriptive right of any leader.
+Sinan-Reis, the implacable be-turbaned old Osmanli, held him in bitter
+scorn. “Your advice may be good,” he retorted, “but we think our plan
+the better.”
+
+The admiral suggested a reconnaissance of the site, which was merely
+a ruse to gain time. This was carried out under his own supervision,
+and confirmed him in the idea that disembarkation was folly; but
+Sinan-Reis and the Janissaries held obstinately to their opinion, while
+the “Joldaks,” or Turkish soldiers in the galleys, grumbled among
+themselves that Kheyr-ed-Din must indeed be full of vanity to reject
+the counsels of one like Sinan-Reis.
+
+Both commanders-in-chief, Christian and Moslem, seem on this occasion
+to have taken an absolutely correct view of the problem as it was
+presented; but whereas Andrea Doria was a real commander-in-chief,
+Barbarossa was forced to consider and to defer to the opinions of men
+whom he knew to be in the wrong.
+
+It was against his better judgment that Kheyr-ed-Din at last
+yielded; the men were backing up their officers, a spirit of
+disaffection was abroad in the armada: such a thing as this a wise
+chief must gauge at its true value, and stop before it goes too far.
+The Osmanli were murmuring against “the corsair”; it was time to let
+them see whether they or their war-worn leader possessed the greater
+wisdom.
+
+According to Moslem chroniclers the valour of Kheyr-ed-Din was only
+equalled by his piety; consequently he murmured a prayer into that
+famous beard of his, which was now so much nearer to white than red,
+and gave orders that the cannon shall be immediately disembarked. “Let
+the will of God and of His Prophet be accomplished; that which is
+written is that which will take place,” exclaimed this pious man as he
+watched the preparations being carried out under the supervision of
+Mourad-Reis.
+
+That which “took place” was precisely and exactly what the
+Commander-in-Chief had predicted from the first: no sooner had
+Mourad-Reis landed upon the exposed beach, and attempted to open a
+trench, than he was met by a furious and concentrated fire from the
+galleys and nefs of the Christian fleet. To entrench themselves was
+impossible in the circumstances, as they had been told by the Admiral
+before they started on this harebrained adventure. There could be
+only one result, which was that, after a cruel and perfectly useless
+slaughter, the soldiers of Mourad-Reis had to retreat before the hail
+of shot poured upon them, and to return ignominiously to their vessels.
+
+It is not on record what Kheyr-ed-Din said to Sinan, Mourad, and
+those other tacticians who had recommended the landing; which perhaps
+is a pity.
+
+Doria then made a tentative movement against the strait by a detachment
+of galleys; Barbarossa told off an equal number to oppose them, and
+they mutually cannonaded and skirmished during the day. There was much
+noise and excitement, but practically no advantage was gained by either
+side, as Doria’s men could not risk passing the guns of the fort, nor
+could those of Barbarossa the chance of being cannonaded by the heavy
+vessels lying in wait-for them outside. And so the day closed down with
+no success on either side, but with a decisive demonstration to the
+Moslems that, if they desired victory, to their admiral had better be
+left the organisation by which it was to be obtained.
+
+Whether Doria really desired a pitched battle can never be known; that
+which is certain is that, during the whole time the fleets were in
+touch, all his dispositions make it appear there was nothing of which
+he was so much afraid. And yet it was the opportunity of his life; he
+had superiority in numbers, he had valiant and experienced leaders,
+and sixty thousand men thirsting for battle, under his command. Also
+he had his opportunity, which, had he seized upon, must have ended
+in victory, did those who were under his orders only fight as he had
+every reason to believe that they would. As it was, he threw away
+the gift of fortune, and left to the Osmanli the practical dominance
+of the Mediterranean Sea until that great day in 1571 when Don John
+of Austria, the natural son of Charles V., proved to the world at
+Lepanto that the Turk was not invincible upon the waters.
+
+It is true that Doria was awkwardly situated; Kheyr-ed-Din held the
+interior position, and that leader was a great believer in the adage
+that “if Brag is a good dog, Holdfast is a better.” He was well aware
+of his numerical inferiority, and in consequence refused to listen
+to the frenzied appeals of the excited Moslems to be led against the
+Christian dogs. It may seem a contradiction in terms to speak of the
+moral courage of a pirate; but if ever that quality were displayed
+to its fullest extent it was exhibited by Barbarossa in the Prevesa
+campaign. In his intellectual outlook on all that was passing, both
+inside and outside of the Gulf of Arta, in this September of 1538, we
+see Kheyr-ed-Din at his best. Ever a fighter, he knew when to give
+battle and when to refrain, when to sweep headlong upon the foe, but
+also when to hold back and to baffle by waiting till the psychological
+moment should arrive. Around him Sinan-Reis, Mourad-Reis, and half a
+hundred others of their kidney were clamouring; they hurled insults at
+his head, they heaped opprobrium on “the corsair,” they practically
+incited their troops to mutiny in their mad appeals to be led against
+the foe.
+
+But “the corsair” kept his head, and kept his temper, and saved the
+Ottoman fleet for his master from his great rival, Doria. That noble
+Genoese seaman was for once in his life “letting I dare not wait upon I
+would”; he would not order the attack for which his men were waiting,
+and no provocation, apparently, could tempt Barbarossa to play
+Antony to the Octavius of Doria; the Christian admiral was tempting
+Providence at that advanced season of the year in keeping the sea on an
+hostile coast on which at any time he might be driven by a tempest. His
+old and experienced antagonist was well aware that the winds and the
+waves might save him the trouble of destroying the fleet of the enemy;
+an equinoctial gale would do that far more effectually than could he.
+If Doria had an uneasy consciousness that he might at any time see the
+shore littered with oarless galleys and dismasted nefs, while the sea
+was filled with drowning men, the same vision had been vouchsafed to
+his imperturbable adversary. Had it been left to the entire initiative
+of Barbarossa, his Fabian tactics would assuredly have prevailed in
+the end; but as it was he was surrounded by a clamouring host of men,
+soldiers by trade, who, understanding nothing of the happenings of the
+sea, merely derided as cowardice any postponement of what they regarded
+as the inevitable battle. The admiral of the Sultan held out as long as
+it was possible, but at last, owing to a new factor in the case, was
+forced, against his better judgment, to offer the battle which it was
+in his power to have withheld.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE BATTLE OF PREVESA
+
+
+  How Alessandro Condalmiero fought the _Galleon of Venice_—
+  “The King of the Sea is dead.”
+
+There is something almost pathetic in the spectacle of a really great
+leader badgered and importuned by lesser men to adopt a course which
+he, with a superior insight, knows to be unsound. In the matter of the
+landing Barbarossa had demonstrated that it was he whose knowledge of
+war was superior to those who were so ready to thrust upon him their
+opinions; this, however, did not content them, and they now desired to
+close with the foe waiting for them outside. If ever a commander was
+justified in waiting on events it was Barbarossa at this juncture; the
+business of a commander-in-chief is to ensure victory, and if he sees,
+as did the Moslem admiral on this occasion, that more is to be gained
+by delay than by fighting, then he is justified in refusing battle:
+particularly is this the case when the enemy is in greatly superior
+force blockading on an open and dangerous coast at an inclement
+season of the year. Every day that Doria was kept at sea added to
+his difficulties, as fresh water and provisions would be running
+short, and the energies of the human engines by which his galleys
+were propelled would be weakened; naked men chained to a bench were
+suffering from the blazing heat of the days, the cold and drenching
+dews of the nights. All these things had the veteran seaman weighed in
+his mind, they all inclined him to wait still longer in that secure
+anchorage where he could not be touched by his foe.
+
+There was one counsellor, however, whom even Kheyr-ed-Din could not
+resist, and who had hitherto kept silence; this was the eunuch Monuc,
+legal counsellor to Soliman, who had accompanied the armada. He now
+brought the weight of his influence to bear upon the side of Sinan-Reis
+and his colleagues.
+
+“Are you going,” he asked the admiral, “to allow the infidels to escape
+without a battle? Soliman can find plenty of wood to build new fleets,
+plenty of captains to command them; he will pardon you if this fleet
+is destroyed: that which he will never pardon is that you should allow
+Doria to escape without fighting. You have brave men in plenty; why not
+lead them to the attack?”
+
+The patience of the veteran gave way at last; none who knew Barbarossa
+had ever seen him shrink from fighting—to this his whole career bore
+witness. He had delayed the issue from the soundest of strategical
+reasons, which those under his command were too stupid and too
+prejudiced to understand: what cared they for reason in their blind
+valour?—they wished only to do or die heedless of the fact that
+their lives might be spent in vain. Truly it was no thanks to the
+subordinates of Kheyr-ed-Din that this campaign did not end in disaster
+to the arms of the Ottoman Porte. Such backing as the admiral had
+came from among his own men, the corsairs whose lives had been spent
+at sea, but their opinions were but dust in the balance once the
+all-powerful Monuc ranged himself on the side of the malcontents.
+
+“Let us then fight,” said the admiral to Saleh-Reis, “or this fine
+talker who is neither man nor woman will accuse us before the Grand
+Turk and we shall all probably be hanged.”
+
+The Christian fleet during the night of September 26–7th had made some
+thirty miles to the southward; just before daybreak the wind freshened
+and drew right ahead; Doria approached the island of Santa Maura and
+anchored under the small islet of Sessola.
+
+Barbarossa had now decided to leave his anchorage, but the veteran
+seaman did not disguise from himself the risks which he ran: a greater
+sea captain than he once said “only numbers can annihilate,” and it was
+at annihilation that both the Moslem and the Christian aimed: in this
+case, however, he knew that he could but hope for a hard-won victory,
+and only that if Allah and his Prophet were unusually favourable to
+his cause. He assembled his captains, many of whom had served with him
+during long periods of his career, and directed them to form line: he
+said, “I have but one order to give, follow my movements attentively
+and regulate your own accordingly.”
+
+With fustas, brigantines, galleots, and galleys, the Ottoman fleet
+amounted in all to one hundred and forty sail. With shouts of joy the
+soldiers hailed the command to weigh the anchors, and in a very short
+time all were slowly moving seaward.
+
+The die was cast: Doria from his anchorage at Sessola saw the sea white
+with the sails of the enemy, the blue water churning to foam beneath
+the strokes of his oars; the Ottoman fleet was issuing from the Gulf
+of Arta manoeuvring with precision and deploying into a single line
+abreast; which line being slightly concave, either from accident or
+design, resembled the form of a crescent. In advance came six great
+fustas commanded by Dragut; the left wing hugged the shore as closely
+as possible; the Ottoman commander-in-chief intended to commence
+operations on the first principles of strategy by flinging his whole
+force on a portion of that of the enemy.
+
+Andrea Doria remained undecided: he was on a lee shore, and that shore
+was the coast of the enemy; although his foes were advancing to the
+attack it seemed as if he had no mind to fight: whether he had or
+had not he displayed a most remarkable sluggishness, hesitating for
+three hours before getting up his anchors; these he only weighed at
+last under pressure from the bellicose Patriarch of Aquilea, Vincenzo
+Capello, and the Papal captain, Antonio Grimani. Doria had counted on
+the support of the _Galleon of Venice_ and the nefs; but the galleon was
+becalmed four miles from the land and ten miles from Sessola, where
+Doria was at the beginning of the action.
+
+Condalmiero sent a light skiff from the _Galleon of Venice_ to the
+commander-in-chief demanding orders and help from the galleys.
+
+“Begin the fight,” answered the admiral, “you will be succoured.”
+
+The position of Condalmiero was that of a modern battleship which is
+disabled and surrounded by foes in full possession of their motive
+power; the great galleon floated inert upon the waters while the
+galleys could fight or fly as they wished. The captain of the galleon,
+however, had no alternative save to surrender or fight; but there was
+no hesitation on his part, for a more gallant officer never trod the
+decks of a warship of the proud Republic to which he belonged.
+
+The Moslem galleys were now close upon him, although as yet out of
+gun-shot; around him they wheeled and circled like a flight of great
+sea-birds, their ferocious crews shouting their war-cries calling
+upon Allah and the Prophet to give them the victory for which they
+craved; many a brave Venetian who heard for the first time the name of
+Barbarossa shouted in battle must have braced himself for the coming
+conflict, knowing all that was imported by that terrible name. The
+sun shone in a cloudless sky, the galleon lay becalmed in the middle
+of furious and ravening foes, the succour promised by Doria was ten
+miles away; they saw no movement which indicated help, and the odds
+against them were heavy indeed. But all the nervousness was not on
+one side, for the _Galleon of Venice_ was something new in the naval
+warfare of the time; she carried engines of destruction in the shape
+of great guns which the corsairs could by no means equal. Of this they
+were well aware, and the attack was delayed while the oarsmen in the
+galleys rested on their oars out of range to allow them breathing time
+before the supreme moment arrived. But the hounds were only held in
+leash; there came a signal which was answered by a concentrated yell
+of fury and of hate; then from right ahead, right astern, on the port
+side and the starboard, the galleys were launched to the attack. But
+all on board the great Venetian vessel was as still as that death which
+awaited so many of the combatants in this supreme struggle.
+
+Condalmiero had caused the crew of the galleon to lie down upon her
+decks, and stood himself, a gallant solitary figure in his shining
+armour, a mark for the hail of shot so soon to be discharged. It came,
+and with it the mast of the galleon bearing the Lion Standard of St.
+Mark crashed over the side into the water; renewed yells of triumph
+came from the Moslems, but still that ominous silence reigned on board
+the galleon. Untouched, unharmed, the Osmanlis came on firing as
+rapidly as possible until they were absolutely within arquebuss range.
+Closer they came and closer; then the sides of the galleon burst into
+sheeted flame, and the guns levelled at point-blank range tore through
+the attacking host. Condalmiero was throwing away no chances; he had
+directed his gunners to allow their balls to ricochet before striking
+rather than to throw them away by allowing them to fly over the heads
+of the enemy.
+
+The first broadside did terrible execution; a ball one hundred and
+twenty pounds in weight, fired by the chief bombardier, Francisco
+d’Arba in person, burst in the prow of a galley so effectually that
+all her people flew aft to the poop to prevent the water rushing in;
+but the vessel was practically split in twain, and sank in a few
+moments. All around were dead and dying men, disabled galleys, floating
+wreckage; the _Galleon of Venice_ had taken a terrible toll of the
+Osmanli; the order to retreat out of range was given, and never was
+order obeyed with greater alacrity.
+
+With accuracy and precision the galleon played upon such vessels as
+remained within range, doing great execution. But she was now to be
+subjected to an even severer test than the first headlong attack. She
+had demonstrated to the Moslem leaders that here was no vessel to be
+carried by mere reckless valour; a disciplined and ordered offensive
+was the only plan which promised success; the Osmanli must use their
+brain as well as their courage if that tattered flag, rescued from the
+water, and nailed to the stump of the mast of the galleon, was ever to
+be torn down. There was something daunting in the very aspect of the
+solid bulk of the huge Venetian, something weird in the manner in which
+her crew never showed, save only the steadfast figure of her captain
+immovable as a statue of bronze, where he stood on her shot-torn poop.
+
+This Homeric conflict was a triumph of discipline and gunnery on the
+part of the Venetians; alert, accurate, and cool, the gunners of the
+galleon threw away none of their ammunition: inspired by the heroic
+spirit of their captain, great was the honour which they did on this
+stricken field to the noble traditions of their forbears and the
+service to which they belonged.
+
+The first attack had been most brilliantly repulsed, but this was
+only preliminary to a conflict which was to last all through the
+day; the Moslem galleys withdrew out of gunshot and re-formed; then a
+squadron of twenty advanced, delivered their fire, and retired; their
+place was then taken by a second squadron, which went through the same
+performance, and then came on a third. In this manner the attack, which
+began one hour after noon, and which was continued until sunset, was
+conducted. The galleon had thirteen men killed, and forty wounded; no
+doubt the slaughter would have been much greater had it not been for
+the enormous thickness of her sides and for the fact that the guns
+carried by the galleys were necessarily light. Notwithstanding, the
+galleon suffered terribly, she was a mass of wreckage; twice fire had
+broken out on board of her, she was cumbered by fallen masts, battered
+almost out of recognition, but still Condalmiero and her gallant crew
+fought on imperturbably with no thought of surrender. Covered with
+blood, wounded in the face and the right leg by flying splinters, her
+captain preserved his magnificent coolness, and his decimated crew
+responded nobly to his call. At eventide the fire from the galleon
+was almost as deadly as it had been at the first onslaught, and many
+galleys of the Turks were only saved from sinking by the activity
+and bravery of their carpenters, who, slung over their sides in
+“boatswains’ chairs,” drove home huge plugs of wood with their mallets
+into the shot-holes made by the Venetian guns.
+
+At the hour when the sun dipped below the horizon all the Turkish fleet
+seemed assembled to assault the colossus which so long had resisted
+their attack; there was a pause in the combat, and the firing died
+down. Condalmiero and his men braced themselves for the assault which
+they felt to be inevitable: for now the darkness was swiftly coming, in
+which they could no longer see to shoot, and under cover of which their
+numerous foes could assail them by boarding in comparative safety. Now
+the moment had come for the last act in this terrible drama of the sea.
+They had held their own at long odds throughout the whole of a hot
+September day, and as the level beams of the setting sun shone on their
+shattered ship they were prepared to die, fighting to the last man for
+the honour of Venice and the glory of St. Mark.
+
+Stiff and worn, wearied almost to the breaking strain, there was no man
+on board who even dreamt of surrender; all the guns were charged to the
+muzzle with bullets and broken stone, the artillerists match in hand
+stood grimly awaiting the order to fire, straining their eyes and their
+ears in the gathering darkness; in a few minutes at most they knew that
+the fate of the _Galleon of Venice_ must be decided.
+
+On board his galley, decorated for this occasion with scarlet banners,
+Barbarossa himself directed the assaulting line. Never before when the
+battle was joined had the gallant corsair been known to draw back; and
+yet on this occasion he not only hesitated but actually hauled off. The
+Venetians saw to their amazement that the expected attack was not to
+be pushed home; for Barbarossa and his captains fell upon some lesser
+vessels: the _Galleon of Venice_ was victorious.
+
+Meanwhile Doria was displaying his mastery of tactics when it was
+hard fighting that was wanted; he pretended that he wished to draw
+the Ottoman fleet into the high seas in order that he might destroy
+their galleys by means of the broadsides of his nefs; consequently
+he executed useless parade movements when he should by all the rules
+of warfare have closed with his enemy who was in distinctly inferior
+force; as he had a fair wind there is only one conclusion to be drawn,
+and that is that he did not want to fight.
+
+His manoeuvres certainly mystified the Turks, who viewed his tactics
+with mistrust, thinking them the outset of some deeply laid scheme; it
+never entered into their calculations for one moment that the great
+Andrea Doria, the terror of the Mediterranean sea, and the victor in
+scores of desperate engagements, was anxious to avoid a fight.
+
+Grimani and Capello, docile to the orders of their admiral, followed
+him full of uneasiness and distrust; they were fighting men of the most
+fiery description; to them the issue seemed of the simplest: there was
+the enemy in inferior force to themselves, they had the weather gauge,
+why delay the attack?
+
+“For much less than this,” says Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, “the
+English shot Admiral Byng in 1756.” The conduct of Doria on this
+occasion has certainly never been explained; the two other leaders went
+on board and remonstrated with their commander-in-chief; they were
+neither of them men who could be treated as negligible quantities on
+the field of battle; both belonged to that brilliant Venetian nobility
+so renowned in commerce and in war. Marco Grimani was in command of the
+Papal galleys, in itself a mark of the highest esteem and confidence
+from a potentate second to none in his influence in the civilised
+world. To Vincenzo Capello, Henry the Seventh of England confided
+his royal person and the command of his fleet when he crossed the
+Channel to encounter Richard the Second at Bosworth field. Five times
+had he filled the office of Providiteur in Venice, twice had he been
+commander-in-chief of her fleet, he was in perpetuity Procureur of St.
+Mark, to him Venice owed her naval discipline. He wore on this day the
+mantle of crimson silk with which the Republic invested her generals.
+Bitter was the rage in his heart, and bitterly must he have spoken
+to Doria, who, in spite of all remonstrances, continued his futile
+manoeuvrings.
+
+There was glory won on this day, but it was gained neither by Andrea
+Doria nor Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa. The _Galleon of Venice_ with
+Alessandro Condalmiero and his gallant crew had shown to all a splendid
+example of disciplined valour unexcelled in sixteenth-century annals.
+
+Barbarossa had captured a Venetian galley, a Papal galley, and five
+Spanish nefs, but he had recoiled from the assault on Condalmiero
+when the prize was actually within his grasp. For the rest it was a
+day of manoeuvring and tactics; tactics when sixty thousand men had
+been embarked on board two hundred ships for a specific and definite
+object on the side of the Christians and under the command of their
+most celebrated admiral; and yet the balance of advantage was actually
+gained by the inferior force. No subsequent glories can ever wipe this
+stain from the scutcheon of Doria, or can excuse the fact that at
+the most supreme moment of his career he failed to fight the battle
+that he was in honour, in conscience, and in duty bound to deliver.
+Next day the wind came fair for Corfu, and Doria, his ships untouched,
+unscathed, unharmed, put his helm up and sailed away followed by his
+fleet.
+
+Sandoval records the fact that Barbarossa, roaring with laughter the
+while, was accustomed to say that Doria had even put out his lanterns
+in order that no one might see whither he had fled. This was an
+allusion to the fact—or supposition—that Doria extinguished on that
+night the great poop lantern carried by him as admiral.
+
+When Soliman the Magnificent heard of the result of this battle
+he caused the town of Yamboli, where he was at the time, to be
+illuminated, and in the excess of his joy he added one hundred thousand
+aspres to the revenues of the conqueror; there were processions to
+the Grand Mosque, and all Islam rejoiced and sang the praises of
+the invincible admiral who had humbled to the dust the pride of the
+Christian and caused the dreaded Doria to fly from before the fleet of
+the Sultan.
+
+This, the most historical, if not the greatest feat in the life of
+Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, was for him a triumph indeed; with a vastly
+inferior force he had driven from the field of battle his “rival
+in glory,” as he himself had denominated Andrea Doria, and he had
+accomplished this feat notwithstanding the almost mutinous condition
+of his own forces. In spite of this it is with Condalmiero and with
+him alone that the glory of this day must rest; alone, absolutely
+unsupported as we have seen, he fought one of those fights which bring
+the heart into the mouth when we read of them; the stern pride of the
+Venetian noble, who despised as canaille the pirate hosts by whom
+he was assailed, had its counterpart in the sturdy valour of Chief
+Bombardier Francisco d’Arba and the other nameless heroes of which
+that good company was composed; to them we render that homage which so
+justly is their due.
+
+The whole campaign of Prevesa, as we have said, is a curious study
+in hesitation, in dilatoriness, in absolute lack of initiative and
+virility on the part of the two chief actors in the drama: that Doria
+should fly from the field of battle in an untouched ship is only one
+degree less incredible than that Barbarossa should have relinquished
+his attack on the _Galleon of Venice_. It would almost seem as if on this
+occasion each of the great rivals was hypnotised by the presence of
+the other; all their lives they had been seeking honour and riches on
+the sea, they knew, of course, that all men in both the world of Islam
+and that of Christendom looked upon them in the light of the special
+champions of the opposing sects, that the eyes of the entire world
+were fastened on this meeting of theirs in the classic waters of the
+Ambracian Gulf. In consequence neither man was at his best; indeed,
+we might go further than this, and say that on this occasion both
+lamentably failed. There is no fault to be found with the strategic
+preliminaries to the final conflict, each admiral acting with prudence
+and wisdom in the situation in which he found himself placed. That the
+perfectly correct idea of not giving battle to a superior force when he
+held so strong an interior position was given up by Barbarossa, was, as
+we have seen, not his fault; and when he issued from his anchorage, in
+deference to a sentiment among those under his command which he could
+no longer resist, his dispositions seem to have been made with his
+usual skill. Where he failed, however, was where, from all his previous
+history, we should least have expected failure, in his abandonment of
+the attack on the _Galleon of Venice_; this, of course, was inexcusable,
+and can only be set down to failure of nerve at the supreme moment. The
+ship had been battered by artillery all day long, a huge percentage
+of her company were dead and wounded, and the remainder worn out with
+fatigue. On the Moslem side we have seen that there were squadrons of
+galleys able to relieve one another with no interference from Doria,
+who was persisting in his futile manoeuvring miles away. Had the
+galleon been boarded, as she might and should have been, at nightfall,
+nothing could have saved Condalmiero and his crew: so strenuous,
+however, had been their resistance, that the Turkish seamen feared the
+issue; in consequence the battle between them and the Venetians was a
+drawn one, with all the honours on the Christian side.
+
+It is here that we shall take leave of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, as
+although he was yet to live another eight years before he died in his
+bed at Constantinople in July, 1548, there are no further happenings of
+any great importance in his career.
+
+“Valorous, yet prudent, furious in attack, far-seeing in preparation,
+he ranks as the first sea-captain of his time;”[1] as the story of his
+life has unfolded itself in these pages we have seen what manner of
+man it was who terrified Europe, who made for himself a reputation
+which stands out clear and distinct among all the great men of which
+this century was so prolific. One of the surest methods of estimating
+a strenuous man of action is to seek for the names of those by whom
+he was surrounded: the men selected by him to assist in the carrying
+out of the work of his life; thus in reading of Napoleon Bonaparte
+we interest ourselves in his marshals, in reading of Nelson we note
+the captains by whom he was supported. In the case of Kheyr-ed-Din
+Barbarossa, a great man of action if one ever lived, we find no trace
+of devoted adherents on that high plane of command we have indicated
+in the cases cited above. That he had devoted followers enough is
+absolutely certain, but of high officers we very seldom find a trace,
+and these he treated with contumely and offence on many occasions;
+witness the treatment meted out to Hassan and to Venalcadi. There
+is practically no trace of his domestic life to be found, we cannot
+discover that he possessed any intimate friend. There is none other in
+all history to whom he can be satisfactorily compared; there are few
+who in their generation have wielded such enormous powers, who have
+climbed so high from the sheer unassisted force of their own intellect
+and their own character.
+
+[1] Stanley Lane Poole.
+
+Physical strength such as is vouchsafed to one man in a million, a
+constitution nothing could impair, endurance incomparable, were his
+bodily attributes: an intellect cold, clear, and penetrating was
+his, joined to an imperturbability of temperament which enabled him
+to accept with a cheerful philosophy blows by which weaker men were
+absolutely prostrated; his outlook on life was not dimmed by any
+affections, and pity was a sensation which to him was entirely alien.
+In this record of his deeds the reader has been spared all mention of
+the atrocious tortures he was in the habit of inflicting on his victims
+for any or no provocation, and many of them are as incomprehensible as
+they are sickening. That in which he was supreme was his craft as a
+seaman in an age when real seamen were rare; on land he was frequently
+defeated, at sea there seems to be no record of such an occurrence. To
+sum up, he appears to us in the light of history as a body, a brain,
+and an intellect, without any trace of a heart. His path through life
+was one unending trail of blood and fire, moistened by the tears of his
+countless victims, followed by the curses of those whom he despoiled.
+Yet, in spite of this, it is impossible not to admire the man who, by
+his own superhuman energy, ever swept all obstacles from his path,
+and caused the whole of the civilised world to quail at the name of
+Barbarossa.
+
+He died peacefully in his bed at Constantinople in July, 1546, to the
+grief of the world of Islam and the inexpressible joy of Christendom.
+“The king of the sea is dead,” expressed in three Arabic words, gives
+the numerical value 953, the year of the Hegira in which he died.
+
+For many years after his death no Turkish ship ever left the Golden
+Horn without her crew repeating a prayer and firing a salute over the
+tomb of Beshiktsah, where lie the bones of the first and greatest of
+Turkish admirals, the corsair who was at one and the same time admiral,
+pirate, and king.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE NAVY OF OARS. THE GALLEY, THE GALEASSE, AND THE NEF
+
+
+In the sixteenth century the vessel of war in the Mediterranean was
+essentially that oar-propelled craft known to us as the galley. As time
+went on she was gradually superseded by the sailing man-of-war which
+was able to carry that heavy ordnance which the light scantling of the
+galley did not permit of her mounting; but for the use of the corsairs
+who lived by means of raids and surprise attacks, whose business it was
+to lie perdu on the trade routes, the mobility of the galley was of
+prime importance, and they could not afford to trust to the wind alone
+as a motive power. The galley was analogous to the steam vessel in that
+it was independent of the wind to a large extent: human bone and muscle
+supplied the part of engines, and those who fought upon the sea caused
+themselves to be moved over the face of the waters by the exertions
+of their enemies. It is true that upon one occasion, as we have seen,
+Kheyred-Din Barbarossa did possess a fleet of galleys the rowers of
+which were all Moslems, which crew upon battle being joined dropped
+their oars, seized their weapons and assisted in the conquest of the
+foe. But this was an isolated instance, as it was almost impossible
+at any time and in any circumstances to procure free men ready to
+undertake a life of such intolerable suffering as that of a rower
+on board a galley; in consequence these men were almost invariably
+slaves, or else in later times condemned felons whose judges had sent
+them to work out their sentences upon the rowers’ bench. The great
+characteristic of the galley was her mobility, and in a comparative
+degree her speed, as for a short burst, when her crew of rowers were
+fresh, their trained muscles were capable of tremendous exertion; for
+any length of time, however, it is obvious that her speed must have
+declined as the rowers became exhausted. She was long, narrow, of
+extremely low freeboard, and slight depth of hold; a galley of 125 feet
+between perpendiculars would perhaps be 180 feet over all taking in
+the poop and the prow. A galley of this length would only have a beam
+of 19 feet and a depth of hold of 7 feet 6 inches. The sailing ship
+of contemporary times would for the same length have had a beam of
+about 40 feet and an extremely high freeboard; she was in consequence
+necessarily slow and incapable of sailing on a wind.
+
+So distinct at this time was the line drawn between the sailing vessel
+and the galley that the actual terminology used was entirely different;
+that is to say, the names of such things as masts, sails, rudder,
+tiller, stern, stempost, cutwater, etc., were not the same words; the
+sailor who used sails could not understand his brother mariner who used
+oars, and _vice versa_.
+
+[Illustration: GALLEY UNDER OARS.]
+
+What was necessary of course in the galley was many oars and many
+hands to use them; the vessel was most skilfully constructed for this
+purpose so as to get the fullest power from her human engines; the
+result was that men were crowded on board of her to such an extent that
+there was scarcely room to breathe, such a craft as the one of which
+the dimensions have been given having on board some four hundred men.
+
+Barras de la Penne, a French officer who in 1713 first went on board a
+galley, thus describes what he saw:
+
+  “Those who see a galley for the first time are astonished
+  to see so many persons; there are an infinite number of
+  villages in Europe which do not contain an equal number
+  of inhabitants; however, this is not the principal cause
+  of one’s surprise, but that so many men can be assembled
+  in so small a space. It is truth that many of them have
+  not room to sleep at full length, for they put seven men
+  on one bench; that is to say, on a space about ten feet
+  long and four broad; at the bows one sees some thirty
+  sailors who have for their lodging the floor space of the
+  rambades (this is the platform at the prow of the galley)
+  which consists of a rectangular space ten feet long by
+  eight in width. The captain and officers who live on the
+  poop are scarcely better lodged, and one is tempted to
+  compare their grandeur with that of Diogenes in his tub.
+
+  “When the unpitying Libyan Sea surprises these galleys
+  upon the Roman coasts, when the Norther lashes to foam
+  the Gulf of Lyons, when the humid east wind of Syria
+  is driving them off shore, everything combines to make
+  life on board a modern galley a hell of misery and
+  discomfort. The creaking of the blocks and cordage, the
+  loud cries of the sailors, the horrible maledictions
+  of the galley slaves, the groaning of the timbers,
+  mingled with the clank of chains and the bellowings of
+  the tempest, produce sentiments of affright in the most
+  intrepid breasts. The rain, the hail, the lightning,
+  habitual accompaniments of these terrific storms, the
+  waves which dash over the vessel, all add to the horror
+  of the situation, and although devotion is not as a rule
+  very strongly marked on board a galley, you will hear
+  these folk praying to God, and others making vows to the
+  Saints; these would do much better not to forget God and
+  his Saints when the danger is past.
+
+  “Calm itself has also its inconveniences, as the evil
+  smells which arise from the galley are then so strong
+  that one cannot get away from them in spite of the
+  tobacco with which one is obliged to plug one’s nostrils
+  from morning till night.”
+
+The gallant officer here goes into further details concerning the
+vermin on board which it will be as well to spare the reader.
+
+Jean Marteille de Bergeraq, who died at Culenbourg in 1777, was
+condemned to serve on board the galleys in 1707 “in his quality of
+Protestant”; he must indeed have been a man of iron constitution as he
+lived to the age of ninety-five. This is his description of the life of
+a _forçat_:
+
+  “They are chained six to a bench; the benches are four
+  feet wide covered with sacking stuffed with wool over
+  which are thrown sheepskins which reach to the floor.
+  The officer who is master of the galley slaves remains
+  aft with the captain to receive his orders; there are
+  two under officers, one amidships and one at the prow;
+  all of these are armed with whips, with which they flog
+  the absolutely naked bodies of the slaves. When the
+  captain gives the order to row, the officer gives the
+  signal with a silver whistle which hangs on a cord round
+  his neck; the signal is repeated by the under officers
+  and very soon all the fifty oars strike the water as
+  one. Imagine six men chained to a bench as naked as they
+  were born, one foot on the stretcher the other raised
+  and placed on the bench in front of them, holding in
+  their hands an oar of enormous weight, stretching their
+  bodies towards the after part of the galley with arms
+  extended to push the loom of the oar clear of the backs
+  of those in front of them who are in the same attitude.
+  They plunge the blades of the oars into the water and
+  throw themselves back, falling on to the seat which bends
+  beneath their weight. Sometimes the galley slaves row
+  thus ten, twelve, even twenty hours at a stretch, without
+  the slightest relapse or rest, and on these occasions
+  the officer will go round putting into the mouths of
+  the wretched rowers pieces of bread soaked in wine to
+  prevent them from fainting. Then the captain will call
+  upon the officers to redouble their blows, and if one of
+  the slaves falls fainting upon his oar, which is a common
+  occurrence, he is flogged until he appears to be dead and
+  is then flung overboard without ceremony.”
+
+The Italian captain, Pantero Pantera, of the _Santa Lucia_ galley, in his
+work on “L’Armata Navale” published in 1614, gives it as his opinion
+that although soldiers and sailors could be obtained for service in the
+galleys if good pay were given, still no money could tempt any free man
+to adventure himself as a rower for any length of time owing to the
+intolerable sufferings which the “gallerian” was called upon to endure.
+As, however, in the opinion of the captain it was most necessary
+that the galleys should be manned, he thought that all judges should
+in future send criminals aboard; those who had committed murder as
+“lifers,” those who had committed lesser crimes _pro rata_. Those who by
+the nobility of their birth or their physical incompetence were unable
+to handle the oar should be called upon to pay for substitutes to act
+for them; these were called “Buone-Voglie.”
+
+There was not much difference after all between the methods used by the
+seventeenth-century Italian to those actually in force in England at a
+much later date when the Press Gang swept the honest and the dishonest
+into its net in its midnight raids.
+
+“The galley slaves,” observes Pantera, “cherish repose and sincerely
+wish to avoid fatigue; in order to incite them to do their duty it is
+necessary to use the whip as well as the whistle; by using it with
+severity the officers will find that they are better obeyed, and it
+will in consequence be good for the service, for fear of the whip is
+the principal cause of good behaviour among the gallerians.” Further on
+he observes that it is well not to flog them too severely and without
+reason, “for this irritates the gallerians, as I have frequently
+observed: this may cause them to despair and to wish for death as the
+only sure way out of their troubles.” The excellent Pantera a little
+later on even says that he cannot agree that the attempt to cure a sick
+gallerian “is all nonsense, as is maintained by some persons,” as sick
+men are a source of danger on board. He apparently was not prepared to
+throw them overboard alive, but urges that the best way to avoid such
+pestilences among them as killed forty thousand Venetians at the
+port of Zara in 1570 is to embark sound and good victuals.
+
+It is interesting to have a contemporary view of the correct treatment
+of the galley slave from those who had to do with him. In the case
+of the corsairs and their adversaries the gallerians were as a rule
+prisoners of war, but as time went on and wars became less frequent
+than they were throughout the sixteenth century, another source of
+supply was tapped by sending to the galleys the criminals of any
+country which desired to fill up the rowers’ benches. In consequence
+there was always one thing which was feared above all others on board a
+galley, and that was a rising of the slaves.
+
+If they were not your enemies officially, they were a set of desperate
+criminals ripe for any mischief should they get loose, and chained,
+starved, beaten, frozen with the cold, baked by the summer heats,
+tortured, murdered, they had nothing earthly for which to hope except
+escape. If in the heat of battle there should occur a rising of the
+slaves, then their masters knew that victory would declare itself
+surely on the side of the enemy. Therefore that they should be
+securely chained was the first and most important thing to which the
+boatswain of a galley and his mates had to see. If by a bold stroke
+they once freed themselves from their shackles it was a fight to the
+death for those who erstwhile had been in command, as the gallerians,
+outnumbering them and caring nought for their lives in comparison to
+their liberties, were far the most formidable foes that they could be
+called upon to encounter. When men are so treated that their daily
+life is one long martyrdom they become the most dangerous force
+in existence, and on the occasions which sometimes happened that the
+slaves got the upper hand, there were none left of the fighting men of
+the galley to tell the tale of their discomfiture.
+
+In time of battle the gallerians were of course equally exposed to
+death and wounds from the projectiles of the enemy as were the orthodox
+fighting men; but to them came no rejoicing at the sound of victory;
+rather they prayed for the defeat of their masters, as it frequently
+happened that those against whom they were arrayed were their own
+countrymen and friends by whom they hoped for release. Thus at Lepanto,
+the Christian slaves, seeing the right wing of the Turkish fleet thrown
+into disorder by the galleys of the Allies, broke out into furious
+mutiny, succeeded in shattering their fetters and chains, attacked
+their masters the Turks in the rear with incredible energy with any
+weapons upon which they could lay their hands, and thus contributed in
+no small measure to the ultimate triumph of the Christian arms.
+
+The Captain Pantero Pantera and Barras de la Peine have written
+exhaustively on the galley, her crew, her armament, her manner of
+provisioning, her masts, sails, rigging, etc., and Admiral Jurien de
+la Gravière has given a most painstaking exposition concerning the
+technicalities of these craft. But to enter into too much detail would
+be to weary the reader unnecessarily, who, it is apprehended, merely
+desires that a general idea should be given of the way in which these
+vessels were handled and fought.
+
+It would appear that during the whole time that oar-propelled vessels
+were used as warships their form did not differ to any material
+extent, as certain limitations of size were obviously imposed on them
+by the mere fact that they had to be moved by so finite and feeble a
+force as human muscles, hearts, and lungs. No cruelty, however ghastly,
+could extract from the gallerians more than a certain amount of work,
+and the Captain Pantero Pantera, as we have seen, even advocates that a
+certain minimum of consideration should be shown to them in order that
+better work might be obtained. It was probable, however, that in the
+case of the Christian slaves captured by the corsairs even this minimum
+was to seek, as the numbers swept off by them were so enormous that
+they could be used up and replaced without inconveniencing these rovers
+of the sea, to whom compassion for suffering was absolutely unknown.
+
+The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or the Knights of Malta as they
+were also called, used the galley in their unceasing warfare with the
+Moslem. The General of the Galleys was a Grand Cross of the Order; the
+captains were knights, and the second officer, or first lieutenant, was
+known as the Patron. The crew of a galley of the knights had twenty-six
+rowing benches and carried two hundred and eighty rowers and two
+hundred and eighty combatants; the armament consisted of one bow cannon
+which discharged a forty-eight pound ball, four other small guns, eight
+pounders, and fourteen others which discharged stones.
+
+“The Religion,” as the Knights were in the habit of describing
+themselves, had certain definite stations assigned to each knight,
+seaman, or officer during action. It is to be imagined, however,
+that these were merely for the preliminary stages of the fight,
+as it was seldom that time allowed for more than one discharge, or
+at the most two, of the artillery, before the opposing galleys met
+in a hand-to-hand conflict which must have immediately become an
+indiscriminate mêlée.
+
+The manner in which the galley should engage is thus contained in an
+answer to a question of Don John of Austria, the victor of Lepanto. He
+wrote to Garcia de Toledo, fourth Marquis of Villafranca, and General
+of the Galleys of Sicily, to ask his opinion as to what distance it was
+most efficacious to open fire in a naval action. Toledo replied that
+“one cannot fire more than twice before the galleys close. I should
+therefore recommend that the arquebussiers should hold their fire
+until they are so close to the enemy that his blood will leap into the
+face of him who discharges his piece. I have always heard it said, and
+this by captains who are well skilled in the art of war, that the last
+discharge of the cannon should be coincident with the noise made by the
+breaking of the spurs carried in the prows of the galleys; in fact that
+the two noises should be as one; some propose to fire before the enemy
+does: this is by no means my advice.”
+
+Artillery, it will be seen from this, played a comparatively
+unimportant part in the combats between galley and galley; that in
+these craft men still relied on the strength of their right arm and the
+edge of their swords; there was still a certain contempt for villainous
+saltpetre, which was looked upon as a somewhat cowardly substance,
+preventing the warrior from settling his disputes in the good old
+fashion of his forbears. In any case, when you practically had to
+push the muzzle of your gun against your enemy’s body in order to hit
+him, it was not a weapon upon which much reliance was to be placed.
+
+There were, in addition to the galley, the nef and the galeasse;
+the former of these was a sailing vessel pure and simple like those
+remarkable caravels in which Columbus discovered America.
+
+What these caravels were exactly like it was the good fortune of
+the writer to see in the year 1893. This was the date of the great
+exhibition of Chicago, and the American Government were most anxious to
+have, and to exhibit if possible, an exact replica of these historic
+craft. They accordingly communicated with the Spanish Government and
+inquired if by any chance they possessed the plans and specifications
+of the caravels of Columbus? Search was made in the archives of Cadiz
+Dockyard and these priceless documents were discovered. From them the
+ships were built in every respect the same as the wonderful originals
+and then towed across the Atlantic by the United States cruiser
+_Lancaster_. On their way they were brought to Gibraltar, where the
+writer’s ship was then stationed, and were anchored inside the New
+Mole. The _Santa Maria_, the flagship of Columbus, was a three-masted
+vessel with a very high “forecastle” and “sterncastle” and very deep in
+the waist; she had three masts, the foremast carrying one square sail,
+the mainmast having both mainsail and main-topsail, the mizzen was
+rigged with a lateen sail, on the mainsail was painted the Maltese and
+on the foresail the Papal cross, and on deck she carried a brick-built
+cooking galley. A most beautiful model of this vessel is to be seen
+in the Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum.
+
+The nef in its later manifestations became a much more seaworthy vessel
+than this, with four masts, the two foremost ones square-rigged and
+carrying courses and topsails, the two after ones carrying lateen
+sails; the latter from their small size and their proximity to one
+another could not have had much effect on the sailing qualities of the
+ship. The nefs in the fleet of Don John of Austria in 1571 were rigged
+in this fashion and comprised vessels of eight hundred, nine hundred,
+and even one thousand tons, while a contemporary English vessel, the
+_Great Harry_ or _Henri Grace à Dieu_, was as much as fifteen hundred
+tons, and carried no less than one hundred and eighty-four pieces
+of ordnance. It was from the nef and the galeasse that the sailing
+man-of-war arrived by the process of evolution. The galley in the first
+instance was the vessel of men who fought hand to hand, the men in
+whom personal strength and desperate valour were blended, who desired
+nothing so much as to come to close grips with their enemy. Such rude
+engines of war as the pierriers, or short cannons which discharged
+some forty or fifty pounds of broken stone upon the enemy, were first
+mounted in the galley; these were followed by improved artillery as
+time went on. But although the galleys eventually carried quite big
+guns, as instanced by the forty-eight pounder in the galleys of the
+Knights of St. John, still it soon became apparent that the limit was
+reached by guns of this weight; the galley was essentially a light
+vessel and was not built to withstand those rude shocks caused by
+firing heavy charges of powder.
+
+The galeasse was the connecting link between the navy of oars and the
+navy of sails. The navy of oars was in its generation apt for warlike
+purposes; but it was in its essence a force analogous to the light
+cavalry of the land; useful for a raid, a sudden dash, but without that
+great strength and solidity which came in later years to the building
+of the sailing line of battleship.
+
+The galeasse was really a magnified galley, one which used both sails
+and oars, on board of which the rowers were under cover; she was built
+with a forecastle and a sterncastle which were elevated some six feet
+above the benches of the rowers, and her very long and immensely heavy
+oars were of course proportionate to the size of the vessel. The
+description of a galeasse of nearly one thousand tons burden is set
+forth as follows by Jurien de la Gravière:
+
+  “Her draught of water was about 18 feet 6 inches, she
+  was propelled by 52 oars, 48 feet in length, each oar
+  being worked by 9 men. Her crew consisted of 452 rowers,
+  350 soldiers, 60 marines, 12 steersmen, 40 ordinary
+  seamen, 86 cannoneers, 12 petty officers, 4 boatswains’
+  mates, 3 pilots, 2 sub-pilots, 4 counsellors, 2 surgeons,
+  4 writers, 2 sergeants, 2 carpenters, 2 caulkers, 2
+  coopers, 2 bakers, 10 servants, a captain, a lieutenant,
+  a purser. In all some thousand men, or about the same
+  number as the crew of a three-decker of a later date.”
+
+The fleet of the “Holy League” at the battle of Lepanto had in it
+six galeasses from the arsenal of Venice; and whereas an average
+galley carried 110 soldiers and 222 galley slaves, the crews of these
+galeasses comprised 270 soldiers, 130 sailors, and 300 galley slaves.
+
+The speed of the galley was calculated by the French engineer Forfait
+to be in the most favourable circumstances, that is to say in a flat
+calm, but four and a half knots for the first hour, and two and a
+quarter to one and a half miles per hour for subsequent hours; the
+exhaustion of the rowers consequent on their arduous toil would not
+admit of a greater speed than this. The studies of Forfait were made
+when the invasion of England by rowing boats was a topic of burning
+interest. It is evident from this that long voyages, trusting to the
+oar alone, could not be undertaken; but as we have seen, the galley was
+also provided with motive power in the shape of two masts carrying the
+lateen sail, which may be still seen in so many Mediterranean craft.
+
+That the galley was no vessel in which to embark in bad weather is
+instanced for us by the disasters which befell a Spanish fleet of
+these craft in 1567 under the Grand Commander of Castile, Don Luiz
+de Requesens. A revolt of the Moors in Granada had caused Philip the
+Second to wish to withdraw a certain number of Spanish troops from
+Italy. Requesens was sent to Genoa with twenty-four galleys to embark
+a detachment of an army corps then stationed in Piedmont. Each galley
+embarked one hundred and fifty soldiers; they then got under way and
+reached the island of Hyères, where they anchored, the weather being
+too bad to proceed. At the end of their eighth day in port a number
+of vessels were seen flying to the eastward before the wind; it was
+a squadron of Genoese.
+
+Requesens, who was no seaman, was furious. Here were the Genoese at
+sea, and he wasting his time in harbour; if they could keep the sea
+why could not he, he demanded? He instantly ordered the anchors to be
+weighed. The commander of the Tuscan galleys, of which there were ten
+in the fleet, immediately went on board the galley in which Requesens
+was embarked and represented that the wind was foul and that should
+they leave their anchorage they could make no headway once they got
+clear of the land. But Requesens was obstinate: “if others can go
+on their way it is shameful that I should not proceed on mine,” he
+protested. Alfonso d’Aragona argued with him in vain, representing
+that his master, the Duke of Tuscany, would hold the Grand Commander
+responsible for damage to his galleys. It was all in vain, as the Grand
+Commander was too arrogant and stupid to listen to advice from anybody.
+The fleet put to sea and struggled out a mile from the land; when they
+got thus far Requesens discovered his mistake and regretted that he had
+not taken the advice of the mariners; but it was now too late, they had
+drifted to leeward of their anchorage and could not get back again.
+
+One galley, a new vessel, ran into another which was an old one, and
+sank her on the spot, carrying all her luckless crew to the bottom.
+The remaining vessels scattered far and wide; Alfonso d’Aragona
+found refuge in the Bay of Alghieri, two more of his galleys reached
+an anchorage in the Isle of St. Pierre, another sheltered in the
+Gulf of Oristano; three galleys were shipwrecked on the coast in
+this neighbourhood and lost many of their men; yet another, called
+the _Florence_, was twice nearly wrecked on the coast of Barbary, and
+eventually reached the Bay of Cagliari. A Genoese captain found himself
+as far afield as the Island of Pantellaria, two galleys were never
+heard of again, and the Grand Commander himself anchored eventually in
+the Bay of Palamos on the Spanish coast. Of the twenty-four galleys
+which left their anchorage twelve were lost and the twelve which
+remained were practically valueless until large sums had been spent in
+repairs.
+
+It is small wonder in the light of these events that the seamen who
+ranged the Mediterranean in vessels propelled by oars regarded the
+winter as a close season and laid up their galleys in harbour. They
+were seaworthy enough for ordinary weather, but could not withstand
+such a tempest as the one in which Requesens put to sea. The whole
+story is only a further proof of the folly of putting supreme command
+of a sea-going venture in the hands of a man totally ignorant of the
+hazards he was called upon to encounter. In the sixteenth and even in
+the seventeenth centuries this was done perpetually, and if no disaster
+occurred it was because no bad weather was encountered.
+
+[Illustration: BRIGANTINE CHASING FELUCCA.]
+
+As time went on the sailing ship became larger and larger and was
+able to mount more and more powerful ordnance; this had the effect of
+discounting the value of the galley as a fighting ship; in consequence
+she became practically obsolete, for the line of battle, after the
+combat at Lepanto. In spite of this she was to linger on for many
+long years to come as the weapon of the corsairs who had established
+themselves on the coast of Africa. The “long ship” was still to be the
+cause of many an awful sea tragedy, whether the actors therein were
+the pirates who hailed from the Barbary coast or their most capable
+imitators the notorious rovers of Sallee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+DRAGUT-REIS
+
+
+  How he became Lieutenant to Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa—His
+  capture by Jannetin Doria—His four years as a galley
+  slave—His ransom by his old chief.
+
+In character, in capability, in strategic insight, in tactical
+ability, not one of the predecessors or the successors of Kheyr-ed-Din
+Barbarossa can be compared to him; he was the greatest and most
+outstanding figure of all those corsairs of whose deeds we hear so
+much during the sixteenth century, the man above all others who was
+feared and hated by his contemporaries in Christendom. He lived, as we
+have said, for another eight years after the battle of Prevesa, but
+his great age prevented him from pursuing a very active career. There
+were, however, other and younger men, trained in the terrible school
+of hardship in which his life had been passed, who proved themselves
+to be his very worthy successors, even if they did not display the
+same genius in war and statecraft. The conditions of this period are
+somewhat remarkable when we come to consider them; Europe, which had
+been sunk in a rude and uncultured barbarism during the middle ages,
+was emerging under the influence of the Renaissance into a somewhat
+higher and nobler conception of life. It is true that the awakening
+was slow, that morally the plane on which the peoples stood was far
+from being an elevated one, that altruism was far from being the note
+of the lives lived by the rulers of the so-called civilised nations.
+For all this they had emerged from that cimmerian darkness in which
+they had lived so long, and the dawn of better things, of more stable
+government, of some elementary recognition of the rights of those
+governed, was beginning to show above the murky horizon.
+
+But if the sun of European progress was slowly and painfully struggling
+through the clouds, the light which had shone brightly for over seven
+centuries of Moslem advance was certainly and surely dying. Beneath the
+mail-clad heel of the Christian warrior the torch of learning which
+had burned so brightly in Cordova and Granada had been extinguished
+and ground into the dust, and the descendants of the alumni of those
+universities were seeking their bread in the Mediterranean Sea in the
+guise of bloodthirsty and desperate pirates.
+
+There were no longer among the Moors of Andalusia learned philosophers,
+expert mathematicians, wise astronomers, and practical agriculturists;
+there was among them but one art, one science, one means of gaining a
+livelihood—the practice of war—and their very existence depended on the
+spoils which could be reft from the hereditary enemy. The corsair who
+grew to man’s estate, brought up in Algiers, Tunis, Tenes, Jerba, or
+any other of the lurking places in which the sea-wolves congregated,
+had as a rule no chance but to follow the sea, to exist as his father
+had existed before him; he must fight or starve, and in a fighting
+age no youngster was likely to be backward in taking to the life of
+wild excitement led by his elders. Unless following in the train of
+one of the leaders, such as Barbarossa, the Moslems were apt to take
+to the sea in a private capacity; a certain number of them joining
+together to man a small craft which was known as a brigantine. As has
+been said in a previous chapter, this word must not be understood in
+the light of the terminology of the modern seaman: the brigantines of
+the Moslem corsairs were really large rowing boats, carrying fourteen
+to twenty-six oars, and made as seaworthy as the small size of such
+craft would allow. Should the venture of the crew of a brigantine prove
+successful, then the reis, or captain, might blossom out into the
+command of a galley, in which his oars would be manned by his slaves;
+but, in the first instance, he would man his brigantine with a crew of
+Moslem desperadoes working on the share system and dividing anything
+that they could pick up; in this manner most of those corsairs who
+became famous commenced their careers, and rose as we have seen from
+the thwart of a brigantine to the unstable eminence of a throne in
+Algiers, Tunis, or Tlemcen.
+
+This life which they led made of them what they were, namely desperate
+swordsmen, efficient men at arms, incomparably skilful in the
+management of the craft in which they put to sea; but it did nothing
+else for them in the way of education; in consequence he who would rise
+to the top, who aspired to be a leader amongst them and not to remain a
+mere swash-buckling swordsman all his life, was bound to acquire that
+dominance necessary for control of the wild spirits of the age. Nor
+was this ascendancy by any means easy to obtain, as the rank and file
+led lives of incredible bitterness, almost inconceivable to modern
+ideas. What they suffered they alone knew, but it was compounded of
+hunger, thirst, heat, cold, sickness unrelieved by care or tending,
+wounds which festered for lack of medicaments, death which ever stared
+them in the face, and last, and worst of all, the risk of capture by
+some Christian foe, by whom they would be chained to the rowers’ bench
+and taste of a bitterness absolutely unimaginable. As a set-off to
+this the man who aspired to lead must offer to his followers at least
+a record of success in small things; also he had to be something of an
+enthusiast, something of an orator, some one subtly persuasive. Against
+all the disagreeables of the strenuous life of the corsair he had to
+hold before the dazzled eyes of Selim, Ali, or Mahomet the promise of
+fat captures of the merchant vessels of the foe; when they had but
+to slit a few throats and to return with their brigantines laden to
+the gunwale with desirable plunder. Again he had to hearten them for
+possible encounters with Spaniards, with the terrible Doria, or worst
+of all with the dreaded Knights of St. John themselves; to point out
+that to die in conflict with the infidel was a sure passport to heaven
+and its houris, and to invoke great names, such as that of Barbarossa
+to show to what dizzy heights the fighting Moslem could climb. In such
+an age and among such men as these it was no mean feat to become a
+leader by whom men swore and to whom they yielded a ready obedience.
+
+Fashioned by the hammer of misfortune on the anvil of racial
+expropriation, such leaders arose among the Moslems, men of iron,
+before whom all who worshipped at the altars of Islam bowed the knee.
+These men, whose fame extended throughout all the length and breadth
+of the Mediterranean, taught to European rulers something of the value
+of that great force which is known to us under the modern name of “Sea
+Power.”
+
+Next in importance to Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa himself and in many ways
+his very worthy successor, was Dragut Reis. We have it on the authority
+of Messire Pierre de Bourdeille, the Seigneur de Brantôme, that Dragut
+was born at a small village in Asia Minor called Charabulac, opposite
+to the island of Rhodes, and that his parents were Mahommedans. Being
+born within sight and sound of the sea, the youthful Dragut naturally
+graduated in the school of the brigantine and completed his education
+on board of a galley. His training was that which makes the best of
+fighting seamen, as from contemporary records he appears to have passed
+all his life actively engaged on board ship. At a very early age he
+entered the service of a master gunner who served on board the galleys
+of the Grand Turk. Under his auspices the youngster became an expert
+pilot in his own home waters, and likewise a most excellent gunner.
+Dragut was evidently a youth of ability and determination, as almost
+before he reached man’s estate he had succeeded in buying a share in
+a cruising brigantine where his venture prospered so exceedingly that
+he was soon able to become sole proprietor of a galeasse. Here again
+fortune favoured the enterprising young man; his name began to be
+known as a formidable corsair in the Levant, where he was remarkable
+for his knowledge of that portion of the Mediterranean.
+
+To better his condition he offered his services to Barbarossa at
+Algiers, who accepted this new subordinate with joy, delighted to have
+so valiant and capable a man under his orders.
+
+“During some years,” says J. Morgan in his _Compleat History of Algiers_,
+1728, “he was by that basha intrusted in the direction of sundry
+momentous expeditions; in which he acquitted himself much to the
+satisfaction of his principal: as having never once been unsuccessful.”
+When we remember the treatment meted out by Barbarossa to some of his
+unsuccessful lieutenants, Dragut must be esteemed a very fortunate
+man. His master, we are told, advanced him to all the military offices
+of the State—it would be interesting to know what these were in a
+purely piratical confederation ruled by a pirate! In the end Dragut
+was appointed to be kayia, or lieutenant, and given entire command of
+twelve galleys.
+
+“From thenceforward this redoubtable corsair passed not one summer
+without ravaging the coasts of Naples and Sicily; nor durst any
+Christian vessel attempt to pass between Spain and Italy; for if
+they offered it he infallibly snapped them up, and when he missed
+his prey at sea, he made himself amends by making descents along the
+coasts plundering villages and towns and dragging away multitudes of
+inhabitants into captivity.”
+
+That “no vessel durst pass from Spain to Italy” is no doubt a
+picturesque form of exaggeration on the part of the historian; at
+the same time, when Dragut was at the height of his activities there is
+no doubt that any one passing through those seas ran a great risk of
+capture; so much so in fact that at this period, from 1538, the date
+of the battle of Prevesa, until Lepanto in 1571, all maritime commerce
+in the Mediterranean was greatly circumscribed. At the beginning of
+this epoch, which saw the rise of the Moslem corsairs, these robbers
+perforce confined themselves more to the North African coast than
+was the case later on. The pioneers of the piratical movement, after
+the fatal date 1492, which saw the wholesale expulsion of the Moors
+from Spain, were comparatively speaking inexpert practitioners in the
+art and mystery of piracy; they had not the habit of the sea, and in
+consequence confined their depredations to the neighbourhood of their
+own selected ports in Africa, which dominated that sea lane running
+east and west through the Mediterranean, which then, as now, was one of
+the greatest highways of commerce of the world. Gradually, as we have
+seen, under the able guidance of the two Barbarossas, but particularly
+that of the second and greater of the two, piracy became a commonplace
+in the north, as well as in the south, of the tideless sea; the
+corsairs, as time went on, even devoting more time and attention to
+the coast of Italy and the islands of the archipelago than they did to
+the recognised trade routes. These latter had become by 1540 similar
+to an estate which has been shot over too frequently; birds had become
+both wild and scarce, it was hardly worth while to go over the ground,
+except now and again on the chance of picking up a straggler. Towns
+and islands, on the other hand, even if they did not yield much in
+the way of actual plunder, were always good cover to beat for slaves,
+which had a certain value in the markets of Algiers and Tunis. Another
+circumstance which had led to the now frequent raids on the littoral of
+the European countries was the countenance and support accorded to the
+corsairs by the Grand Turk: so admirably did they fit into the scheme
+of his ambitions, that by the time Dragut arrived at a commanding
+position they were, so to speak, officially recognised as a fighting
+asset of the Sublime Porte; and, as we have seen, the Sultan did not
+hesitate to lend his picked troops, the Janissaries, to the corsairs
+when engaged in their ordinary piratical business. To the Grand Turk
+the corsairs were Moslems who were prepared to fight on his side,
+and who, taking it all in all, really cost him hardly anything; in
+fact, at this date, owing to the magnificent gifts made to the Sultan
+by Kheyr-ed-Din, the Padishah must have made something out of his
+association with the sea-wolves.
+
+By the year 1540 Dragut had distinctly “arrived”; that is to say, he
+had succeeded in making himself so dreaded that Charles V. ordered
+Andrea Doria to seek him out and destroy him at any cost. The Christian
+admiral was “to endeavour by all possible means to purge the sea of so
+insufferable a nuisance.”
+
+Andrea got ready a fleet, which he entrusted, together with the care
+and management of this affair, to his nephew Jannetin Doria. This was
+the nephew who, in the disastrous attack by Charles on Hassan Aga
+at Algiers in the following year, was so nearly lost in the storm
+which destroyed the fleet of the emperor; and of whom Andrea Doria is
+reported to have said, “It was decreed that Jannetin should be reduced
+to such an extremity purposely to convince the world that it was not
+impossible for Andrea Doria to shed a tear.” Certainly from what we
+know of the celebrated Genoese admiral it is hard to imagine him in a
+tearful mood. Jannetin Doria put to sea, and, after a long hunt, found
+the object of his quest at Andior on the coast of Corsica; Dragut was
+at anchor in the road of Goialatta, under a castle situated between
+Cabri and Liazzo. The corsair knew nothing of his enemies being at sea,
+and was in consequence keeping no particular look-out. Although we are
+not told the composition of the fleet of Jannetin Doria, it must have
+been a large one, as Dragut had under his orders thirteen galleys, and
+was unable to withstand the attack to which he was subject. He was also
+assailed from the shore, as well as the sea, as the castle under which
+he was at anchor opened fire upon him as soon as it was discovered by
+its garrison that the new arrivals were Christians. The fire was too
+hot for the corsair to withstand, and, to add to his embarrassments,
+the beach soon became lined by hundreds of the fierce Corsi, awaiting
+the inevitable end when they should be able to fall upon the defeated
+Moslems and wipe them from off the face of the earth; it was a warfare
+in which there was no mercy, and if the pirates were to fall into the
+hands of the islanders they knew well that they would be exterminated.
+
+In all his venturesome life things had never gone so badly with Dragut
+as upon this occasion. On the one side, should he and his men land
+they would be massacred; on the other hand, his road to the open sea
+was barred by an immensely superior force. Recognising the logic of
+circumstances, and seeing no way of escape, the white flag was hung out
+by the Moslem leader. The only terms, however, which he could obtain
+were immediate surrender or instant death. It must have been a moment
+of anguish to the man who hitherto had always ridden on the crest of
+the wave of success and achievement to be thus trapped like a rat;
+and to have the added bitterness of the thought that had he exercised
+seamanlike care and precaution in keeping a good look-out he might
+have escaped. As it was, he was allowed no time for reflection, but
+had to decide on the instant: he did the only thing possible in the
+circumstances, which was to haul down his flag and to become the thrall
+of his lifelong foes.
+
+The principal captives were made to pass before young Doria. When
+Dragut beheld him he cried out in a fury: “What! Am I a slave to that
+effeminate Caramite?” for Doria was but a beardless youth. These
+opprobrious epithets being interpreted to the young nobleman, “highly
+incensed he flew at Dragut, tore out his beard and moustaches, and
+buffeted him most outrageously: nay his passion was so great it is said
+that had he not been prevented, he certainly would have sheathed his
+sword in the bowels of that assuming prisoner.”
+
+For four long years Dragut rowed in Doria’s galley. No distinctions
+were made in those days, and knight or noble, companion or grand
+master, basha or boy, was, if caught, condemned to the rowers’ bench to
+slave at the oar beneath the boatswain’s lash, perchance alongside some
+degraded criminal, filthy and swarming with vermin. While Dragut was
+employed as a galley slave there came on board the craft in which he
+rowed Monsieur Parisot, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. This high
+officer, recognising his old enemy, called out to him in Spanish:
+
+“Hola, Señor Dragut, usanza de guerra” (“The usage of war, Señor
+Dragut”).
+
+To which the undaunted corsair merely replied with a laugh:
+
+“Y mudanza de fortuna” (“And a change of luck”).
+
+The Grand Master, who had known the chain and lash himself, smiled and
+passed on—there was no pity in those days.
+
+But Dragut was not destined to end his life as a galley slave, for,
+when indeed hope must have died within him, after more than four years
+of this veritable hell upon earth, there sailed one day into the
+harbour of Genoa the great Kheyr-ed-Din himself. The Admiralissimo of
+the Grand Turk, full of years, honours, and booty, was on his last
+cruise, and one of the last acts of his active life was the rescue of
+Dragut, the man who had served him so well, and for whom he had so high
+a regard as a resourceful mariner, from the degrading servitude into
+which he had fallen. The Spanish historian, Marmol, recounts that the
+sum of three thousand ducats was paid by Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa for
+the redemption of Dragut. As this history was published in 1573, we
+must conclude that the author who wrote of these events so soon after
+they had happened is correct; at the same time, Barbarossa was in
+command of one hundred galleys of the Grand Turk, and it was never his
+custom to pay for anything which he could take by force. However this
+may have been, and the point is not one of very great importance, the
+Genoese Senate was terrified lest their territory should be ravaged;
+they wrote accordingly to their Grand Admiral, requesting that Dragut
+might be released and sent on board of the galley of the admiral basha.
+This was immediately done, and the man who for four years had tugged at
+the Christian oar was once again in a position to make war on those who
+had been for that period his masters.
+
+Not only had he tugged at the Christian oar, but also he had tasted of
+the Christian whip—and of very little else, as the food of the rower
+was as scanty as it was disgusting; in consequence, if he had been an
+implacable foe to Christendom before this event, he was not likely to
+have become less so while toiling in the Genoese galley.
+
+The practical retirement of Barbarossa from that sphere of activity in
+which his life had been passed now left Dragut-Reis the most feared and
+the most formidable of all the Moslem corsairs in the Mediterranean.
+From the time of his release by Barbarossa until the day of his death
+at the siege of Malta in 1565, he followed the example shown him by
+that prince among pirates with so much assiduity as to render him only
+second to Kheyr-ed-Din in the detestation in which he was held.
+Says Morgan: “The ill-treatment he had met with during his four years’
+captivity was no small addition to the Innate Rapaciousness of his
+Disposition.”
+
+In the year 1546, Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa died, and to replace him the
+Sultan Soliman ordered all the mariners in his dominions to acknowledge
+Dragut-Reis as their admiral, and to obey him in the same manner as
+they had obeyed his predecessor. From this date he was the foremost
+corsair in the Mediterranean, and the feats which were performed by him
+showed that the Padishah had not erred in his selection.
+
+The ambition of Dragut increased with his power, and he determined,
+following the example of the Barbarossas, to seize and hold some strong
+place of arms possessed of a commodious port in which he might be the
+supreme ruler. Accordingly, in the depth of winter in the year 1548, at
+a time which was, as we have pointed out, a close season for piratical
+enterprises, and during which attack from the sea was not expected,
+he collected all the corsairs whom he could gather, and fell upon the
+Spaniards on the coast of Tunis, at Susa, at Sfax, and at Monastir.
+These places had been taken from the corsairs in the previous summer
+by Andrea Doria; they formed a sort of regular battle-ground when the
+combatants were in want of something to do, and were held alternately
+by the King of Tunis, the Spaniards, and the corsairs.
+
+Dragut was well aware that as soon as the spring arrived he would be
+attacked; he also knew that the attack would come in sufficient force
+to drive him out, as none of these towns was really strong or easily
+defended; in consequence he concentrated his attention on the town of
+“Africa,” otherwise known as Mehedia, and in the Roman histories as
+Adrumentum.
+
+This great city lay some leagues to the east of Tunis on a tongue of
+land projecting into the sea; its fortifications were regular, its
+walls of great thickness, height, and solidity, and were strengthened
+by many towers and bulwarks; the guns were large, numerous, and in
+good condition. At the back of the town, on an eminence, stood a large
+fortress, the citadel of the place; the harbour was large and secure,
+with an inner basin forming a port for galleys; the entrance to this
+was closed by a strong chain. The sea washed the walls of the city;
+indeed, it was entirely surrounded, except where by a narrow neck of
+land it joined the shore.
+
+The inhabitants, natives of the place, had shaken off the yoke of the
+King of Tunis, and had formed themselves into a kind of independent
+republic. They admitted neither Turk nor Christian within their walls,
+trusting neither party, and fearing from them the fate which befell
+Susa, Sfax, and Monastir.
+
+“Africa” was the goal of the desires of Dragut-Reis: once in possession
+of this, by far the strongest city on the littoral of Northern Africa,
+he thought that he might abide secure against the attacks of Charles
+and of Andrea Doria. He had seen the enormous expedition of 1541
+against Algiers come to naught on account of the wholesale wrecking of
+the fleet in which it had sailed by a tempest of unexampled violence.
+But he was too level-headed a man to think that a miracle like this
+would be likely to come to pass a second time for his own special
+behoof, and preferred to act the part of the strong man armed who
+keepeth his goods in peace. He had, however, first to gain over the
+inhabitants of “Africa” to his views, and they proved anything but
+anxious to listen to his blandishments. The more he tried to ingratiate
+himself the less inclined did these people seem to listen.
+
+“My ambition,” said the silver-tongued corsair, “is to become a
+citizen of your great and beautiful city. If you will admit me to its
+privileges it shall be my business to render you the richest people in
+the whole Mediterranean, and your city the most dreaded place in the
+world.”
+
+The “Africans,” however, were obdurate; they knew a pirate when they
+saw him quite as well as any one else, and they were quite aware that,
+should they open their gates to Dragut, sooner or later they would have
+to stand a siege from the Christian forces, which was a thing they by
+no means desired.
+
+But Dragut was not yet at the end of his resources; he was rich, and
+he spent money freely in order to gain over to his side those men of
+importance by whom such a question as this was bound to be decided.
+By rich presents and other blandishments he succeeded in securing the
+friendship of one Ibrahim Amburac, who was not only a leader among
+the inhabitants, but also governor of one of the towers by which the
+city was surrounded. Through him he approached the Council by which
+the town was ruled, only to receive a very decided negative: the
+Council observed the outward forms of politeness to this formidable
+person who was speaking them so fair: in reality, they hated and feared
+the corsairs only one degree less than they did Andrea Doria and his
+Christians. To admit the one was to bring upon themselves the vengeance
+of the other; therefore if they could keep them both out they intended
+so to do. The ill-omened courtesy of the corsair filled their hearts
+with apprehension, and they viewed his immediate departure, after the
+refusal of the council had been conveyed to him, with undisguised
+relief. Had they but known their man a little better, their uneasiness
+would have been far greater than their joy at his temporary absence.
+Those things desired by Dragut which he could not obtain by fair means
+he usually seized by the strong hand; and when he left so hurriedly,
+and at the same time so unostentatiously, he had already entered into a
+plot with Ibrahim Amburac. This leader, furious at the rebuff which he
+had received at the hands of his fellow councillors on the subject of
+the admittance of Dragut to the citizenship of “Africa,” was now ready
+to deliver that city into the hands of the corsairs by treachery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+DRAGUT-REIS
+
+
+  How the corsairs captured the town of “Africa”; of
+  its recapture by Andrea Doria and its eventual total
+  destruction by Charles V.
+
+Dragut had made it a practice never to appear in the harbour of
+“Africa” in any great force, as he had no desire to frighten the birds
+whom he desired to snare; on the occasion of which we are now speaking
+he had but two galleys, and their departure from the outer harbour
+passed almost unnoticed, as the ruck of the population were accustomed
+to visits from the corsairs, who came to fill up with provisions
+and fresh water. Swiftly as hawks his vessels swept along the coast
+collecting the garrisons of Susa, Sfax, and Monastir to aid him in
+his latest design; they were all picked men and singularly apt for
+the stern business which their leader destined them to undertake. In
+this manner he soon collected five hundred of the stoutest and most
+reckless fighters who sailed out of the ports of Northern Africa, and,
+when it became noised abroad among them what the service was for which
+they were required, there was universal joy and eagerness. True the
+adventure was a formidable one: to capture “Africa” was no light task,
+even for such men as these under so renowned a leader; there was
+further the difficulty that the persons against whom they went up to
+fight were no Christians but Moslems like themselves. But against this
+was the declaration of Dragut, who represented to his following that
+there was really no choice in the matter; that to these stiffnecked
+and singularly ungrateful people he had offered the protection of the
+corsairs, that they had refused in the most contumelious manner, and in
+consequence there was nothing for it but the strong hand. They—that is
+to say the corsairs—knew right well that some strong place of arms in
+which to shelter themselves and their vessels was an absolute necessity
+for their continued existence, as at any moment Doria or the Knights
+of Malta might be on their track in superior force, and then what was
+their fate likely to be if they had no harbour under their lee in which
+to shelter? Further it was hinted that “Africa” would provide very
+nice pickings in the way of loot, and when this came to be generally
+understood the promptings of the Mahommedan conscience yielded easily
+to the sophistries with which it was lulled.
+
+The council of the town of “Africa” troubled themselves but little more
+concerning Dragut, his ships, and his corsairs; he had departed, and
+as the days wore on and no further tidings of him came to hand, these
+simple folk thanked God that they were rid of a knave and went about
+their usual avocations as unconcernedly as if no sea-wolves lurked
+under the shadowed headlands of that continent in which their homes
+were situated. They were a people essentially of the land; although
+they dwelt on the confines of the ocean the ways and habits of those
+who earned a precarious living on the waters were a sealed book to
+them, and with the “Africans” it was a case of “out of sight out of
+mind” so far as the corsairs were concerned. But that black-hearted
+traitor Ibrahim Amburac and the few others who had been gained over by
+the gold of Dragut watched and waited for the attack which they knew to
+be impending.
+
+The inhabitants of the doomed city never saw their assailants until
+they were actually upon them, so well had the surprise attack been
+planned by the leader of the corsairs. He had collected five hundred
+men, and this was but a small number with which to assail so strong a
+place; but Dragut knew exactly what he was doing and the effect likely
+to be produced by the introduction of this number of highly trained
+men-at-arms among a population which, although brave and warlike,
+lacked the elements of organisation for the defence of their city.
+
+So it was that, all preparations being completed, he stood along the
+coast anchoring out of sight of his objective, but close enough to
+reach it by midnight after darkness had fallen. He had every confidence
+in himself, an absolute trust in the hardbitten fighters whom he was
+about to lead; success or failure now rested in the hands of traitors
+within the city.
+
+“Faith unfaithful kept them falsely true,” for when Dragut and his
+followers arrived at a certain rendezvous outside the walls which had
+been agreed upon previously, there they found Ibrahim Amburac and
+his men ready to assist them in scaling this obstacle. It will be
+remembered that Ibrahim Amburac was personally in charge of one
+of the towers with which the walls were guarded, and thus his task
+of aiding those who came from without was a singularly easy one. But
+even at midnight the passage of five hundred men could not remain long
+undiscovered as they clambered in over the walls. Soon an alarm was
+raised and the “Africans” rushed to arms and hurried to the quarter
+from which danger threatened. The townsmen were well armed and brave,
+also they were numerous; but it was the old story of the break-up of
+undisciplined valour by highly organised attack.
+
+In the choking heat of the African night townsmen and corsairs wrestled
+in deadly conflict hand to hand and foot to foot; but these untrained
+landsmen stood but a poor chance against the picked fighting men of the
+Moslem galleys who had been inured to bloodshed from their earliest
+youth and trained by such a master in the art of war as Dragut. That
+warrior, his great curved scimitar red to the hilt, the blood dripping
+from a gash in his cheek, his clothing torn and in disarray, followed
+by a gigantic negro bearing a flaming torch, was ever in the thickest
+of the fray. Behind him his lieutenants Othman and Selim strove to
+emulate his prowess, while all around surged his devoted band of
+fanatics.
+
+“Allah! Allah!” and “Dragut! Dragut!” pealed the war-cry of the
+corsairs; foot by foot and yard by yard that spearhead of dauntless
+dare-devils pressed onwards into the packed masses of the “Africans,”
+who, fighting stubbornly, nevertheless were borne back by the fury of
+the terrible onslaught.
+
+Torch-bearers among the pirates leaped into houses and set them ablaze,
+the flames volleyed and crackled, the dense smoke rolled upwards to the
+stainless sky, the night was a hell of blood and fire.
+
+There was a sharp order repeated and passed on, the corsairs drew
+back, and the “Africans” shouted that the triumph was theirs; but they
+little knew Dragut, the sea-hawk who poised to strike anew. A blazing
+beam dropped across the street, the townsfolk shouted in insult and
+derision; but the joy which they had experienced at seeing their
+adversaries recoil was but a short and fleeting emotion. Giving himself
+and those who had hitherto been engaged time to breathe and recover
+themselves, Dragut waited while the noise of the strife died down,
+and nought was heard but the roar of the flames and the crash of the
+burning buildings.
+
+The leader turned to his followers, among whom dwelt an ominous
+silence. “Dost remember Prevesa,” he cried, “when Andrea Doria and the
+best of the Christian warriors fled before you like sheep before a dog:
+are these miserable townsmen to stay your onward march?”
+
+There remained for an appreciable period after he had spoken a tense
+silence; the red light from the burning houses shone on the lean faces
+alight with the fierce fire of fanaticism, with an inextinguishable
+lust of slaughter. There came an answering frenetic roar, “Lead!
+Lead! Dragut! Dragut! Dragut!” It was enough: the corsair had tried
+the temper of the steel, he had now but to use the edge. There was an
+ordered movement on the part of the pirates: a fresh hundred men,
+who had hitherto taken no part in the combat, now pressed to the front
+and formed the advance, those who had been before engaged now forming
+the supports; that which had been the shaft of the spear now forming
+its head. With Dragut leading, these fresh unwounded men swept forward
+over the burning beam; irresistible as some mighty river in spate,
+these disciplined ruffians, headed by this master spirit, burst through
+the ill-organised resistance opposed to them, and slew and slew and
+slew.
+
+Behind them, alert and wary, came the supports, asking no quarter and
+giving none, cutting up the wounded, trampling under foot friend and
+foe alike who fell in the weltering shambles which marked the onward
+path of their leader and the advanced party. Very soon the broken hosts
+of the “Africans” cried piteously for mercy; the fight was over, and
+Dragut-Reis, wounded, breathless, but victorious, stood master of the
+strongest place of arms in all the continent of Africa. It is true that
+treachery had given him his opportunity, but once that was obtained
+the rest he had done for himself: the stealthy advance by sea, the
+midnight march to the exact spot on the walls where he was awaited by
+Ibrahim Amburac, the marshalling of his five hundred for the conflict,
+and the actual conduct of the fight itself, were all to the credit of
+this apt pupil of the great Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, As warriors his
+followers were worthy of their leader: defeated the corsairs frequently
+were, but, in the combats in which they engaged, they were frequently,
+as we have seen in the course of this story, largely dependent
+upon auxiliaries in whom no trust could be placed; and at Prevesa, at
+the siege of Malta, and later on at the battle of Lepanto, the spot
+on which they fought, were it on the land or on the sea, was ever
+the one which formed the nucleus of resistance. It was not only that
+fighting was their particular trade; that, of course, might be said
+also of any man who trailed a pike or carried an arquebus and marched
+in the ranks of Spain, France, Genoa, or Venice. In the case of the
+sea-wolves it was the perpetual practice in the art of war, as it was
+then understood, that caused them to be the men that they were. Much of
+their fighting could hardly be dignified by such a name, as in their
+everlasting raids on villages and undefended places they seldom lost
+many of their number: when, however, it came to the real thing, as it
+did on the occasion we have just recounted, the long years of training
+told, and opposition had to be strong indeed if it were not to be
+beaten down by such a leader as Dragut, by such men as his picked five
+hundred.
+
+What passed between Dragut and the council of “Africa,” who in so
+unqualified a manner had refused that warrior as a citizen, is not on
+record; all that we know is that the Moslem leader dispensed with their
+services, and did not invite his new fellow-townsmen to share with him
+the burden of government. There was hurry in the administration of the
+corsair states, as the form of rule which they adopted was apt to irk
+the rulers in Christendom. In this particular instance Dragut, having
+expelled the Spaniards from the coast towns, knew that a reckoning with
+the Emperor and his militant admiral, Andrea Doria, was but a matter
+of time, and, in all probability, of a very short time.
+
+Promptly, hurriedly, but efficiently, the corsair organised his
+new possession: such laws as he decreed did not err on the side of
+tenderness towards a people so ungrateful as to have refused his
+protection in the first instance, and who had only accepted the gift
+at the point of the sword. His nephew Aisa, a man young in years but a
+past-graduate in the school of his terrible uncle, was left in charge,
+while Dragut himself sailed once more with his fleet, for, as it is put
+by the Spanish historian Marmol, “truly the sea was his element.”
+
+Once again had a Moslem corsair bid defiance to that ruler whom
+Sandoval and Marmol in their histories greet by the name of the “Modern
+Cæsar.” It was told to Charles that Susa, Sfax, and Monastir had
+fallen, that “Africa” was in the hands of the corsairs; “was he never
+to be free from these pestilent knaves,” he demanded of his trembling
+courtiers? Hot-foot came the couriers from Charles to Andrea Doria,
+with orders to take Dragut dead or alive, but alive for choice; and up
+and down the tideless sea in the summer of 1549 did the great Genoese
+seaman range in search of the bold corsair. Doria was getting a very
+old man now, but his eye was undimmed, his strength yet tireless, his
+vigilance and zeal in the service of his master unabated.
+
+Dead or alive, great was the reward offered for the capture of Dragut,
+but the veteran admiral required no stimulus of this sort to urge
+him to put forth his utmost endeavours, to strain every nerve and
+sinew in the chase. All his life he had been fighting the corsairs,
+mostly with conspicuous success; but what Andrea could never forget—and
+what his enemies never allowed him to forget even had he been so
+inclined—was the fact that, at the supreme crisis of his valiant life,
+when he met with Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa at the battle of Prevesa, he
+had come off so badly that his under officers of the Papal and Venetian
+fleets had made representations, on their return to their respective
+headquarters, which had detracted from his fame, and lowered him in the
+estimation of Europe. Further than this, he knew that Barbarossa had
+laughed at and made game of him among his wild followers: this to the
+aristocrat, the Prince of Oneglia, the admiral who treated on almost
+equal terms with such men as the Pope, Charles of Spain, and Francis of
+France, was an insult hard to be borne; the next corsair with whom he
+should meet should not escape so easily as had Kheyr-ed-Din, that the
+admiral had sworn.
+
+Personal pique and vanity, racial detestation, and religious fanaticism
+were in his case all allied together to spur him on in the chase of
+this the last of the Emperor’s foes; but, search as he might, during
+that summer Doria could never get on to the track of Dragut. The
+corsairs, as we have just remarked, were fine fighters on occasion when
+it was necessary for the purposes of loot, or of escape from those
+who, like Doria, interfered with their particular method of gaining a
+livelihood; but, on the other hand, they were no fools, they did not
+covet hard knocks and the possibility of defeat from such a one as
+the admiral of the Emperor, when by the exercise of a little ingenuity
+they could keep out of his way. Dragut was not going to fight a general
+action at sea merely to please Doria; in this summer his luck stood to
+him, and he never came across this man, who, with a sombre hatred in
+his heart, was seeking him high and low. If the corsair were bold as a
+lion when occasion offered, he was no less as slippery as an eel when
+he desired to escape; to face twenty-two royal galleys with Doria in
+command was no part of his programme. An occasion might arise when he
+would be forced to action; should this happen Dragut had not forgotten
+his four years in the galley of Jannetin Doria, the nephew of the
+admiral, and next time he intended to fight to win. Just at present the
+Christian admiral was in too great strength for him to do aught but
+keep out of his way, and much to Andrea’s annoyance this was what he
+succeeded in doing.
+
+Doria got information that Dragut was at Monastir, information that was
+perfectly correct; but by this time the corsair knew that not only had
+he raised all Christendom, but that the admiral was on his track. In
+consequence, he slipped out of Monastir, “for,” as it is pithily put by
+Marmol, “our corsair cared not to be shut up in so defenceless a port;
+he had good heels and loved sea-room.”
+
+Dragut did not fear for his new possession, “Africa,” as he knew
+that Doria had not sufficient force to attack so formidable a place;
+therefore, leaving it to its destiny and the valour and conduct
+of his nephew Aisa, on whom he knew that he could rely, “he went,”
+according to the chronicler, “on his old trade making Horrid
+Devastations on the coast of Spain and its islands.”
+
+While Dragut was pursuing his “Horrid Devastations,” Doria was not
+idle, but was ranging the northern coast of Africa in his fruitless
+search; in the course of this he landed at Cape Bona, on which was the
+castle of Calibia, held by the corsairs; these men, who were a portion
+of Dragut’s following, made a most valiant defence; they were, however,
+few in number, and when their captain was killed by the ball from an
+arquebus they surrendered. Encouraged by this success, the Christian
+fleet then stood along the coast to inspect “Africa.” Sailing quite
+close to the shore they came within range of the guns of the garrison,
+who, under the direction of Aisa, were very much on the alert. As the
+admiral’s galley at the head of the line passed the walls of the town,
+she was received with a hot fire, and one large cannonball struck
+the stern of Doria’s ship, doing considerable structural damage, and
+killing five of his men. This occurrence took place in broad daylight
+in full view of all the garrison, who signalled their delight at the
+discomfiture of their foes by the noise of cymbals and atambours, and
+by wild and ferocious yells. Doria, who was in no position to land and
+make reprisals, fell into the greatest paroxysm of fury, and we are
+told that “he swore the destruction of that detested city.”
+
+The season being now advanced, Doria returned home, where he found
+orders awaiting him from Charles that preparation was to be made for
+the capture of “Africa”. While the admiral was in harbour, Dragut,
+finding the seas open to him once more, returned from his “Horrid
+Devastations,” and employed his time profitably in throwing provisions
+and men into the city, which he knew would be beleagured in the
+following year.
+
+During the ensuing winter Doria, in conjunction with the viceroys of
+Naples and Sicily, prepared the expedition which was to accomplish not
+only the capture of “Africa,” but what was, in his opinion, equally
+important, the destruction of Dragut-Reis, Early in the spring of 1550,
+all was in readiness, and the armada of Charles sailed from Palermo
+to Trapani, where it met with the forces of Don Juan de Vega, Viceroy
+of Sicily, those of Don Garcia de Toledo, the son of the Viceroy of
+Naples, and likewise the Maltese squadron. The galleys, accompanied by
+a fleet of transports, set sail early in June, and on the 20th of that
+month landed an army a little to the east of Mehedia or “Africa”.
+
+It must be remembered that the inhabitants of Mehedia were by no means
+enamoured of Dragut-Reis and his piratical followers: King Stork had
+succeeded to King Log, the part of the former monarch being taken by
+that singularly capable and ferocious person, Aisa, whose rule was far
+from being to the liking of the richer and more respectable portion of
+the townsfolk.
+
+When, therefore, Andrea Doria and his captains laid siege to the city,
+they murmured against its defence, desiring ardently to enter into some
+sort of treaty with the besiegers; they had had enough of war, they
+said, and wished to end their days in peace if possible.
+
+Aisa Reis, however, would hear no word of surrender, telling those who
+murmured against the defence that “if he heard a word more of these
+plots he would infallibly sacrifice every mother’s son amongst them,
+and then lay the town in ashes.” Having already had a taste of the
+quality of this redoubtable corsair, and feeling perfectly certain
+that should the occasion arise he would be as good as his word, there
+was no more disaffection among the inhabitants, who had to put up with
+their native place being made a cockpit for Doria and Dragut to fight
+out their quarrel. It is permissible to sympathise very sincerely with
+these unfortunates, who, having been betrayed in the first instance,
+were compelled to stand a siege in the second.
+
+Aisa had a picked force of his uncle’s men, some seventeen hundred
+foot and six hundred horse, all seasoned and formidable veterans,
+inured to warfare by land and sea. On these of course he could rely to
+the death. The common folk of the town were inclined to make common
+cause with the corsairs in resistance to their hereditary enemy the
+Christians; but the magistrates and members of the council, the grave
+and reverend signiors, held so conspicuously aloof that Aisa was
+constrained into forcing them to aid in the defence when he had time
+to attend to the matter. As Dragut was not actually present at the
+siege it falls outside the scope of this chronicle; he was without
+the walls when the besiegers arrived, but all that he could do, that
+he did. With a body of his own men reinforced by a rabble rout of
+Berber tribesmen, he harassed the Christian army; they were, however,
+in far too great numbers for him to make any impression, and after
+several desperate skirmishes he recognised that the day was lost, and
+re-embarking in his galleys sailed away. The town after a desperate and
+prolonged resistance was at last taken by storm; and Doria captured
+Aisa, a Turkish alcaid, and ten thousand prisoners of the baser sort.
+Of these, however, there was scarce one who owed allegiance to Dragut;
+the warriors of this chief neither gave nor accepted quarter, as they
+feared the wrath of the terrible corsair even more than death itself.
+
+Don Juan de Vega put his son Don Alvaro in command of the city and set
+out in search of Dragut with twenty galleys, but the sea leaves no
+traces by which a fugitive can be tracked, and his search proved as
+fruitless as had been that of Doria in the previous year. The rage and
+the disappointment of the admiral were beyond all bounds; what to him
+was the value of the capture of Aisa, of the Turkish alcaid, of the ten
+thousand of the baser sort; nay, what to him was the value of “Africa”
+itself when once again like a mocking spirit Dragut had glided beyond
+the sea horizon to devastate, to plunder, and to slay once more, the
+scourge and the menace of Christendom.
+
+It will be interesting to record briefly the fate of this city which we
+have seen taken and retaken. Don Alvaro de Vega remained as governor
+till the end of July, 1551, when his place was taken by Don Sancho de
+Leyva; at which time there took place one of those curious military
+mutinies so characteristic of the sixteenth century. The soldiers,
+unpaid for months, possibly for years, mutinied, expelled the
+governor and other officers, even the sergeants, from the city, and
+placed themselves under the direction of a stout soldier called Antonio
+de Aponte, to whom they gave the title of “Electo Mayor.”
+
+Don Sancho repaired to Brussels to report matters to the Emperor,
+and during his absence a circumstance which is also singularly
+characteristic of this faithless epoch took place, for the Prior of
+Capua, then general of the French galleys, entered into negotiations
+with the mutineers for the surrender of the city to the French King.
+
+Bluff Antonio de Aponte would have none of this treachery; he held
+the city for the Emperor Charles and only wanted his pay. Eventually
+a mutiny within a mutiny was fomented from without, and with the
+mutineers divided the Emperor regained possession of the city; some of
+the mutineers were hanged, and Aponte, who had been captured by the
+Turks, died at Constantinople.
+
+The Emperor offered “Africa” to the Knights of Malta with a yearly
+allowance of twenty-four thousand ducats; the Knights refused, much to
+the chagrin of Charles, who gave orders for its complete destruction.
+This was accomplished by blowing up with gunpowder the walls, towers,
+and fortifications which Al-Mehedi, after whom the city had been
+named, “had erected with such art and strength, and had his mind so
+fixed upon that work that he used to say, ‘If I thought building these
+fortifications with iron and brass would render them more durable, I
+would certainly do it.’”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+DRAGUT-REIS
+
+
+  How Dragut was blockaded in the Island of Jerbah—How he
+  left Andrea Dona “with the dog to hold”—His return to
+  Constantinople, and how he sailed from thence with a
+  great expedition against the Knights of Malta.
+
+Charles V. had “smoked out the fox,” but his admiral in so doing had
+not succeeded in capturing that remarkably wily animal; for Dragut was
+not only still at liberty, but was burning for revenge on those by
+whom he had been dispossessed. He had lost “his city,” as he called
+“Africa”; he had lost two thousand five hundred men—among them some
+of the fiercest and most experienced of his corsairs; he had lost ten
+thousand slaves, representing a large sum of money, and much wealth
+besides. The corsair, however, was not one of those who merely sit
+down and repine; for him strenuous and continued action was the law
+of his being, and he at once repaired to Constantinople. Here he was
+well known as an adroit and skilful seaman and a most determined enemy
+of the Christians, and, in consequence, was not only certain of a
+welcome, but of substantial help as well, if he could but win over
+the Grand Turk to take the same view of his grievances as he did
+himself. In reality, the corsairs, as we have seen, played the game of
+the Padishah, as a rule, at no expense to that potentate; when they
+were in trouble he was therefore by no means indisposed to render them
+assistance.
+
+Dragut, like all the sea-wolves, was fond of money, fonder still of
+what money could buy; he now hankered after revenge as the sweetest
+morsel that his hoarded ducats could procure for him. That the Sultan
+was well disposed to him he had every reason to think; none the less
+did he spend royally among the venal favourites of the Court in order
+that nothing might be left undone to inflame the ardour of Soliman
+against those whom he considered to be his hereditary foes.
+
+With such skill and address did the corsair manage his suit that he
+prevailed upon the Sultan to address a letter to Charles demanding the
+immediate return of the towns of Susa, Sfax, Monastir, and “Africa.”
+This, of course, meant war; as Charles immediately replied that these
+places were dependencies of the King of Tunis, and that that ruler was
+under his special protection; further that they were his by right of
+conquest; finally that the matter was no concern whatever of the Sultan
+of Constantinople. The stern and imperious Christian Emperor was in no
+mood to brook interference, the more so that he discerned plainly that
+though the demand was that of Soliman, the mover in the affair was none
+other than Dragut. He therefore by way of a rider to his answer to the
+Sultan informed that monarch that these places which he had taken on
+the coast of Africa had been reft by him “from one Dragut, a corsair
+odious to both God and man”; that without in any way departing from
+the treaty which he had made with Soliman “he intended to pursue this
+pirate whithersoever he might go.”
+
+Whether or no this denunciation of Dragut had any influence on the
+Sultan it is impossible to say; he was in the habit of employing
+the corsairs, and apparently cared nothing about their piratical
+reputation, so long as their depredations were confined to Christian
+vessels. Shortly after the receipt of the answer of Charles, however,
+the Sultan conferred upon Dragut the title of Sandjak or governor of
+the island of Santa Maura, thus constituting him a Turkish official.
+
+Once again was Andrea Doria ordered to put to sea to fight against
+neither small nor great save Dragut alone; he was to take him dead or
+alive, but alive for choice, in order that he might be made to answer
+at the bar of Christian justice for all the atrocities committed by
+him both by land and sea. The corsair had returned in the meanwhile
+to Jerbah, an island on the east coast of Tunis much affected by the
+sea-wolves, and which in contemporary histories is known as Jerbah, as
+Los Gelues (by the Spanish writers), as Gelves, and various other names
+which greatly confuse its identity.
+
+Doria put to sea with twenty-two royal galleys before Dragut was aware
+of the fact. The Genoese admiral heard that his prey was at Jerbah;
+he repaired thither without losing a moment, found that he had been
+correctly informed, and anchored at the mouth of the harbour, at a
+place known as La Bocca de Cantara. Dragut was completely hemmed
+in, Doria was in such strength that he could not, reckless as he
+was, attempt to force the passage. But as the hour came the spirit
+of the corsair rose to answer the challenge: it was one thing to get
+Dragut-Reis into a trap, it was quite another to keep him there.
+Accordingly, he assembled all his troops, dragged cannon to the mouth
+of the harbour, and opened so brisk a foe on the Christian ships as to
+compel them to haul out of range. These tactics left Doria unaffected;
+there was but one way out of the harbour, and he felt quite convinced
+that when Dragut had had enough of starvation he would either surrender
+or else fight a hopeless action. The admiral surveyed his anchored
+fleet with a contented mind; his enemy had been delivered into his
+hand, he had nothing to do now but wait for that final triumph of
+appearing before his master the Emperor with the famous corsair as his
+prisoner. He saw a great fort rising before his very eyes at the mouth
+of the harbour, and merely smiled serenely; he sent off to Sicily and
+Naples for reinforcements in order that when the psychological moment
+should arise he might crush the corsair stronghold so thoroughly that
+it should never rise again. In the despatches which he sent he said
+“the fox is trapped”—“which news rejoiced all parts of Christendom, and
+most powerful succours came daily flocking to the seaports from every
+quarter; so eager were the sufferers to revenge themselves on this so
+much dreaded corsair.”
+
+The history of what now happened is given by Don Luys de Marmol
+Caravajal in his “Descripcion general de Affrica,” which was printed
+in Granada, “en casa de Rene Rabat impresor de libros año de 1573,” or
+only some twenty years or so after these occurrences; it is set forth
+in his chapter entitled “Como Andrea Doria fue en buscar de these
+occurrences; it is set forth in his chapter Dragut Arraez.” We have
+also the authority of that eminent historian, M. L’Abbé de Vertot.
+
+Captain Juan Vasquez Coronado journeyed to Naples carrying with him
+letters from Andrea Doria to Don Pedro de Toledo, requesting that the
+Viceroy would send him all the galleys in Naples, carrying as many
+soldiers as possible, pointing out that he had Dragut in a trap, from
+which he could not possibly escape, but that this time he wished to
+make security doubly secure. Letters to the same purport were also sent
+to Don Juan de Vega, the Viceroy of Sicily, and to Marco Centurion at
+the admiral’s own city of Genoa. Doria was leaving nothing to chance
+this time. Meanwhile, great earthworks had been thrown up at the Bocca
+de Cantara at the entrance of the harbour by Dragut, and any ship which
+approached within range was most furiously bombarded. This served
+to amuse Andrea Doria, who, confident that the jaws of the trap had
+closed, kept a sharp look-out for vessels issuing from the harbour, but
+otherwise concerned himself not at all about the entrenchments. Was
+not Naples humming with the note of preparation? Would not the Genoese
+come in their thousands to the summons of their renowned chieftain?
+Could not the Viceroy of Sicily be trusted to work his best to gain the
+favour of his Imperial master?
+
+“Time and I are two” was the favourite expression of King Philip
+II. of Spain; the same idea might have crossed the mind of Doria on
+this memorable occasion. He had only to wait; the longer he waited the
+more secure he would be of success, the more certain would he be of
+the complete undoing of his enemy. But even yet the admiral did not
+know the man to whom he was opposed; in all the years in which he had
+done battle against Dragut, he had never gauged the limitless resource
+and calculated audacity of this lineal successor of Kheyr-ed-Din
+Barbarossa. While the admiral had been sending his despatches, and
+idly watching that which he considered to be the futile construction
+of earthworks on the shore at the Bocca de Cantara, his enemy was
+preparing for him that surprise which was shortly afterwards to make of
+him the laughing-stock of the whole of Europe. Dragut was in a trap,
+and he was quite aware of the fact; by way of the Bocca de Cantara
+escape was impossible, and neither a tame surrender nor complete
+annihilation was by any means to the taste of the pirate leader. Had
+Doria gone in and attacked at once, the fate of the corsair had been
+sealed; the policy of delay adopted by the Christian admiral was his
+salvation.
+
+A man less able, less determined, than Dragut, might well have
+despaired; but he brought to bear on the problem with which he was
+confronted all the subtlety of his nature, all the resourcefulness
+of the born seaman that he was. His mind had been made up from the
+very beginning: the earthworks at the Bocca de Cantara, the movements
+of troops, the furious cannonading, had all been nothing but a blind
+to hide the real design which he had in view. In addition to his
+fighting men he had at his command some two thousand islanders,
+stout Mohammedans to a man, ready and willing to assist him in his
+design of cheating the Christians of their prey. Day and night, with
+ceaseless silent toil, had garrison and islanders been at work on the
+scheme which the leader had devised. From the head of the harbour
+Dragut had caused a road to be made right across the island to the
+sea on the opposite side: on this road he caused planks to be laid,
+bolted to sleepers and then thickly greased. The vessels of the day
+were of course comparatively speaking light, and capable of being
+manhandled, supposing that you had sufficient hands. At dead of night
+Dragut assembled his forces, and before morning every galley, galeasse,
+and brigantine had been dragged across the island and launched in the
+sea on the opposite side. There was then nothing left to do but to
+embark stores, guns, and ammunition and to sail quietly away, and this
+was what happened. Once again Dragut faded away beyond the skyline,
+“leaving Andrea Doria with the dog to hold,” in the quaint language of
+the chronicler of these events, Don Luys de Marmol Caravajal.
+
+Not only did the indefatigable corsair get clear away without any
+suspicion on the part of the admiral, but his first act on gaining the
+open sea was to capture the _Patrona_ galley sent from Sicily by Don Juan
+de Vega to say that reinforcements were on the road. In this ill-fated
+craft was Buguer, the son of Muley Hassan, King of Tunis, who was
+sent as prize to Soliman at Constantinople, where the Sultan caused
+him to be shut up in the “Torre del Mar Negro.” Here he remained
+till he died, as a punishment for that he, a Mussulman, had aided the
+Christians.
+
+Never again was Dragut to be in such sore straits as he was on this
+occasion at the island of Jerbah, when, by sheer wit and cunning, he
+escaped from the trap in which he had been held by Doria. What the
+emotions of the admiral must have been when he found that once again
+he had been fooled, it is not difficult to imagine, as by no possible
+means could the story be hushed up; and, in spite of the annoyance
+of Christendom generally at the escape of Dragut, no one could help
+admiring his extraordinary cleverness, or roaring with laughter at the
+discomfiture of Doria and the viceroys of Naples and Sicily.
+
+Dragut now returned to Constantinople to receive congratulations
+upon his escape, and to take part in a fresh design of stirring up
+the Sultan against the Christians. All who professed this faith were
+naturally obnoxious to the corsair; but his private and personal hatred
+was entirely directed against the Knights of Malta, with whom he had
+been at war all his life. The present preoccupation of the Sultan was
+to regain the towns on the coast of Africa which had been taken by
+the Spaniards; but it was represented to him by Dragut that “until he
+had smoked out this nest of vipers he could do no good anywhere.” The
+Bashaws and the Divan, heavily bribed by the corsair, held the same
+language, until Soliman heard of nothing from morning till night but
+the ill deeds of the Knights of Malta. They were represented to him as
+corsairs who ruined his commerce and defeated his armadas, who let
+slip no opportunity of harrying the Moslem wheresoever he was to be
+found. In this there was more than a grain of truth, as we shall see
+when we come to the next chapter, which will be devoted to a sketch of
+this militant order. Suffice it to say here that the Knights fought for
+what they termed “the Religion” (it was in this manner they designated
+their confederacy), and to harry and enslave the Mussulman, to destroy
+him as a noxious animal wherever he was to be found, was the reason for
+which they existed. It is true that they plundered not for individual
+gain, but many was the rich prize towed into Malta past St. Elmo and
+the ominously named “Punta delle Forche” (the “Point of the Gallows,”
+where all captured pirates were hanged), the proceeds of which went to
+the enrichment of the Order; to buy themselves the wherewithal to fight
+with the Mahommedan again.
+
+The abuse of the Knights fell upon sympathetic ears; in his early days
+Soliman the Magnificent had expelled the Knights from Rhodes; since
+then Charles V. had given them the islands of Malta and Gozo, and the
+town of Tripoli in Barbary as their abiding place; from Malta they
+had never ceased their warfare against the corsairs, and incidentally
+against the Sultan and his subjects. Therefore, in this year 1551,
+Soliman ordained that an expedition should be prepared with the object
+of crushing once and for all these troublers of the peace of Islam.
+The preparations were on so large a scale that very soon it became
+noised abroad in Europe that something really serious was in the wind:
+in Constantinople, however, men kept their own counsel; it was ill
+talking of the affairs of the Padishah, and, further than that, beyond
+Dragut and the proposed leaders of the expedition, the Sultan took
+no one into his confidence. Charles V., well served as he was by his
+spies, was as much in the dark as to the destination of this new armada
+as were humbler folk; in it he recognised the hand of Dragut again,
+and Doria had standing orders to catch that mischievous person if he
+could. At present, however, there was no chance of so desirable a thing
+happening, as Dragut was superintending the fitting out of the new
+expedition at Constantinople.
+
+Anxious and suspicious of the designs of the Turks, Charles ordered a
+concentration of his fleet at Messina.
+
+The Grand Master of the Knights of Malta at this time was a Spaniard,
+one Juan d’Omedes; he was, says de Vertot, “un Grand Maître Espagnol,”
+meaning by this that he was completely under the domination of the
+Emperor and ready at any time to place the galleys of “the Religion”
+under the orders of that monarch. The Knights, like every one else,
+had watched with anxiety the preparation of this great expedition in
+Constantinople, and when the Grand Master proposed to send the galleys
+of the Order to join forces with Doria at Messina, there was great
+dissatisfaction at the Council Board. That which it behoved them to
+do, the members informed the Grand Master, was not to help a great
+potentate like Charles, but to make provision for their own security
+by attending to their fortifications, which were in anything but a
+satisfactory condition. D’Omedes maintained that this expedition was
+destined to serve with the King of France against the Emperor, and
+that Malta was not the objective. He accordingly sent away the galleys
+of “the Religion” under the Chevalier “Iron-Foot,” the General of the
+Galleys, to join the fleet which had its rendezvous at Messina. Hardly
+had he done so when news came from the Levant that the fleet of the
+Grand Turk was at sea heading for Sicily. The fleet was composed of
+one hundred and twelve royal galleys, two great galeasses, and a host
+of brigantines and transport vessels. Sinan-Reis was in command with
+twelve thousand Janissaries, numerous pioneers and engineers, and all
+the necessary appliances for a siege.
+
+The embarkation of so large a number of Janissaries was the measure of
+the serious purpose of the expedition, as the Sultan did not readily
+part with the men of this _corps d’élite_ unless he was in person taking
+the command. It may be as well to explain here exactly what the
+Janissaries were, and it cannot be better done than by an extract from
+the famous historian Prescott:
+
+“The most remarkable of the Turkish institutions, the one which may
+be said to have formed the keystone of the system, was that relating
+to the Christian population of the Empire. Once in five years a
+general conscription was made by means of which all the children of
+Christian parents who had reached the age of seven and gave promise of
+excellence in mind or body were taken from their homes and brought to
+the capital. They were then removed to different quarters and placed
+in seminaries where they might receive such instruction as would fit
+them for the duties of life. Those giving greatest promise of
+strength and endurance were sent to places prepared for them in Asia
+Minor. Here they were subjected to a severe training, to abstinence,
+to privations of every kind, and to the strict discipline which should
+fit them for the profession of a soldier. From this body was formed the
+famous corps of the Janissaries.... Their whole life may be said to
+have been passed in war or in preparation for it. Forbidden to marry,
+they had no families to engage their affections, which, as with the
+monks and friars of Christian countries, were concentrated in their
+own order, whose prosperity was inseparably connected with that of
+the State. Proud of the privileges which distinguished them from the
+rest of the army, they seemed desirous to prove their title to them
+by their thorough discipline and by their promptness to execute the
+most dangerous and difficult services. Clad in their flowing robes, so
+little suited to war, armed with the arquebus and the scimitar—in their
+hands more than a match for the pike or sword of the European—with
+the heron’s plume waving above their head, their dense array might
+ever be seen bearing down in the thickest of the fight; and more than
+once when the fate of the Empire trembled in the balance it was this
+invincible corps which turned the scale, and by their intrepid conduct
+decided the fortune of the day. Gathering fresh reputation with age,
+so long as their discipline remained unimpaired they were a match for
+the best soldiers in Europe. But in time this admirable organisation
+experienced a change. One Sultan allowed them to marry; another to
+bring their sons into the corps; a third opened the ranks to Turks as
+well as Christians; until, forfeiting their peculiar character, the
+Janissaries became confounded with the militia of the Empire. These
+changes occurred in the time of Philip the Second.”
+
+But to resume: just before the sailing of the galleys of “the Religion”
+from Malta there had arrived in that island from France the famous
+Chevalier, the Commandeur de Villegagnon. This great noble told the
+Grand Master to his face that he was neglecting his duty, that the
+expedition of the Grand Turk was bound for Malta and Tripoli: further,
+that he was charged by Anne de Montmorency, Constable and First
+Minister of France, to advise the Grand Master that this armament was
+directed against “the Religion.” The interview between the Grand Master
+and de Villegagnon took place at a chapter of the Grand Crosses of the
+Order; when the Commandeur had finished speaking, he was coldly thanked
+by D’Omedes, who then bowed him out. Turning to the Knights Grand
+Cross he said with a sneer, “Either this Frenchman is the dupe of the
+Constable or he wishes to make us his.” He then proceeded to give at
+length the reasons why Soliman would not direct so huge an expedition
+against “the Religion.” Many of the Knights dissented vehemently from
+his conclusions, but D’Omedes refused to listen to their arguments.
+Even advices which arrived on July 13th, representing that the armada
+was moving southwards devastating the Italian ports, did not move him
+from his obstinate pre-occupation; till on July 16th the arrival of the
+Ottoman fleet put an end to all speculation.
+
+The armada which had sailed from Constantinople was under the command
+of Sinan Basha: but he had explicit orders that he was to take no
+important step without first consulting Dragut, who was nominally his
+lieutenant. It was well for the Knights that on this occasion the
+corsair was not in supreme command; had this been the case the islands
+must have been taken, as no preparations had been made to repulse an
+attack in force, and Juan D’Omedes was a Grand Master who excited
+little enthusiasm either among the Knights or the inhabitants. The
+choice of Sinan was not one which did great credit to the penetration
+of the Sultan. Let us explain. We are all of us conscious at one time
+or another of a desire to express some fact in the fewest possible
+words; to place the transaction or the circumstance which we wish
+to describe in the searchlight of truth in so undeniable a fashion
+that the illumination consequent upon this mental effort of our own
+shall throw up our meaning in immediate relief on the intelligences
+of those whom we address. This attribute is possessed by but few even
+among great writers—indeed, some historic sayings which have come
+down to us have not emanated from the writing fraternity at all, but
+from soldiers, sailors, statesmen, and other busy men of affairs.
+The quality which distinguishes a man of action above all others is
+fearlessness of responsibility; the possession of sufficient greatness
+of soul and of moral fibre to seize upon an opportunity and to make
+the most thereof when an occasion arises which has not been foreseen
+by those in authority over him. But far more often in the history
+of the world has it happened that brave and capable leaders have
+failed for the lack of the indefinable quality that separated their
+sterling merits from that absolute and real supremacy which marks the
+first-class man.
+
+How then is it possible to differentiate, to describe where and in
+what manner this luck occurs?
+
+Fortunately, this has been done for us in seven words by Seignelay, the
+Minister of Marine to Louis Quatorze in 1692. Speaking of Admiral de
+Tourville, who defeated the English and Dutch at the Battle of Beachy
+Head, July 10th, 1690, Seignelay says of him that he was “poltron
+de tête mais pas de coeur.” The judgment was just: de Tourville, as
+recklessly gallant as any French noble of them all, failed to live up
+to his responsibilities two years later at the Battle of La Hogue.
+Mahan says: “The caution in his pursuit of the Allies after Beachy
+Head, though so different in appearance, came from the same trait
+which impelled him two years later to lead his fleet to almost certain
+destruction at La Hogue because he had the King’s order in his pocket.
+He was brave enough to do anything, but not strong enough to bear the
+heaviest burdens.”
+
+We see the application of this truth in the period which we are
+considering; particularly is it borne in upon us in the case of the
+leaders of the Ottoman Turks. Serving as they did a despot of unlimited
+powers, failure in the success of his arms was apt to lead to the
+immediate and violent death of the man in command. If, therefore,
+precise instructions were issued, they were, as a rule, carried out
+to the letter; as in case of defeat an effort could be made to shift
+responsibility on to the shoulders of the Padishah. Failure owing to
+initiative was certain of prompt retribution; success complete and
+absolute would be the only justification for a departure from orders.
+
+Far otherwise was it with the Sea-wolves, who were a law to themselves
+and to themselves alone. Should they care “to place it on the hazard of
+a die to win or lose it all,” there was none to say them nay, there was
+no punishment save that of defeat. This it was that so often conduced
+to their success. Despots as were such men as Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa
+and Dragut, they were none the less dependent on the goodwill of their
+followers. If, therefore, they decided on a desperate enterprise, they
+appealed to the fighting instincts, the cupidity, and the fanaticism
+of these men. Should they succeed in gaining their good will for the
+attempt which they meditated, then all was well with them, and behind
+them was no grim sinister figure whose word was death and whose breath
+was destruction.
+
+Freed from all the trammels which bound the ordinary warrior of the day
+in which they lived, they were able, as we have seen, to go far; for
+the man in whom supreme ability is united to absolute unscrupulousness
+is the most dangerous foe of the human race. The despotism of the
+leaders among the sea-wolves was not theirs by right divine, as men
+considered it to be in the case of the Padishah; none the less in its
+practical application it was but little inferior to that wielded by
+the Sultan. For reasons of policy, the Sea-wolves allied themselves
+to the Grand Turk; for reasons of policy that monarch employed them
+and entrusted them with the conduct of important affairs. The bargain
+was really a good one on both sides; as to the sea-wolves was extended
+the ægis of one of the mightiest empires of the earth; while to
+the Sultan came “veritable men of the sea,” hardened in conflict, as
+fearless of responsibility as of aught else; capable in a sense that
+hardly any man could be capable who had grown up in the atmosphere of
+the court at Constantinople. To Kheyr-ed-Din the Sultan had extended
+his fullest confidence; he had been rewarded by seeing the renowned
+Doria forsake the field of battle at Prevesa, and by the perpetual
+slights and insults put upon his Christian foes by that great corsair.
+To Dragut he had now turned, and, as we have said, when Sinan Basha
+sailed from the Golden Horn he had orders to attempt nothing important
+without the advice of the corsair. It is impossible to say why the
+command-in-chief had not been entrusted to him, as the Sultan had the
+precedent of Kheyr-ed-Din upon which to go. It can only be conjectured
+that Soliman, having discovered how unpopular that appointment had been
+amongst his high officers, did not care to risk the experiment the
+second time; and in consequence employed Sinan. To this officer the
+aphorism of Seignelay applies in its fullest force. He was as brave a
+man as ever drew a sword in the service of his master; he was, however,
+a hesitating and incompetent leader, with one eye ever fixed on that
+distant palace on the shores of the Golden Horn in which dwelt the
+arbiter of his destiny and of all those who sailed beneath the banner
+of the Crescent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN
+
+The Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, afterwards known as the Knights
+of Rhodes, and eventually as the Knights of Malta—A brief sketch of the
+Order, including the relation of how Gozon de Dieu-Donné, subsequently
+Grand Master, slew the great Serpent of Rhodes; also some account of
+Jean Parisot de la Valette, forty-eighth Grand Master, who commanded at
+the Siege of Malta, in which the arms of Soliman the Magnificent were
+defeated after a siege lasting one hundred and thirteen days.
+
+Amongst all those principalities and powers against which Dragut
+contended during the whole of his strenuous existence, there was no
+one among them which he held in so much detestation as the famous
+Knights of Saint John, known in the sixteenth century as the Knights
+of Malta. This militant religious organisation had its origin in
+Jerusalem in peculiar and interesting circumstances. After the death
+of Mahomet, his followers, burning with zeal, put forward the tenets
+of their religion by means of fire and sword; during the years which
+followed the Hegira, 622 A.D., the arms of the Moslems were everywhere
+successful, and amongst other places conquered by them was Palestine.
+So great was the renown acquired by the Emperor Charlemagne that his
+fame passed even into Asia, and Eginard states that the Caliph
+Haroun Raschid permitted the French nation to maintain a house in
+Jerusalem for the reception of pilgrims visiting the holy places, and
+that, further, the Prince permitted the Patriarch of Jerusalem to send
+to the Christian Emperor, on his behalf, the keys of the Holy Sepulchre
+and those of the Church of Calvary, together with a standard which was
+the sign of the power and authority delegated by the Moslem ruler to
+his mighty contemporary. In the middle of the eleventh century Italian
+merchants coming from Amalfi, who had experienced the hard lot of the
+Christian pilgrims in reaching the Holy City, secured from the Caliph
+Moustafa-Billah a concession of land, on which they built a chapel
+known as St. Mary of the Latins, to distinguish it from the Greek
+church already established at Jerusalem, and also constructed a hospice
+in which to receive the pilgrims, whether in sickness or in health,
+known as the Hospice of St. John.
+
+In 1093 the untiring efforts of Peter the Hermit, with the support of
+Pope Urbain II., brought about the first Crusade, and in 1099 we first
+hear of Gerard, the founder of the Order of St. John. Gerard was a
+French monk who, seeing the good work done by the Hospice of St. John,
+had attached himself to it, and had at this time been working in the
+cause of charity, and devoting himself to the pilgrims for many years.
+
+Godfrey de Bouillon, having defeated the Saracens outside the walls
+of Jerusalem, entered that city and visited the Hospice of St. John;
+he there found many of the Crusaders who had been wounded during the
+siege, and who had been carried thither after the taking of the
+place: all of these men were loud in their praises of the loving
+kindness with which they had been received and tended.
+
+Great was the honour and reverence in which these simple monks were
+held ever after by the Crusaders; for was it not common talk that these
+holy men had themselves subsisted on the coarsest and most repulsive
+fare in order that the food in the hospice should be both pure and
+abundant? Fired by this fine example of Christian charity, several
+noble gentlemen who had been tended in the hospice gave up the idea of
+returning to their own countries, and consecrated themselves to the
+Hospice of St. John, and to the service of the pilgrims, the poor, and
+the sick. Among these was Raimond Dupuy.
+
+The great Prince Godfrey de Bouillon fully approved of the steps taken
+by these gentlemen, and for his own part contributed to the upkeep of
+the hospice the seigneurie of Montbirre, with all its dependencies,
+which formed a part of his domain in Brabant. His example was widely
+copied by the Christian princes and great nobles among the Crusaders,
+who enriched the hospice with many lands and seigneuries, both in
+Palestine and in Europe. All these lands and properties were placed
+unreservedly in the hands of the saintly Gerard to do with as he would
+for the advancement of his work. In 1118 Gerard died in extreme old
+age; “he died in the arms of the brothers, almost without sickness,
+falling, as it may be said, like a fruit ripe for eternity.”
+
+The choice of the Hospitallers as his successor was Raimond Dupuy,
+a nobleman of illustrious descent from the Province of Dauphiny, and
+it is he who first held rule under the title of Grand Master. In all
+charity and loving kindness the life of Gerard had been passed, the
+brethren of St. John occupying themselves merely in tending the sick,
+in helping the poor and the pilgrims; but Raimond Dupuy was a soldier
+of the Cross, and he laid before the Order a scheme by which, from
+among the members thereof, a military corps should be formed, vowed
+to a perpetual crusade against the Infidel. This, in full conclave,
+was carried by acclamation, and the most remarkable body of religious
+warriors that the world has ever seen then came existence.
+
+This pact against the Infidel was in the first instance directed
+against the barbarians who swarmed around the Holy City, and the
+Hospitallers, who nearly all had been knights and soldiers of Godfrey
+de Bouillon, joyfully took up their arms again to employ them in the
+defence of this locality which they cherished, and in defence of
+the pilgrims who were robbed, murdered, and maltreated in all the
+surrounding country. In becoming warriors once more, they vowed to turn
+their arms against the Infidel, and against him alone; to neither make
+nor meddle with arms in their hands in any dispute between men of their
+own faith. The composition of the Order as it was arranged by Raimond
+Dupuy caused it to consist of three classes. In the first were placed
+men of high birth and rank who, having been bred to arms, were capable
+of taking command. In the second came priests and chaplains, who,
+besides the ordinary duties attached to their religious profession,
+were obliged, each in his turn, to accompany the fighting men in
+their wars. Those who were neither of noble houses nor belonging to
+the ecclesiastical profession were known as “serving brothers”: they
+were employed indifferently in following the knights into battle or
+in tending the sick in the hospital, and were distinguished by a
+coat-of-arms of a different colour from that worn by the knights.
+
+As the Order prospered amazingly, and as to it repaired numbers of the
+young noblesse from all parts of Europe to enrol themselves under its
+banner, it was accordingly divided into seven “Languages”; those of
+Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Arragon, Germany, and England. To
+the Language of Arragon was in later years allotted those of Castile
+and of Portugal. The dress consisted of a black robe, with a mantle
+of the same colour, the whole being called _manteau à bec_, having upon
+the left side thereof a white cross in cloth, with light points. The
+eight-pointed cross, or the Maltese Cross, as it came to be known in
+subsequent centuries, will be seen upon the armour, engraven on the
+breastplate, of all the pictures of the Grand Masters.
+
+In the year 1259 the Pope, Alexander IV., finding that men of noble
+birth objected to be habited as were the “serving brothers,” ordained
+that the knights on a campaign should wear a “sopraveste” of scarlet
+embroidered with the cross in white; further, that should any knight
+abandon the ranks, and fly from the battle, he should be deprived
+of his order and his habit. The form of government was purely
+aristocratic, all authority being vested in the Council, of which
+the Grand Master was the chief, the case of an equal division of
+opinion being provided for by giving to the Grand Master the casting
+vote. There were in the Order certain aged knights who were called
+“Preceptors,” who, under authority delegated to them by the Council,
+administered the estates and funds accruing, and also paid for the hire
+of such soldiers or “seculars” whom the Knights took into their service.
+
+Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the establishment of the
+Knights of St. John led to the foundation of the famous Order of the
+Knights Templars. In 1118 Hugues de Payens, Geoffrey de St. Aldemar,
+and seven other French noblemen, whose hearts were touched by the
+sufferings which the pilgrims underwent in their journey to Jerusalem,
+formed themselves into a society with the object of the protection
+of these inoffensive persons on their transit from the coast inland.
+Hugues de Payens, received in audience by Pope Honoré II., was sent
+by the Pontiff to the Peers of the Council, then assembled at Troyes
+in Champagne; the Council approving of so charitable an enterprise,
+the Order was formed, and Bernard, known as “Saint” Bernard, drew up
+the code of regulations by which it was to be governed. The movement
+spread, and many princes and nobles returned to the Holy Land in the
+train of de Payens and his companions.
+
+So famous did the Order of St. John become, that in 1133 Alfonzo, King
+of Navarre and Arragon, who called himself Emperor of Spain, carried
+his zeal so far as to bequeath to the knights his kingdoms of Navarre
+and Arragon: this, however, was naturally and hotly contested in these
+places, and Raimond Dupuy, who attended a Council to regulate the
+matter, was content to compromise on certain lands and benefits being
+allocated to those whom he represented.
+
+On August 15th, 1310, the knights, under the Grand Master, Fulke de
+Villaret, conquered the Island of Rhodes and established themselves
+there, and from this time onward, while they held the island, were
+known as the Knights of Rhodes. No sooner were the knights firmly
+established in Rhodes and the fortifications placed in a proper
+state of repair, than a tower was built on the highest point of the
+island, of great height, from which a view could be obtained of the
+sea and the surrounding islands, and from which information could be
+signalled as to the movements of any vessels which were observed. It
+was then decided to fortify the small island of Cos or Lango in the
+vicinity, as it contained an excellent harbour; a fortress, planned
+by the Grand Master himself, was erected on the island, a knight was
+left in command, and we are told that under the successors of de
+Villaret—himself twenty-fourth Grand Master—the island, which was very
+fertile, flourished exceedingly, producing much fruit and some most
+excellent wine.
+
+There was reigning in Bithynia, at the time when the knights seized
+upon Rhodes, that Ottoman whose name has come down to us when we speak
+of the Ottoman Empire; it is a somewhat strange coincidence that
+the Christian warriors, sworn foes of the Mussulman, should have so
+established themselves just when the tide of the Mohammedan conquest
+was about to rise and sweep away Byzantium; that they should arrive
+upon the scene just as the curtain was about to rise on the tragedy
+which, in its onward march, was to make of the church of St. Sophia a
+mosque for the worship of the Ottoman Turks.
+
+Ottoman—the descendant of one Soliman, the chief of a nomadic tribe
+of Tartars who had been chased from the Empire of Persia in the year
+1214—was not only a soldier and a conqueror, but also a great and
+beneficent ruler in those regions in which he held sway. Approached
+by those of his co-religionists who had been driven out of Rhodes by
+the Knights, Ottoman embarked an army and attacked the place, assuring
+himself of an easy conquest. In spite, however, of the fortifications
+having been hastily constructed, his troops were defeated with great
+loss, and he was obliged to raise the siege. In this manner did the
+indomitable champions of Christendom begin that long and bloodthirsty
+war between the Cross and the Crescent in the Mediterranean which
+was to endure for nearly another five centuries. GOZON DE DIEU-DONNÉ
+
+[Illustration: SLAYING THE GREAT SERPENT OF RHODES.]
+
+In the long, chequered, and glorious history of the Knights there are
+many strange and semi-miraculous deeds recounted of them in the wars
+and adventures in which they took so prominent a part; the following,
+which is gravely set out by the historians of the time, may be left to
+the judgment of the reader. In 1324 Fulke de Villaret was succeeded in
+the Grand Mastership by Helion de Villeneuve, a knight of exemplary
+piety and a strict disciplinarian. Under his rule the Order regained
+those habits of severe simplicity from which they had been allowed to
+lapse by his predecessor. In 1329 Rhodes was greatly agitated by the
+fact that a crocodile or serpent—as it is indifferently described—had
+taken up its abode in the marshes at the foot of Mount St. Etienne,
+some two miles from the town. This ferocious creature devoured sheep
+and cattle; also several of the inhabitants had lost their lives by
+approaching the neighbourhood in which it dwelt. Several attacks
+were made upon it, but, as there were no firearms, all the missiles
+projected against it rebounded harmlessly from the scales with which it
+was covered. So dangerous had it become, that the Grand Master thought
+it his duty to forbid any of the knights to attempt its destruction;
+an order which was obeyed with a right good will. There was, however,
+a knight of the Language of Provence called Gozon de Dieu-Donné, who
+secretly determined that he would slay the serpent, and he accordingly
+made it his occupation to observe as closely as possible the habits
+of the monster. Having satisfied himself on certain points, he then
+returned to his chateau of Gozon in the province of Languedoc. The
+point which Gozon had wished to determine was in what portion of its
+body was the serpent vulnerable; and he had convinced himself that
+the belly of the creature was unprotected by scales. He accordingly
+modelled in wood as exact a representation of the serpent as he could
+accomplish, colouring it the same as the original; the belly of the
+model was constructed of leather. He then trained some large and
+ferocious hounds, at a certain signal, to dash in under the model
+and fix their teeth in its leathern underpart. For months did the
+ingenious knight persevere with the training of his dogs, himself on
+horseback in full armour cheering them to the assault. At last he
+considered them to be perfect in their parts, and, taking two servants
+and the hounds with him, returned to Rhodes. Avoiding everybody, he
+caused his arms to be carried to a small church in the neighbourhood
+of Mount St. Etienne by his servants. The knight went into the church,
+where he passed some time in prayer, recommending his soul to God in
+the enterprise which he was about to undertake.
+
+He then donned his armour and mounted his horse, ordering his servants,
+if he were killed, to return to France but if he succeeded in
+killing the serpent to come at once to him, or to aid him if he were
+wounded. He then rode off in the direction of the marsh accompanied
+by his hounds. No sooner did the serpent hear the ring of bit and
+stirrup-iron, the trampling of the charger and the baying of the
+hounds, than it issued forth with wide-open slavering jaws and terrible
+burning eyes to slay and to devour. Gozon, recommending his soul to
+his Maker, put spurs to his horse and charged. But his lance shivered
+on the hide of the serpent as though it had struck a stone wall. His
+horse, mad with terror at the sight and the foul odour of the serpent,
+plunged so furiously as to unseat him. He fell to the ground, uttering
+as he did so his call to the hounds; had it not been for these faithful
+auxiliaries he would instantly have been slain, but they rushed in and,
+fastening their teeth in the belly of the serpent, caused it to writhe
+and twist in its anguish. Instantly Gozon was upon his feet again,
+and, watching his opportunity, plunged his sword into the exposed
+vitals of his enemy. Mortally wounded, the serpent flung itself high
+in the air with a convulsive effort, and falling backwards pinned the
+knight to the ground beneath its enormous bulk. The servants, who had
+been the horrified spectators of this terrific conflict, now rushed to
+the assistance of their master, and succeeded in freeing him from his
+unpleasant predicament. Gozon, they thought, was dead, but upon dashing
+some water in his face he opened his eyes, to behold the pleasing
+spectacle of his monstrous enemy lying by his side a corpse.
+
+Naturally elated, he returned to Rhodes, where he became on the instant
+the popular hero; for who could say or do enough for the man who had
+slain the serpent. He was conducted in triumph to the palace of the
+Grand Master by his fellow knights, but here a remarkably unpleasant
+surprise was in store for him. Very austerely did Helion de Villeneuve
+regard the triumphant warrior, and stern and uncompromising was the
+voice in which he asked him how he had dared to contravene the express
+order of his Grand Master by going forth to combat with the serpent?
+Calling a Council immediately the implacable de Villeneuve, in spite of
+all entreaties, deprived Gozon de Dieu-Donné of the habit of a knight.
+“What,” said this just and severe disciplinarian, “is the death of this
+monster, what indeed do the deaths of the islanders matter, compared
+with the maintenance of the discipline of this Order of which I am the
+unworthy chief?”
+
+But Helion de Villeneuve was of too wise and kindly a nature to
+make his decree absolute, and having thus vindicated his authority he
+shortly afterwards released Gozon and made him happy by his praises and
+more material benefits.
+
+The Abbé de Vertot tells us that the learned Bochart argues that the
+Phoenicians gave to this island the name of Gefirath-Rod (from whence
+the name “Rhodes”), or the Isle of the Serpents, and that when the
+Romans were at war with the Carthaginians Attilius Regulus slew a
+monster in the island of Rhodes the skin of which measured one hundred
+feet. Thevenot, in his Travels published in 1637, states that he saw
+the head of Gozon’s serpent still attached to one of the gates of the
+town of Rhodes, and that it was as large as the head of a horse.
+
+Upon the death of Helion de Villeneuve in 1346, a Chapter of the Order
+was held as usual to elect his successor. When it came to the turn of
+the Commander Gozon de Dieu-Donné to speak, he said:
+
+“In entering this conclave I made a solemn vow not to propose any
+knight whom I did not consider to be most worthy of this exalted
+office, and animated by the best intentions for the glory and
+well-being of the Order. After considering carefully the state of
+the Christian world, of the wars which we are perpetually obliged to
+wage against the infidel, the firmness and vigour necessary for the
+maintenance of discipline, I declare that I find no person so capable
+of governing our ‘Religion’ as myself.”
+
+He then proceeded to speak in a purely impersonal tone of the
+magnificent services which he had rendered, not forgetting the
+famous episode of the serpent, and drew their attention to the fact
+that the late Grand Master had constituted him, Gozon, his principal
+lieutenant. He ended: “You have already tried my government, you know
+well that which you may hope to expect. I believe that in all justice I
+shall receive your suffrages.”
+
+Naturally the assemblage was stupefied at hearing a man thus recommend
+himself; on reflection, however, they decided that he had spoken
+no less than the truth, and Gozon de Dieu-Donné, “the hero of the
+serpent,” became twenty-sixth Grand Master of the Order. He died in
+1353, when he was succeeded by Pierre de Cornillan, and upon his tomb
+were graven these words: “Cy Gist le Vainqueur du Dragon.”
+
+In the years 1480 and 1485 under the Grand Master Pierre D’Aubusson,
+Rhodes withstood two great sieges from the Turks. The first of these is
+described at length by the knight Merri Dupuis “temoin oculaire” who
+sets down: “Je, Mary Dupuis gros et rude de sens et de entendement je
+veuille parler et desscrire au plus bref que je pourray et au plus pres
+de la verite selon que je pen voir a lueil.” The description of that of
+1485 is written by another eye-witness, the Commandeur de Bourbon, to
+whom “ma semble bon et condecent a raison declairer premierement les
+causes qui out incite mon poure et petit entendement a faire cest petit
+oeuvre.”
+
+But we have no space to follow these gallant Knights, and it must
+suffice to say that on both occasions, after incredible exertions
+and terrible slaughter on both sides, the attacks of the Turks were
+eventually repulsed.
+
+It was reserved for Soliman the Magnificent to finally vanquish the
+Knights and to expel them from Rhodes; from July 1522 until January
+1523 the Knights under the heroic Villiers de L’Isle Adam maintained an
+all unequal struggle against the vast hosts of the Crescent, which were
+perpetually reinforced. At last, on January 1st, 1523, the Knights,
+by virtue of a treaty with Soliman, which was honourably observed on
+both sides, evacuated the island in which they had been established for
+nearly two hundred and twenty years.
+
+By favour of Charles V. the Knights on October 26th, 1530, took charge
+of the islands of Malta and Gozo, and established themselves therein;
+still under the Grand Mastership of L’Isle Adam, whose sword and helmet
+are still religiously kept in a small church in Vittoriosa, just at the
+back of the Admiral Superintendent’s house in the present dockyard.
+
+The knights fortified the islands and there abode, until in 1565 the
+Ottoman returned once more to the attack.
+
+It may be said that heroism is a relative term, that it has many uses
+and applications all equally truthful. On the side of mere physical
+courage almost every man who took part in that memorable siege of
+Malta in the year 1565 may have been said to have earned the title of
+hero. No man’s foot went back; no man’s courage quailed; no man’s face
+blanched when called upon to face perils so appalling that they meant
+an almost inevitable and speedy death; this was true or Christian
+and Moslem alike. The death-roll on either side was so tremendous as to
+prove this contention up to the hilt. From May 18th to September 8th,
+1565—that is to say, in one hundred and thirteen days—thirty thousand
+Moslems and eight thousand Christians perished—an average of some three
+hundred and thirty-six persons per day. In that blazing torrid heat
+the sufferings of those who survived from day to day must have been
+accentuated beyond bearing by the myriads of unburied corpses by which
+they lived surrounded; and that the contending forces were not swept
+away by pestilence is an extraordinary marvel.
+
+[Illustration: CARRACK IN WHICH THE KNIGHTS ARRIVED AT MALTA, 1530.]
+
+In many, nay, in most campaigns, personal feeling enters but little
+into the contest. Nationality strikes against nationality, army against
+army, or navy against navy; but no burning hatred of his adversary
+animates the breast of the combatant on either side; it may even be
+said that frequently some pity for the vanquished is felt, when all is
+over, by the side which has conquered. At Malta the element of actual
+personal individual hatred was the mainspring by which the combatants
+on both sides were moved; each regarded the other as an infidel, the
+slaying of whom was the sacrifice most acceptable to the God they
+worshipped. “Infidel” was the term which each hurled at the other; to
+destroy the infidel, root and branch, was the act imposed upon those
+whose faith was the one only passport to a blessed eternity, and those
+who fell in the strife, whether Christian or Moslem, felt assured that
+for them the gates of heaven stood wide open.
+
+Great as were those others who perished, faithful to the death as
+were those noble knights who died to a man in the culminating agony
+of St. Elmo, adroit, resourceful, master of himself and others as was
+the famous Dragut, there is one name and one alone that shines like
+a beacon light upon a hill-top when we think of the siege of Malta.
+Jean Parisot de la Valette, whose name is enshrined for ever in that
+noble city which crowns Mount Sceberass at the present day, was the
+forty-eighth Grand Master of the Noble Order of the Knights of Saint
+John of Jerusalem the charter for which, contained in the original Bull
+of Pope Paschal II., dated 1113 (in which the Holy Father took the
+Order under his special protection), may be seen to this day in the
+armoury of the palace at Valetta. At the time when the supreme honour
+was conferred upon him, in the year 1557, he had passed through every
+grade of the Order: as soldier, captain, general, Counsellor, Grand
+Cross: in all of them displaying a valour, a piety, a self-abnegation
+beyond all praise, A man of somewhat austere manner, he exacted from
+others that which he gave himself—a whole-hearted devotion to the Order
+to which he had consecrated his life. Fearing no man in the Council
+Chamber, even as he feared no foe in the field, he ever spoke his
+mind in defence of that which he deemed to be right. Proud, with the
+dignity becoming a man of his ancient lineage, he merged all personal
+haughtiness in the zeal he felt in upholding the rights and privileges
+of that splendid confederation of knights of the best blood in Europe
+over which he had been called upon to preside at the mature age of
+sixty-three. There is no instance in history of any man more absolutely
+single-minded than La Valette; that in which he believed he cherished
+with an ardour almost incredible in these days, and that the sword of
+the Lord had been confided into his hand for the utter extermination
+and extirpation of the Moslem heresy was the leading feature in his
+creed. That he had been advanced to a dignity but little less than
+royal in achieving the Grand Mastership was but as dust in the balance
+to him compared with the opportunities which it gave him to harry his
+life-long foes; and he who had known so well how to obey throughout all
+his youth and manhood was now to prove, in the most emphatic manner,
+that he had learned how to command. In all those terrible hundred
+and thirteen days during which the siege lasted there was none to be
+compared to him. As occasion occurred this man’s soul rose higher and
+ever higher; beseeching, imploring, commanding, by sheer force of
+example did he point out the way to the weaker spirits by whom he was
+surrounded.
+
+To speak of weaker spirits in connection with the siege of Malta seems
+almost an insult; these gallant knights and soldiers were only so in
+comparison with their leader. Twice during the siege of St, Elmo did
+the garrison send to La Valette and represent that the place was no
+longer tenable; but Garcia de Toledo, Viceroy of Sicily for Philip of
+Spain, was writing specious letters instead of sending reinforcements,
+and every moment gained was of importance. Coldly did La Valette remind
+the Knights of their vows to the Order, and when renewed assurances
+came that it was only a matter of a few hours before they should be
+overwhelmed he replied that others could be found to take their places,
+that he, as Grand Master, would come in person to show them how to die.
+A passion of remorse overcame these noble gentlemen, who, thus nerved
+by the indomitable spirit of their chief, died to the last man in the
+tumbled ruins of that charnel-house which had once been a fortress.
+
+La Valette was ready to die; there was no man in all that garrison so
+ready. With pike and sword this veteran of seventy-one years of age
+was ever at the post of the greatest danger, repelling the assaults
+of Janissaries and corsairs, fighting with the spirit of the youngest
+among the Knights in the breaches rent in the walls of Il Borgo. In
+vain did his comrades try to prevent him from this perpetual exposure;
+in vain did they point out that the value of his life outnumbered that
+of an army. He was very gentle with these remonstrances, but quite
+firm. There were plenty as good as he to take his place should he fall,
+he insisted; till that time came it was his duty to inspire all by his
+example, to show to the simplest soldier that he was cared for by his
+Grand Master.
+
+As things went from bad to worse, when Il Borgo became in little better
+case than had St. Elmo before it, La Valette never hesitated, never
+looked back, never ceased to hope that the sluggard Garcia de Toledo
+might send relief; and, if he did not, then would they all perish with
+arms in their hands, as had their brethren across that narrow strip of
+water who had held St. Elmo to the last man. What man or woman can read
+without something of a lump coming in their throat of those noble
+words of the Grand Master in the last few days of the siege when all
+had utterly abandoned hope?
+
+Grimed, emaciated, covered with sweat and blood and dust, did La
+Valette move from post to post exhorting and encouraging his soldiers.
+So few had the gallant company of the Knights become that command was
+necessarily delegated to the under-officers; yet who among them did not
+find fresh courage and renewed strength when that great noble, the head
+of the Order, stood by their sides and spoke thus to them as man to
+man?—
+
+“My brothers, we are all servants of Jesus Christ; and I feel assured
+that if I and all these in command should fall you will still fight on
+for the honour of the Order and the love of our Holy Church.”
+
+We have to think of what it all meant, we have dimly to try and realise
+the burden which was laid upon this man, before we come to a right
+conception, not only of what he endured but the terrible sacrifices
+he was called upon to make. Here was no man of iron lusting for blood
+and greedy of conquest for the sake of the vain applause of men; but
+one full of human love and affection for those among whom he had lived
+all the days of his life. Upon him was laid the charge of upholding
+the honour of the Order, the majesty of the God whom he served. To
+this end he doomed to certain death those brethren of his in St. Elmo,
+his own familiar friends, reminding them that it was their duty so to
+die, while his heart was breaking with the agony of this terrible
+decision, which no weaker man could have given. When his beloved nephew
+was slain, together with another gallant youth, he smiled sadly and
+said that they had only travelled the road which they all had to tread
+in a few days; that he grieved as much for the one as for the other. In
+speaking of this man, it may truly be said that there is no character
+in history more elevated; there is none which shows us the picture of a
+more perfect, gentle, and valiant knight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+DRAGUT-REIS
+
+
+  How Sinan Basha and Dragut raided the islands of
+  Malta and Cozo and captured the town of Tripoli. How
+  the Knights of Malta captured “the puissant galleon”
+  belonging to the Kustir-Aga and the Odalisques of the
+  harem of the Grand Turk. The despair of the ladies and
+  the advice of the Imaum to Soliman the Magnificent.
+  A great armada is fitted out in Constantinople. The
+  preparations for defence on the part of La Valette and
+  the Knights. The expedition sails from Constantinople and
+  lands in Malta.
+
+Great must have been the consternation of the Knights when the armada,
+commanded by Sinan Basha, appeared off their coasts, and bitter must
+have been the reflections of Juan d’Omedes, the Grand Master, who had
+all along contended that so formidable an expedition could not possibly
+be directed against Malta. The inhabitants of that island were,
+however, not left long in doubt, as Sinan, immediately on his arrival,
+entered the Grand Harbour, or “the Great Port,” as it was called in
+those days. Sinan, in his royal galley, led the way in, contemptuously
+assured of an easy victory over so insignificant a place of arms. He
+had his first rude awakening before he had traversed some quarter of a
+mile of the placid waters of the Great Port. The harbour, as is well
+known, though long, is very narrow, and, on the starboard hand of the
+Turkish galleys as they entered, the Commandeur de Guimeran, a
+Spanish Knight, had ambushed three hundred arquebusiers. As the galley
+of Sinan came abreast of the ambush, the Commandeur gave the order to
+fire. The volley at so close a range had a terrible effect, especially
+among the “chiourme,” or the slaves who rowed the galley, some hundred
+of whom were placed _hors de combat_. Sinan, in a furious rage, ordered
+an immediate disembarkment; but when his men landed and scaled the
+heights of Mount Sceberras (the elevated land on which the city of
+Valetta now stands) there was no one to be found, the Commandeur and
+the men who had formed the ambush having disappeared. Gazing from the
+heights at Il Borgo, the fortress on the opposite side of the harbour
+where the Knights then dwelt, Sinan demanded of Dragut, “If that,”
+pointing to the fortress, “was the place which he had told the Sultan
+could easily be taken?”
+
+Dragut, whom no peril ever daunted, coolly replied:
+
+“Certainly, no eagle ever built his nest on a rock more easy of access.”
+
+A corsair, who had been slave to the Knights, now approached Sinan, and
+told him that he had assisted at the building of the fortress; which,
+he averred, was so strong that if the admiral delayed until he had
+taken it that the winter would be upon them, although it was then only
+the month of July. Sinan, as we have said, was a hesitating commander.
+He had the ever-present fear of the Grand Turk before his eyes, and was
+not inclined for so difficult and dangerous an enterprise as this was
+represented to be. Leaving the fortress in his rear, he marched off
+to the high land in the centre of the island, on which was situated the
+Città Notabile, the capital of Malta, some seven miles distant from
+the sea. On their march through the island the Turks committed their
+usual atrocities, murdering the wretched inhabitants, firing their
+dwellings, destroying their crops, and carrying off their women. Had
+the siege of Notabile been pressed, the city must have fallen; but
+Sinan declared to Dragut that the principal object of the expedition
+was the reduction of Tripoli, and, in consequence, he had not the time
+to devote to its reduction. Dragut, furious at this temporising policy,
+urged an immediate assault, and, while the contention was waxing
+sharp between the two leaders, a letter was brought to Sinan which
+had been captured in a Sicilian galley. It was from the “Receiver” of
+the Order, who dwelt at Messina, to the Grand Master, informing him
+that he had expressly sent this ship to inform him that Andrea Doria
+had just returned from Spain and was hastening with a large fleet to
+attack the Turks. The letter was a ruse on the part of the “Receiver,”
+and contained not a particle of truth. It was, however, quite enough
+for Sinan, who immediately called a council of war and imparted this
+alarming news to its members. The council, after the invariable fashion
+of such bodies, decided to take the safest and easiest course: the
+name of the terrible Andrea was one of evil omen to the Ottomans, and,
+as one man, they voted for prosecuting their voyage to Tripoli before
+the Genoese seaman should put in an appearance. In vain was the fury
+of Dragut, who had counted on a full revenge on his ancient enemies
+the Knights. The armada sailed to the adjacent island of Gozo, which
+was thoroughly sacked with every refinement of cruelty. Every house
+on the island was burned, and six thousand of its inhabitants carried
+off to slavery. One incident is deserving of record. In Gozo dwelt a
+certain Sicilian with his wife and two daughters: sooner than that they
+should fall into the hands of the Turks this man stabbed his wife and
+daughters and then threw himself, sword in hand, into the ranks of his
+enemies, where he slew two of them, wounded several others, and was
+then hacked to pieces. The fleet then proceeded to Tripoli, which was
+taken almost without opposition, as it was defended by a mere handful
+of the Knights and some utterly unreliable Calabrian infantry, who
+had never before seen a shot fired: these men very soon mutinied and
+refused to fight any longer. Dragut became the autocrat of Tripoli, as
+his great predecessor Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa had been of Algiers: from
+hence, in the years that were to come before his death, he carried on
+his sleepless and unending warfare with his Christian foes, on whom he
+was destined to inflict another terrible defeat when they attacked this
+stronghold which he had made his own.
+
+Claude de la Sangle dying on August 18th, 1557, Jean Parisot de la
+Valette was chosen Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in his stead
+on August 21st of the same year. He was, as we have said before, in
+succession, soldier, captain, councillor, general, and Grand Cross; he
+was as wise in council as he was terrible in battle; he was as much
+esteemed by his brethren as he was feared by the infidel. Under his
+governorship “the Religion” regained the ancient authority which it
+had once possessed, especially in some of the German Provinces and in
+the Republic of Venice. So great was the influence of La Valette that
+he succeeded in making the “Languages” (or confederations of Knights)
+of Germany and Venice pay their “responsions,” which had been allowed
+to get into arrear. These “responsions” were a tax levied on the
+“Languages “ exclusively for the purpose of combatting the infidel,
+and La Valette brought all the firmness of his high character to bear,
+in order to induce these Knights to do what, he reminded them, was
+their simple and obvious duty. Fired by the highest conception of the
+office he had been called upon to execute, La Valette allowed none
+of those under his command to be slack in their performance of their
+duties. In him dwelt the real old crusading spirit. He saw life with
+the single eye, for that which was paramount was the utter destruction
+of the infidel. There are many men who have a high conception of duty;
+there are but few who can inspire those with whom they are brought
+in contact. Of these latter was Jean Parisot de la Valette; in him
+the pure flame of religious enthusiasm burnt with so clear a light as
+to act as an illuminant for the paths of others. In him dwelt that
+rare quality of lifting others almost to that plane on which he dwelt
+himself, of making men nobler and better almost in spite of themselves.
+So it was that, when La Valette stooped to remind others of his brother
+Knights that they owed money to the Order, that money was paid at once.
+
+Having thus restored order to the finances, the Grand Master turned his
+attention to the state of affairs (as he had received them from his
+predecessor) connected with the territorial possessions of the Knights.
+For long years now the fortress of Tripoli had been in the hands of the
+renowned Dragut, who was the scourge and the terror of the Christians.
+The corsair dwelt in his stronghold in insolent defiance of the
+Knights, whose property it once had been. Years before he had wrested
+it from them by the strong hand: what, then, more necessary in the
+eyes of such an one as La Valette than to expel this audacious pirate?
+The Grand Master invited the co-operation of Juan la Cerda (a Spanish
+Grandee, Duke of Medina-Celi, and Viceroy of Sicily for the King of
+Spain) in this enterprise. The Viceroy joyfully acceded to the request,
+and informed his master. Philip II. approved the project, and sent
+orders to the Duke of Sesse, Governor of Milan, to the Duke of Alcala,
+Governor of Naples, and to John Andrea Doria, General of the Galleys,
+to join forces and to repair to Sicily, placing themselves under the
+orders of the Duke of Medina-Celi, who was expressly charged to take
+no action save by the advice of the Grand Master. The expedition
+assembled, the Duke took it to Malta, where it wintered, and in the
+spring it sailed and attacked Tripoli.
+
+They found this fortress, however, in a very different state from that
+which they expected. Dragut, says De Vertot, “avoit faire terasser les
+murailles de cette place.” Bastions had been constructed, and every
+advantage taken for defence which was permitted by the terrain, or
+that the art of fortification admitted at this epoch. The castle, which
+was not advantageously placed, was, notwithstanding, put in a state of
+defence by an enormous expenditure of money. Great towers, in which
+were mounted many big guns, defended the entrance to the port, which
+had become the headquarters of the vessels owned by Dragut, and also of
+those corsairs who sailed their craft under the crescent flag of the
+Sultan of Constantinople. It was against such a fortress as this that
+the Duke of Medina-Celi went up: we have no space to deal here with the
+details of this attack, which ended in the hopeless and irremediable
+defeat of the Christian forces. The Duke was an incompetent commander;
+he was opposed to one of the greatest leaders of the age—an expert
+in almost every branch of the science of war, in command of a large
+body of the fiercest fighters of the day, who ever feared the wrath of
+Dragut more than the swords of the enemy.
+
+La Valette, though he mourned over the repulse of the Christian
+forces from Tripoli, did not on that account allow his pursuit of
+the infidel to grow faint; the galleys of “the Religion” were always
+at sea, and both the corsairs and the Ottoman Turks were perpetually
+losing valuable ships and costly merchandise. Under the General of
+the Galleys, the Commandeur Gozon de Melac, and that celebrated
+chevalier, the Commandeur de Romegas, the sea forces of the Knights
+were everywhere in evidence. Into the hands of the Christians fell the
+Penon de Velez, situated on the northern coast of Africa opposite to
+Malaga—a fortress much frequented by the corsairs; the Goletta at
+Tunis was also taken, and the pirates became so much alarmed that they
+demanded succour from Constantinople. They represented to Soliman that,
+at this rate, the whole of Northern Africa would soon be in the hands
+of the Christians to the total exclusion of the true believer.
+
+Soliman listened to their complaints and promised that soon he would
+send forth an armament which should put an end to the misfortunes from
+which they were suffering. Once again preparations were begun in the
+arsenals of Constantinople, and while these were in progress an event
+took place which had an important bearing on the situation. Just after
+the taking of the Penon de Velez seven galleys of “the Religion,”
+under the command of the chevaliers de Giou and De Romegas, which were
+cruising in the neighbourhood of Zante and Cephalonia, fell in with
+“a puissant galleon” filled with the richest merchandise of the East,
+armed with “twenty great cannons of bronze,” and a number of smaller
+guns, under the command of the Reis Bairan-Ogli, having on board
+“excellent officers of artillery,” as well as two hundred Janissaries
+for her defence. This great ship was the property of Kustir-Aga, the
+chief Eunuch of the Seraglio of the Sultan, and many of the ladies of
+the harem were interested in a pecuniary sense in the safe arrival of
+this vessel at Constantinople. The galleys of “the Religion” attacked,
+and, after a most obstinate resistance, in which one hundred and twenty
+of the Christians and an even larger number of the Turks were killed,
+the galleon was captured.
+
+If there had been an outcry in Constantinople before this occurrence
+it was all as nothing to that which now arose. Kustir-Aga and the
+Odalisques of the Harem prostrated themselves at the feet of Soliman
+the Magnificent, and with streaming eyes, dishevelled hair, and frantic
+gestures, demanded the instant despatch of an expedition to utterly
+exterminate these barbarian corsairs, the Knights of Malta, who had
+thus injured them and lacerated their tenderest susceptibilities.
+The Grand Turk, autocrat as he was, had no peace day or night; he
+was surrounded by wailing women and sullen officials, all of whom
+had lost heavily by the capture of the puissant galleon. The Imaum,
+or preacher in the principal mosque, called upon the Sultan in his
+discourse to fall upon the audacious infidel and smite him hip and
+thigh. He reminded the Padishah that, in the dungeons of the Knights,
+true believers were languishing; that on the rowers’ benches of the
+galleys of “the Religion” Moslems were being flogged like dogs. In
+a furious peroration he concluded: “It is only thy invincible sword
+which can shatter the chains of these unfortunates, whose cries are
+rising to heaven and afflicting the ears of the Prophet of God: the
+son is demanding his father, the wife her husband and her children.
+All, therefore, wait upon thee, upon thy justice, and thy power, for
+vengeance upon their cruel and implacable enemies.”
+
+Contrary to all precedent, which enjoins the most perfect silence in
+the mosque, these bold utterances were received with something more
+than murmurs of applause: never in all his long and glorious reign had
+the great and magnificent despot heard so plainly the voice of his
+people. Apart, however, from eunuchs, women, and Mullahs, Soliman had
+long been importuned by Dragut to take the course which was now being
+urged upon him with so much insistence. There was at this time no
+warrior in all his _entourage_ for whose opinion the Sultan had the same
+respect as he had for that of the ruler of Tripoli. Dragut had more
+than a tincture of learning: he was first of all an incomparable leader
+of men and an entirely competent seaman. He was also a scientific
+artillerist, and was learned in the technique of the fortification of
+his time. Added to this he was—albeit by no means so cruel as most of
+his contemporaries—one of those men before whom all trembled: as we
+have seen in the case of the corsairs who defended “Africa,” “they
+feared the wrath of Dragut more than death itself.”
+
+It was this renowned leader who warned Soliman against the Knights; he
+pointed out that they were far more dangerous now than they had been
+in 1523, the year of their expulsion from Rhodes. When established
+there they were, so to speak, surrounded by the Turkish Empire; in
+Malta, on the contrary, they were easily succoured from Sicily, which
+belonged to Spain, another implacable enemy of the Moslem; that Malta
+lay right on the route which all the ships of the Sultan must take on
+passage from the East to Constantinople; and in consequence the Order
+was a standing and perpetual menace to the trade of the Empire. All
+this was so undeniably true that so shrewd a man and so competent a
+ruler as Soliman could not fail to be impressed by the soundness of the
+reasoning. Besides all this, he knew quite well that now he could
+not hold back, had it been even against his inclination—which was by
+no means the case; for there had arisen one of those storms of popular
+opinion—all the more formidable because of their infrequency—before
+which even the most hardened of despots must bend. Accordingly the
+Sultan called a conference of his fighting men, which was held on
+horseback in the open-air. The inclination of the Sultan being known,
+most of the generals, like good courtiers, voted for immediate war
+with the Knights. At this conference was present that Ali Basha, or
+Occhiali, or Uluchali, as he was indifferently called, of whom we shall
+have more to say later on. Upon this occasion he was present as the
+representative of Dragut, and urged, on behalf of his master, that the
+time was not yet ripe for an attack on Malta. First, he contended, it
+was necessary to recapture the Goletta and the Peñon de Velez, and to
+defeat the Moors of Tunis, who were feudatories of the Spanish king and
+avowed enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Ali was supported by one Mahomet,
+an old warrior who had grown white in the service of the Sultan, who
+strongly opposed the contemplated campaign on the ground that the
+Knights would in all probability have the full strength of Europe at
+their backs.
+
+Numbers, however, added to the personal inclination of the Sultan,
+carried the day. The die was cast, the memorable expedition was decided
+upon, and all the Sultan’s vast Empire soon rang with the note of
+preparation. The Capitan Basha, Piali, was in command of the fleet, and
+the direction of the land forces was confided to Mustafa, an old
+officer sixty-five years of age, a severe disciplinarian, and of a
+sanguinary and cruel disposition to any of his enemies who had the
+misfortune to fall into his hands.
+
+Once again did Europe lose itself in speculation: against whom, all
+men were asking, was this new expedition to be directed? Spain feared
+for her African possessions, as the Goletta was the key to the kingdom
+of Tunis, while the Peñon de Velez was one of the bulwarks of Algeria.
+In consequence Don Garcia de Toledo passed over from Sicily to confer
+with the Grand Master of the Knights. Garcia de Toledo was by no means
+a favourable specimen of the illustrious race from which he sprang,
+and was a complete antithesis to La Valette; he was to prove himself
+in the terrible days that were to come to be sluggish, incompetent, a
+ruler who could not rule, a person for ever letting “I dare not wait
+upon I would.” Just as long as Spain considered this new expedition
+was directed against herself considerable activity was shown; when the
+attack developed and it was seen that the objective of the Turks was
+Malta, the procrastinating Spanish king and his incompetent viceroy
+allowed matters so to drift that, had any other man than La Valette
+been in command at Malta, the fall of that island had been inevitable.
+
+We have seen how Juan d’Omedes had dealt with a previous crisis
+in the affairs of the Order; very different was it in the opening
+months of the year 1565. La Valette was well served by his spies in
+Constantinople, and the Grand Master was under no illusions from the
+very first as to what the destination of the army of the Sultan would
+be. He recognised that against the small islands of Malta and Gozo
+all the strength of the mightiest Empire in the world was about to be
+directed, and with serene confidence set about the task of preparation.
+His first care was to send out “a general citation” to those Knights
+living in their own homes in different countries in Europe, commanding
+them to repair at once to Malta and take part in the defence of that
+Order to which they had vowed to consecrate their lives. The agents
+of the Order in Italy succeeded in raising two thousand infantry, and
+the Viceroy of Sicily sent over two companies of Spanish infantry
+which he had promised. All the galleys of “the Religion” were called
+in from distant service and were set to work importing ammunition,
+stores, provisions, and all requisites for the withstanding of a
+siege. As the galleys passed backwards and forwards to Sicily, in each
+returning vessel came noble gentlemen of every country in Europe, in
+answer to the summons of their Grand Master. They were received with
+the tenderest affection by him and by those others already assembled;
+never in all its long and glorious history had the Order assembled in
+circumstances more grave; never in its history, either in the past
+or in the future, did it quit itself with so supreme a heroism as in
+those days of 1565 which were yet to come. In Malta the orderly bustle
+of preparation went on ceaselessly; the Italian and Spanish troops
+and the inhabitants of the island, for the most part hardy mariners
+well accustomed to the ceaseless _guerre de course_ of the Knights, were
+formed into companies, officered by the members of the Order, and
+assigned to different posts.
+
+Meanwhile the Grand Master caused copies of the letters which he had
+received from Constantinople to be sent to all the great princes of
+Europe; showing them the straits to which the Order was shortly to be
+reduced and imploring of them to send timely succour. But it was not
+upon outside aid that La Valette counted overmuch; he was preparing
+to confront the Turks with such forces as he had at his own disposal;
+content, if necessary, to leave the issue in the hands of the God in
+whom he trusted. As the chevaliers came flocking to the standard of
+St. John he received them, we are told, “as a kind father receives
+his beloved children, having provided in advance for their food and
+lodging.” He personally entered into the most minute details of his
+charge; he reviewed his infantry, he instructed his artillery, he
+planned sites for hospitals, he sketched out new fortifications, and
+then went among the humblest of his followers and wielded the pick and
+shovel in the burning sun. Everywhere his cheering presence was felt,
+his equable and serene temperament diffused confidence and hope.
+
+All things being thus in train he assembled his brethren and addressed
+them in the following terms:
+
+“A formidable army, composed of audacious barbarians, is descending
+on this island; these persons, my brothers, are the enemies of Jesus
+Christ. To-day it is a question of the defence of our faith as to
+whether the book of the Evangelist is to be superseded by that of the
+Koran? God on this occasion demands of us our lives, already vowed
+to His service. Happy will those be who first consummate this
+sacrifice. But that we may indeed be worthy to render it come, my dear
+brothers, to the foot of the altar, where we may renew our vows. Let
+each one rely on the blood of the Saviour of men and in the faithful
+practice of the sacraments; in them we shall find so generous a
+contempt for death that we shall indeed be rendered invincible.”
+
+The Knights then, headed by the Grand Master, took themselves in
+procession to the church. Here they confessed and received the
+sacrament. “They went out from thence as men who had received a new
+birth.” The Knights, we are then told, tenderly embraced one another
+in all solemnity; vowing to shed the last drop of their blood in
+defence of their religion and its holy altars. It was in this lofty
+frame of mind that the Knights of Malta awaited the coming of their
+hereditary foe. Into the hearts and minds of these gallant gentlemen
+of the best blood in the world the Grand Master had instilled some
+leaven of the greatness by which he himself was inspired. When belief
+is so wholehearted as it was in the case of La Valette; when it is
+allied to a genius for war, and a supreme gift for the inspiration of
+others, then that man and the force which he commands are as near to
+invincibility as it is permitted to fallible human beings to attain.
+There were two things in which the Knights were supremely fortunate on
+this occasion: the first was that they had La Valette as Grand Master,
+the second that Dragut was not in supreme command of the Turks, and
+that the siege had opened before he arrived upon the scene. In this
+expedition, as in previous ones, the Turkish commanders had orders to
+attempt nothing really important without the advice of Dragut. They
+found themselves without him when they arrived and made an initial
+mistake. With La Valette in command there was no room for blundering;
+the ultimate result of their blunder was the defeat which they
+sustained.
+
+Grand Master, Knight, and noble, soldier, peasant, and mariner, strove
+valiantly with the task of putting the island into a state of defence,
+and when at last the long-expected armada of their foes rose above that
+distant blue horizon in the north all had been done that skill and
+experience could dictate.
+
+It was upon May 18th in the year 1565 that the Turkish fleet arrived
+at Malta. It was composed of one hundred and fifty-nine galleys
+and vessels propelled by oars: on board of these was an army for
+disembarkation of thirty thousand men, composed of Janissaries and
+Spahis, the very pick and flower of the Turkish army. Soliman the
+Magnificent was leaving as little to chance as was possible on this
+occasion; he well knew the temper of the Knights, and that this
+expedition had before it a task which would try both the army and its
+leaders to the very utmost of their strength. Behind the main body of
+the fleet came a host of vessels, charged with provisions, the horses
+of the Spahis, the siege-train of the artillery, all the innumerable
+appliances and engines of war which were in use at that day. The
+initial mistake on the part of the Turks was in embarking cavalry for a
+siege; they knew, or they should have known, of the extreme smallness
+of the island which they were about to attack, and that they were by
+no means likely to be met with armies in the field owing to the
+enormous preponderance of numbers which they had assured to themselves.
+
+Piali, as we have said, was in command of the fleet, and Mustafa of
+the army; the corsairs did not arrive on the scene till some days
+afterwards.
+
+The Turks landed some men who encountered the Chevalier La Riviere
+and some Maltese troops, with whom they had some lively skirmishes.
+Unfortunately, in one of these the Chevalier was captured, put to
+the torture, and eventually beheaded for having wilfully misled
+the Turks. A council of war was held by Piali, Mustafa, and their
+principal officers, to deliberate on the best manner of prosecuting
+the enterprise on which they were engaged. The admiral, wishing to
+conform strictly with the instructions of Soliman, voted to delay all
+initiative until the arrival of the famous corsair. Mustafa, however,
+held a different opinion: the unfortunate Chevalier La Riviere had,
+before his death, informed the Turkish general that large and powerful
+succours were expected daily from Sicily. Secretly disquieted by this
+news, which he had at the time affected to disbelieve, Mustafa now
+urged immediate action. His opinion was that, in the first instance,
+they had better attack the castle of St. Elmo. It was a small and
+insignificant fort which at best would only delay them some five or
+six days; when this had fallen they could proceed to the more serious
+business of taking Il Borgo, the principal fortress on the island in
+which the Grand Master and most of the Knights were established. By the
+time St. Elmo had been taken they might reasonably expect that Dragut
+and his corsairs would have arrived, and, with these seasonable
+reinforcements, proceed to the really formidable portion of their
+task. In their decisions both admiral and general were wrong; to delay
+attack, once the troops were landed, was a counsel of pusillanimity
+hardly to be expected of Piali, but showing at the same time how
+he dreaded above all else departing one iota from the instructions
+which he had received. To attack the castle of St. Elmo first was a
+military mistake, because it could be—and was during the whole of the
+siege—reinforced from its larger sister Il Borgo.
+
+The discourse of Mustafa prevailed in the council of war, and the siege
+of St. Elmo was decided upon and immediately begun.
+
+[Illustration: JEAN PARISOT DE LA VALETTE, GRAND MASTER OF THE KNIGHTS
+OF MALTA, AT THE SIEGE OF THAT ISLAND BY THE TURKS IN 1565.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SIEGE OF MALTA
+
+
+  The siege of Malta by the Turks; The capture of the
+  fortress of St. Elmo; The death of Dragut-Reis
+
+There was an entire disregard of human life among the leaders of the
+Ottoman Turks at this time which is almost incredible; to attain their
+end in war they sacrificed thousands upon thousands of men with an
+absolutely callous indifference. In no chapter of the bloodstained
+history of their Empire was this trait more in evidence than it was
+at the siege of Malta. There was, however, a reason for this, which
+developed itself more and more as the ceaseless assaults on the
+positions of the Knights went on. From a military point of view, all
+the operations which took place were those of the siege of a fortress;
+as when at length St. Elmo fell the Turks turned their attention to
+the fortress of Il Borgo. The time-honoured method of the attack on
+a fortress, of approaching it by sap and mine, was here almost an
+impossibility, as the island of Malta is composed of solid rock through
+which it was practically impossible to drive trenches. It is true that
+the rock is of an exceptionally soft nature, easily cut through with
+proper tools; but you cannot cut through rock, no matter how soft
+it may be, when your operations are opposed at every step by a brave
+and vigilant enemy. Mustafa and the council of war had, as we have
+said, decided to begin operations by the siege of the fortress of St.
+Elmo. This place had been built from the designs of the Prior of Capua,
+an officer of the Order, and was situated at the extreme end of the
+promontory of Mount Sceberass, which juts out between the Great Port
+and the harbour of Marsa Muzetto. The fort was in a commanding position
+and dominated the entrance to the two principal harbours in the island.
+It was admirably adapted for repulsing an attack from the sea; but,
+owing to the proximity of other points of land upon which artillery
+could be mounted, was easily capable of attack by such an enemy as that
+by which it was now assailed.
+
+The principal preoccupation of the militant Prior of Capua had been to
+make it formidable on the side facing the sea; perhaps the designer
+had never contemplated the possibility that the day might dawn when
+it would be attacked from the landward side! However this may have
+been, Mustafa decided that it could and should be carried on this, its
+weakest face, and made his preparations accordingly.
+
+As far as it was possible to open trenches this was done, at the most
+prodigal expenditure of the lives of the pioneers. Where the rock
+proved absolutely impossible of manipulation redoubts were constructed
+of massive beams on which thick planks were bolted, the whole covered
+with wet earth which had to be collected with incredible toil from the
+country at the back. Disembarking their siege-guns, and utilising
+the cattle of the islanders for transporting them, the great cannon
+of the Turks were dragged up the slopes of the Mount and got into
+position; and by the 24th of May fire was opened on St. Elmo with ten
+guns which threw balls weighing eighty pounds. Besides these there were
+two culverins which threw balls of sixty pounds, and a huge basilisk,
+the projectile from which weighed no less than one hundred and sixty
+pounds. A terrible fire was opened against the walls of the fort, and
+so destructive did it immediately become that the Bailli of Negropont,
+the Knight in command, very soon became aware that his trust must be in
+the stout hearts and strong arms of his garrison; as the walls by which
+they were surrounded were hourly crumbling into nothingness.
+
+Regarding the matter from this point of view, he sent at once to the
+Grand Master by the Chevalier La Cerda demanding succour; this officer,
+“rendered eloquent by fear,” exaggerated the peril to which the fort
+was exposed and stated that it could not possibly hold out for more
+than another eight days.
+
+“What losses have you had?” demanded the Grand Master.
+
+“Sire,” replied La Cerda, “the fort may be compared to a sick man in
+his extremity, in the last stage of weakness, unable to sustain himself
+except by perpetual cordials and remedies.”
+
+“Then I myself will be your physician,” said the Grand Master with
+contempt, “and I will bring others with me. If that cannot cure you of
+fear it will, at all events, prevent the infidels from seizing upon the
+fort.”
+
+There was no real hope in the mind of La Valette that St. Elmo could
+be saved from the enemy. The place was too weak, and none knew this
+fact better than the man to whom all the defences of the island were
+as familiar as the hilt of his own good sword; but, though he secretly
+deplored the necessity, he felt that if Malta were to be preserved it
+could only be done by delaying until succour should come from outside;
+every day, nay, every hour, was of importance, and he was prepared to
+sacrifice St. Elmo and the lives of its entire garrison to attain his
+end. He did not, however—to continue the simile of La Cerda—prescribe
+for others a medicine which he himself was not prepared to take, and
+when he said that he would go to the fort of St. Elmo it was no mere
+figure of speech. The council of the Knights, however, would not hear
+of the Grand Master thus sacrificing himself; well did these noble
+gentlemen know that there was none among them like unto him, that his
+name and his influence were worth an army in themselves. The outcry was
+so loud that La Valette had to yield; which he did the more readily
+when he saw the splendid emulation among his brethren to cross over
+to the beleaguered and crumbling fortress which promised nothing but
+the grave to those who should pass within the circle of fire by which
+it was now surrounded. To the Chevaliers Gonzales de Medran and de la
+Motte was conceded the proud privilege for which all the Knights were
+clamouring; and, accompanied by the tears and the prayers of their
+brethren, they passed to that place where, if death were certain,
+honour at least was immortal. Truly the heart warms somewhat to the
+days of chivalry when one reads of what was done at the siege of
+Malta. The motto of _Noblesse oblige_ was no dead letter in the sixteenth
+century. By this time the whole of Europe was awake to the peril
+of the Order, and, galloping for dear life across Europe, came the
+Knights, anxious and willing to share in the danger. For most of these
+gentlemen Sicily was the goal at which they aimed; arrived there they
+flung themselves into any boat or shallop which they could hire, and,
+heedless of the risk of capture by the Turkish fleet, totally ignorant
+of what was passing in Malta save that the infidel was at her gates,
+they passed across the channel which separates the two islands and
+joined their fellows at Il Borgo.
+
+Greatly heartened by the reinforcements brought to them by de Medran
+and de la Motte, the garrison of St. Elmo made a sortie, surprised the
+Turks in their entrenchments, and, under cover of the guns of the fort,
+succeeded in destroying nearly all the works which the enemy had so
+painfully built up. The Turks, however, when they had recovered from
+the surprise, were in such large numbers as to be able to rally and
+drive the Christians from the vantage points which they had gained;
+and to oblige them once again to retire into the fort. From this time
+onward there was never a day in which the garrison and the besiegers
+were not hand to hand in the trenches.
+
+Just after the first reinforcements had been thrown into St. Elmo there
+arrived on the scene Ali, the Lieutenant of Dragut. This corsair came
+from Alexandria with six galleys, on board of which were nine hundred
+men, reinforcements for the Turkish army. A few days after this the
+famous Dragut himself appeared, with thirteen galleys and two galleots,
+on board of which were sixteen hundred men.
+
+What must not have been the despairing feelings with which the
+defenders viewed the arrival of this augmentation to the swarming
+ranks of their foes! From afar they noted the vessels and knew, while
+Philip of Spain and Garzia de Toledo still procrastinated, that now
+was added to the number of their enemies the most famous captain who
+served the autocrat of the Eastern world. Very naturally the arrival
+of Dragut was hailed with acclamation by the Turks: every gun in that
+vast armada spoke in salute, every trumpet blared, every drum rolled
+to welcome the man honoured of the Padishah, notorious throughout the
+whole world of Europe for his implacable enmity to the Knights. The
+first preoccupation of the corsair was to inform himself as to the
+conduct of the operations. These, when disclosed to him, by no means
+met with his approval. This real leader immediately made it clear to
+Piali and Mustafa that which they should have done. In the first place
+they should have made themselves masters of the castle of Gozo, and
+then captured the Città Notabile. By doing this the supplies to the
+town and fortress of Il Borgo would have been cut off: besides—and
+more important than aught else—they would in this manner have closed
+the road to those succours expected by the Christians. Piali, who had
+desired from the first to undertake nothing without the advice of
+Dragut, now said that the siege of St. Elmo was not so far advanced
+after all, and, if the Basha of Tripoli should so direct, it could
+be raised at once. To this, however, Dragut would by no means consent.
+
+“That would have been well enough,” he said, “if the affair had not
+gone so far; but, after the opening of the trenches and several days
+of attack, it is not possible to raise the siege without sullying the
+honour of the Sultan and discouraging the valour of the soldiers.”
+
+It cannot be denied that, in acting as he did, the corsair displayed
+a self-restraint and a loyalty to the Sultan hardly to be expected in
+the circumstances. The jealousy which so often obtains among rival
+commanders was singularly in evidence in the forces of the Padishah:
+Dragut had good cause to be dissatisfied with the dispositions which
+had been made, and yet, for the reasons which we have quoted, he
+allowed them to proceed. Before the Basha had left Tripoli he had been
+engaged in communications with Muley Hamid, the then King of Tunis, who
+was feudatory of Spain. Anxious as was the corsair to aid in attacking
+his implacable enemies, the Knights, he could not afford to leave his
+own flank unguarded in Africa. He succeeded, however, in arriving at an
+understanding with the King of Tunis, and, further than this, he had
+assured himself, by means of his spies, that the succours which were
+to be sent from Sicily by the Spanish King could not possibly arrive
+for another two months. It was the negotiations which he was obliged to
+undertake with Muley Hamid which had caused his late arrival. As far
+as it is possible to judge, it was this circumstance, which (added
+to their own incomparable valour) turned the scale in favour of the
+Knights.
+
+Among all those brave men at Malta, on both sides, in this flaming
+month of June 1565, there were none who excelled the Basha of Tripoli.
+“No one had ever seen a more intrepid general officer,” says de Vertot.
+“He passed entire days in the trenches and at the batteries. Among his
+different talents none understood better than did he the direction
+and conduct of artillery, which was his special _métier_. By his orders
+on June 1st a second battery was constructed closer to the fort and
+parallel to the one already in existence, in order that an absolutely
+continuous fire might be maintained. He mounted four guns on the
+opposite side of Marsa Muzetto Harbour on a projecting point of land,
+from which a further enfilading fire smote the doomed fortress on the
+flank: this point has been known ever since as the Point Dragut.”
+
+A ravelin in advance of the fortress on the land side was scourged
+without ceasing by the arquebus fire of the Janissaries. One evening,
+as the return fire had slackened and all seemed quiet within this work,
+some Turkish engineers stole forth from the trenches to reconnoitre.
+Approaching the cavalier, all was still as death; the bold sappers
+pushed on as far as the ditch by which the work was surrounded,
+creeping on hands and knees. They let themselves down noiselessly into
+the ditch, and then, one standing on the shoulders of another, peeped
+in upon their Christian foes. Whether or no the sentry had been slain
+by a stray shot, or whether he too slept, can never be known; but
+the cavalier was unguarded; all within it slept the sleep of men
+utterly exhausted. The sappers crept back to their trenches, fetched
+scaling-ladders, swept like a flood over the rim of the cavalier, and
+put to death every man whom they found. Profiting by their advantage,
+the Turks dashed over the bridge connecting the cavalier with the fort;
+here, however, they were met by Sergeant-Major Guerare and a handful
+of soldiers aroused by him. These men were instantly succoured by the
+Chevaliers de Vercoyran and de Medran, who were immediately followed
+by the Bailli of Negropont and several other Knights. An obstinate
+hand-to-hand combat now ensued; fresh Turks came up to the attack, but
+were mown down in swathes by an enfilading fire from two cannons which
+the defenders of the fort managed to bring to bear upon them. More
+pioneers arrived from the trenches, carrying planks and sacks filled
+with wool. These men tried to effect a permanent lodgment, but the fire
+was too hot on the Christian side, and men fell in hundreds. Nothing
+daunted, the Turks reared their scaling-ladders against the sides of
+the fortress itself, and attempted to scale the walls; but for this
+the ladders were too short, and the assailants were hurled back into
+the ditch. This attack, in which the Turkish arms were rewarded by the
+capture of the ravelin behind the cavalier, is said to have cost them
+the lives of three thousand men. It lasted from daybreak until midday.
+
+On the side of the Christians twenty Knights and one hundred soldiers
+were slain; but worst of all, from their point of view, the ravelin
+remained in the hands of their enemies. The chevalier Abel de
+Bridiers de la Gardampe having received a ball through his body, some
+of his comrades ran to place him under cover. “Count me no longer among
+the living,” said the Knight. “You will be better employed in defending
+the rest of our brethren.” He then, unassisted, dragged himself to the
+foot of the altar in the chapel, where his dead body was discovered
+when all was over.
+
+So far communication remained established between St. Elmo and
+their comrades in Il Borgo on the opposite side of the harbour;
+in consequence the wounded were removed and their places taken by
+one hundred fresh men under the Chevalier Vagnon. To the Bailli of
+Negropont and the Commandeur Broglio, La Valette sent a message to
+return to Il Borgo. These gallant and aged veterans, both of whom
+were wounded, whose faces were scorched by the sun and blackened with
+powder, whose bodies were well-nigh worn out with perpetual vigil and
+hand-to-hand fighting, refused stoutly to quit their post, which now
+was naught but a dreadful shambles filled with corpses mangled out of
+recognition and heads and limbs which had been torn and hacked from
+their bodies.
+
+Dragut now proposed to erect batteries on the same side of the Great
+Port as that on which Il Borgo was situated; on the point now known as
+Ricasoli, but which was then and for centuries afterwards known as the
+Punta Delle Forche (or Point of the Gallows, because it was here that
+all pirates was executed; and their bodies, swinging in chains, were
+the first objects that met the eye on entering the Great Port). In this
+he was overruled by Piali, who declared that he had not sufficient
+men to spare, and the Knights of II Borgo would soon render the battery
+untenable even if they should succeed in erecting it, which the Turkish
+admiral now considered extremely doubtful. The siege of St. Elmo, which
+Mustafa had said would last at the outside for five or six days, had
+now been in progress for four weeks; and, although the fort was in a
+ruinous condition, nothing seemed capable of daunting those invincible
+warriors by which it was held.
+
+The position in St. Elmo now was that the Turks still held on to the
+ravelin which they had captured; this they had built up to such a
+height that they could look over the parapet of the fortress and shoot
+down with arquebus fire any one whom they could see. Meanwhile the
+Turkish sappers delved night and day in their endeavour to undermine
+the parapet, which, if blown up, would give them free access to the
+interior of the fort; while another party, by use of the yards of
+galleys and huge planks of wood, busied themselves in constructing a
+bridge to connect the ravelin with the parapet. Lamirande, one of the
+most active of the defenders of the fort, viewed these preparations
+without undue alarm, as he was aware that, by the nature of the
+ground, it would be almost impossible to excavate sufficiently under
+the parapet to place an effective mine. As, however, the sapping was
+causing the parapet to incline outwards, and it was possible that
+it might almost at any moment fall over into the ditch, he caused a
+second parapet to be erected inside the first and artillery to be
+mounted thereon. Having done this he caused a false sortie to be
+made on the following night, and when the Turks rushed to the attack
+he, accompanied by a party of sappers, sallied out into the ditch and
+burned the bridge which had been made. The Turks, returning after their
+fruitless assault, found their bridge destroyed, but with untiring
+activity set to work and constructed it afresh. Dragging cannon to the
+very edge of the ravelin, they, on the very next evening, revenged
+themselves by also making a false attack: they swarmed into the ditch,
+and, placing their scaling-ladders against the walls, pretended that an
+escalade was to be attempted. The garrison, deceived, appeared on the
+parapet in large numbers, when a murderous fire at point-blank range
+was opened upon them from the ravelin. So great was the execution done
+on this occasion that the garrison lost more men than had hitherto been
+the case in the most determined attacks which they had sustained.
+
+It now seemed as if indeed the end had come, that the garrison had done
+all that was in the power of mortal man and nothing was left for them
+but to retire while there was yet time. Accordingly choice was made of
+the chevalier Median to represent the desperate extremities to which
+they were reduced to La Valette. It was well known that for none among
+the Knights had the Grand Master more respect than he had for Medran,
+one of the bravest and most chivalrous of them all. He, at least, could
+never be suspected of cowardice, feebleness, at a desire to desert his
+post. This gallant Knight crossed the harbour on his dolorous errand
+and was received by his chief: to him he represented the state of
+affairs as it has here been set down, assuring him that at best the
+fort could but hold out for a few days longer.
+
+A chapter of the Knights Grand Cross was immediately held and the
+most part of them were of opinion that the time had come to abandon a
+hopeless position. But this decision did not meet with the approval
+of the Grand Master. No one was more sensible than he of the peril to
+which their brethren were exposed; at the same time, he contended, that
+there were occasions on which it was necessary to sacrifice a certain
+number for the good of the whole Order. He had certain information
+that, if St. Elmo were abandoned, the Viceroy of Sicily would hazard
+nothing for the relief of the island; that upon the arrival of succours
+depended the existence of their ancient and honourable confederacy:
+therefore, at no matter what cost, they were bound to hold out as long
+as possible. So dominant was the personality of the Grand Master that,
+in a short time, he had won over the votes of the chapter and Medran
+was ordered to return to St. Elmo and deliver to the garrison a message
+that the siege must take its course.
+
+Medran accordingly returned and reported to his comrades the result
+of his embassy. Several of the older Knights received the command
+with due submission, but among those who were younger there were
+murmurings. These men deemed the answer to their appeal hard and cruel;
+they could see no object in the loss of their lives, which they well
+knew would all be sacrificed in the next assault. They accordingly,
+to the number of fifty-three, wrote a letter to the Grand Master,
+demanding permission to abandon St. Elmo and retire to Il Borgo. If
+their request were denied they announced their design to sally forth,
+sword in hand, and perish in the ranks of the enemy. The Commandeur de
+Cornet was the bearer of this letter, which was received by the Grand
+Master with sorrow and indignation. To reassure them, he sent three
+commissioners to inspect the place. This was done, and one of them, a
+Knight of Greek descent named Constantine Castriot, reported that the
+fort could still hold out a while longer. When he announced this at St.
+Elmo the recalcitrant Knights were so furious with him that the Baili
+of Negropont had to sound “the alarm” to prevent a disgraceful fracas.
+The commissioners returned to Il Borgo. After hearing their report La
+Valette wrote a letter to those by whom he had been memorialised to the
+following effect:
+
+“Return to the convent, my brothers; you will there be in greater
+security; and on our part we shall feel a greater sense of security in
+the conservation of so important a place, on which depends the safety
+of the island and the honour of our Order.”
+
+Never were men so taken aback as were the Knights in St. Elmo when
+they received this response; here it was intimated to them that that
+which they refused to do on account of the danger thereof was to be
+undertaken by others. This was no more than a fact, as La Valette
+was besieged with applications from, not only the Knights, but also
+the simple soldiers of the garrison, to be allowed to pass over to
+St. Elmo and die if necessary to the last man. It was, therefore,
+with prayers and tears that the Knights besought the Grand Master to
+allow them to remain. At first La Valette was adamant. He preferred,
+he said, the rawest militia which was prepared to obey his orders, to
+Knights who knew not their duty. In the end, however, he yielded, and
+in the fortress of St. Elmo, that crushed and ruined charnel-house,
+its defences gaping wide, its every corner exposed night and day to a
+sweeping murderous fire, there remained a host of men sadly torn and
+battered, but animated by such a spirit that nothing the Turks could
+devise made upon it the least impression. These great and gallant
+gentlemen had had their moment of weakness; they had been heartened to
+the right conception of their duty by the noble veteran who was their
+chief. To him had they turned at last, as his obedient children who had
+had their moment of rebellion in a trial as hard as was ever undergone
+by man. And now, as the inevitable end drew near, it was as if they
+would imitate the Roman gladiator with that terrible chorus of his:
+“Ave Cæsar morituri te salutant.”
+
+All day and every day did the garrison fight, snatching such repose
+as was possible when their pertinacious enemies, worn out by fatigue
+and the terrible heat, could no longer be led to the attack against
+those whom they now firmly believed to be in league with Shaitan
+himself; “For how else,” demanded Janissary and Spahi alike, “could
+infidels like these make head against those chosen of the Prophet like
+ourselves.”
+
+At this time the garrison took into use a device attributed to the
+Grand Master himself. This consisted in hoops of wood which were first
+thoroughly soaked in alcohol and then boiled in oil; they were then
+tightly bound with cotton or wool, also soaked in inflammable liquids
+mixed with saltpetre and gunpowder. Once these fiendish contrivances
+were set alight nothing availed to put them out, and they were feared
+as was naught else by the Turks during the remainder of the time they
+were in Malta. They were particularly deadly against the Turks, and at
+times two or more soldiers mounting the breach would be caught in one
+of these fiery circles, and the unfortunate wretches would be burnt
+alive. Even the Janissaries refused to advance at times when these
+fireworks were being flung down upon their flowing garments.
+
+On June 16th another attack was made on the fortress, and, incredible
+as it may seem, it was repulsed with such awful slaughter that at last
+the Turks would not face the swords of the garrison. Alter this the
+enemy succeeded in drawing so close a cordon round the place that no
+more succours could reach it, and the end was but a matter of time.
+The day before it came Dragut, who, with his usual intrepidity, was
+standing in the midst of a hot fire, was struck on the side of the
+head by a stone dislodged from a wall by a cannon-ball. At the moment
+when this happened he was holding a council of war in the trenches
+with Piali, a Sanjak, and the principal Turkish engineer. The same
+shot which wounded Dragut killed the Sanjak on the spot. Piali caused
+a cloak to be thrown over the body of the corsair in order that
+his state should not be observed by the soldiers, and as soon as
+possible had him removed to his tent, where he lay unconscious till the
+following day.
+
+The council on which the corsair had been engaged when he received his
+mortal wound had for its object the complete isolation of St. Elmo from
+Il Borgo; his dispositions were completed and his orders given to the
+engineer just before he was struck.
+
+The agony of St. Elmo was drawing to an end; completely hemmed in by
+the latest dispositions of Dragut, the fortress was at its last gasp;
+a brave Maltese swimmer managed to slip through the cordon, swim the
+harbour, and deliver to the Grand Master a letter from the Bailli of
+Negropont. The Grand Master made one last effort to throw succours and
+reinforcements into the place, but these were beaten off with terrible
+slaughter: nothing now remained but to await the inevitable tragedy.
+
+[Illustration: DEATH OF DRAGUT AT THE SIEGE OF MALTA.]
+
+On the night of June 22nd the defenders of St. Elmo, having now lost
+all hope of being supported, made ready for death. Into them La Valette
+had breathed his own heroic spirit, and none among them counselled
+or dreamed of surrender. The Order to which they had given their
+allegiance now demanded of them the last sacrifice which it was in
+their power to make, and this was offered in the manner most fitting to
+its tenets. These exhausted, war-worn, battle-scarred warriors repaired
+to the chapel, where they confessed, and made ready by partaking
+together of the sacrament, “and, having thus surrendered their souls
+to God, each retired to his post to die on the bed of honour with
+arms in his hand.” Those among the Knights who were too severely
+wounded or too ill to stand caused chairs to be carried to the breach
+in which they seated themselves and awaited the assault. For four hours
+did these indomitable men withstand the might of a host innumerable:
+at the conclusion of this period there remained alive but sixty of the
+garrison. Mustafa ceased the assault for a few moments only to replace
+the storming party by fresh troops, and then the end came. Almost
+the last to fall were the Chevalier Lamirande and the veteran Bailli
+of Negropont, and when the crescent banner was planted on the walls
+there remained alive not one of those defenders who had held the fort.
+Several of Dragut’s officers ran to his tent and announced the taking
+of St. Elmo. The great captain was in his last extremity and unable to
+speak, “He, however, manifested his joy by several signs, and, raising
+his eyes to heaven as if in thankfulness for its mercies, immediately
+expired: a captain of rare valour and even abundantly more humane than
+are ordinarily these corsairs.”
+
+The Basha Piali, on entering the fort and observing with what miserable
+resources it had so long been held exclaimed, as he looked across the
+harbour to Il Borgo:
+
+“What will not the parent do to us, when so small a son has cost us the
+lives of our bravest soldiers?”
+
+There is no record of what that cruel savage, Mustafa, said on this
+occasion; his deeds, however, spoke eloquently. He caused the bodies of
+the Knights to be decapitated and nailed to wooden crosses, while
+across their corpses were slashed a cross in derision of the religion
+of his foes. The bodies were then cast into the harbour, and were
+washed up at the foot of Il Borgo. Instantly the Grand Master ordered
+the decapitation of all the Turkish prisoners, and their heads were
+fired from cannon into the camp of Mustafa.
+
+With the remainder of the siege, which was yet to last till September
+18th, we have no concern in this book. It is only necessary to say that
+the men of Il Borgo were worthy to stand in the same category with the
+defenders of St. Elmo, which is equivalent to stating that in them also
+was discovered the last limit of heroism. The Grand Master survived
+the siege, his monument is the noble city of “Valetta” built on Mount
+Sceberras. The Turks abandoned the siege and returned to Constantinople
+on the arrival of some insignificant reinforcements from Sicily. So
+terrible had been the resistance of the Knights that no heart was left
+in their armada. Of Dragut there remains but little to be said: he
+was perhaps the best educated of the corsairs and less cruel than was
+usually their habit. Although not so renowned as his more celebrated
+master, Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, this is, perhaps, because his career
+was cut short at the siege of Malta at a comparatively early age.
+Although he never attained the rank of Admiralissimo to the Grand Turk,
+that potentate, as we have seen, placed in him the greatest confidence,
+and relied largely on his judgment, especially when sea-affairs were in
+question. Like the Barbarossas before him, he rose from nothing to the
+height to which he eventually attained by sheer force of intellect
+and character. In the stormy times in which his lot was cast he never
+faltered in his onward way, never repined, never looked back, sustained
+as he was by a consciousness of his own capability to rule the wild
+spirits by whom he lived surrounded. So it is that, whatever other
+opinion we may hold of Dragut, we cannot deny that in this captain of
+the Sea-wolves were blended rare qualities, which caused him to shine
+as a capable administrator, a fine seaman, but above all as a supreme
+leader of men. Dragut died with arms in his hands fighting those whom
+he considered to be his bitterest enemies. He did not live to see the
+repulse of Piali and Mustapha, and it is to be presumed that he died
+assured in his own mind that victory would rest with the Moslem host.
+For such a man as this no death could have been more welcome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ALI BASHA
+
+
+  Ali, the Basha of Algiers, succeeds to Dragut—He conquers
+  the Kingdom of Tunis, captures four galleys from the
+  Knights of Malta, joins Piali Basha in his raidings
+  preliminary to the battle of Lepanto—The gathering of the
+  Christian hosts and the arrival of Don John of Austria in
+  the Mediterranean to take command.
+
+“Now I have heard several mariners and captains of the sea, nay, even
+Knights of Malta, debate among themselves this question, as to which
+was the greater and better seaman, Dragut or Occhiali? And some held
+for one and some for the other; those who held for Occhiali declaring
+that he had held greater and more honourable charges than Dragut,
+because he commanded as General and Admiral for the Grand Turk and that
+_il fit belle action_ at the battle of Lepanto.” Pierre de Bourdeille,
+the Seigneur de Brantôme, from whom we make the above quotation, was
+himself present at the siege of Malta and, besides this, as is well
+known, gossiped in his own inimitable way concerning men and women
+of his time, from corsairs to courtesans. When such contemporary
+authorities as those mentioned could not agree it is quite certain
+that we of the twentieth century cannot decide on the rival claims to
+distinction between the Bashaw of Tripoli and his follower Occhiali,
+as he was known to the Christians, or Ali Basha, as he was called
+by the Turks. Ali Basha has a title to fame in the fact that he is
+mentioned by Cervantes in his _Don Quijote de la Mancha_ under the name
+of “Uchali” in chapter xxxix., “Donde el cautivo cuenta su vida y
+sucesos.” The captive is supposed to have been no less a person than
+the famous Cervantes himself, and he briefly describes how Uchali
+became “Rey de Argel,” or King of Algiers.
+
+Ali was a Christian, having been born at a miserable little village in
+Calabria called Licastelli. Nothing whatever is known of his birth and
+parentage, and he does not appear even to have possessed a Christian
+name, although born in a Christian land. He followed from his earliest
+youth the calling of a mariner; “he was from infancy inured to salt
+water,” says Joseph Morgan, in his _Compleat History of Algiers_, and he
+was, as a mere boy, captured by Ali Ahamed, Admiral of Algiers, and was
+chained to the starboard-bow oar in the galley of that officer. He was
+thus very early in life “inured” to suffering, and must have possessed
+a constitution of iron to withstand thus, in boyhood, the hardships of
+the life of a galley-slave, which as a rule broke down the endurance of
+strong men in a very few years. Morgan presents us with a description
+of him at this period which in these more squeamish days can certainly
+not be set down in its entirety: suffice it to say that he suffered
+all his days from what is known as “scald-head,” and that personal
+filthiness was one of his principal characteristics.
+
+For some years Ali remained at the heart-breaking toil of the
+rower’s bench: cut off from home, which to him meant nothing, devoid
+of kinsfolk, alone—miserably alone in a world which, so far, had given
+him naught but the chain and the whip—it is not a matter for surprise
+that he became a Mussulman, thus freeing himself from slavery. From the
+time that he took this step his fortunes mended rapidly in that strange
+medley of savagery and bloodshed in which his lot was cast.
+
+Alert, strong, capable, and vigorous, he became in early manhood chief
+boatswain in the galley in which his apprenticeship had been passed—a
+position which enabled him to accumulate a small store of ducats,
+with which he bought a share in a brigantine. Here he soon acquired
+sufficient wealth to become captain and owner of a galley, in which
+he soon gained the reputation of being one of the boldest corsairs on
+the Barbary coast. Having in some sort made a name for himself, his
+next step was to seek for a patron who could make use of his valour,
+address, and capability for command. His choice was soon made, as
+who in all the Mediterranean, in his early days, held such a name as
+Dragut? He accordingly entered the service of the Basha of Tripoli,
+and, under his command, became well known to the officers of the Grand
+Turk, particularly to the Admiral, Piali Basha, to whom he was able to
+render some important services.
+
+There is no object to be gained in lingering over the earlier years of
+this notable corsair, as we should thus only be repeating what has been
+said about Dragut, whose lieutenant and trusted follower he became.
+He accompanied his master to the siege of Malta, and when Dragut was
+slain the Capitan-Basha, Piali, named him as successor to his chief
+as Viceroy of Tripoli. Ali sailed from Malta to Tripoli, taking with
+him the remains of Dragut, to be buried as that chieftain had directed.
+When he arrived on the Barbary coast he made himself master of the
+slaves and treasure which had been left behind by Dragut; shortly
+after this he was confirmed in his Vice-royalty of Tripoli by the
+Grand Turk; thenceforward increasing, both his wealth and the terror
+in which his name was held, by continual raids upon the Christians,
+more particularly on the coasts of Sicily, Calabria, and Naples. It is
+curious to observe the sort of spite which all the renegadoes seem to
+have harboured against the countries in which they were born.
+
+In March 1568, owing to the fall of Mohammed Basha, the Vice-royalty of
+Algiers became vacant, and, through the good offices of his old friend
+Piali, Ali became Governor. He thus returned to occupy a position of
+literally sovereign power to the city which he had first entered as a
+galley-slave.
+
+That he was no negligent Governor and that he took an entirely
+intelligent view of his functions, is proved by an occurrence which
+took place in this same year in Spain. The Moriscoes in the Kingdom
+of Granada revolted against their Spanish Governor, by whom they
+were sorely oppressed. They sent messages to Ali at Algiers, begging
+for succour against their persecutor. But the Basha would send no
+expedition; he permitted all and sundry to go as volunteers, but gave
+out publicly that “it more concerned him to defend well his own State
+than to interfere in the affairs of others.” He even went farther
+than this, and when a number of Moriscoes, who were settled at
+Algiers, embarked a quantity of arms for transportation to the coast
+of Andalusia, he put an embargo on the vessels and would not allow
+them to sail, saying “he would never suffer the exportation of what
+was so necessary for the defence of his own dominions.” At last, after
+much importunity, he consented “that all such as had two of a sort—as
+muskets, swords, or other weapons—might, if they thought fit, send over
+one of them, provided they did it gratis and purely for the cause’
+sake; but he would never allow any of them to strip themselves of their
+arms for lucre.”
+
+Ali, being now firmly established at Algiers, took up arms against the
+neighbouring State of Tunis. For long years now the King of Tunis had
+been protected by the Spaniards—a nation whom the Sea-wolves always
+held in singular abhorrence as the most bigoted of the Christian
+Powers, and who held in thrall many of their co-religionists. Hamid,
+son of Hassan, who now ruled in Tunis, had reduced that unfortunate
+State to anarchy bordering on rebellion, and the whole country, torn
+by internal feud, was ready to rise against him. The Goletta was in
+the hands of the Spaniards; Carouan, an inland town, had set up a king
+of its own, while the maritime towns passed from the domination of the
+Sea-wolves to that of the Christians, and from the Christians back to
+the Sea-wolves, according to which party happened to be the stronger
+for the time being.
+
+El Maestro Fray Diego de Haedo, “Abad de Fromesta de la Orden del
+Patriarca San Benito” and “natural del Valle de Carranca,” whose
+_Topografia e Historia de Argel_ (or Algiers) was printed in Valladolid
+in the year 1612, gives an account of Hamid at this time in which he
+describes that monarch as an “unpopular tyrant who sadly persecuted his
+vassals and the friends of his father; who could by no means suffer his
+tyrannies and those of his ministers, the scum of the earth (“hombres
+baxos”), to whom he had given the principal offices of the kingdom.
+Accordingly, since the time that Ali had become Basha of Algiers,
+letters had been written to him importuning him to come to Tunis that
+he might possess himself of that city and kingdom.”
+
+There were three principal conspirators—the Alcaid Bengabara, General
+of the Cavalry, the Alcaid Botaybo, and the Alcaid Alcadaar. Ali,
+however, was too shrewd a man to move until he had satisfied himself by
+reports from his own adherents; he, therefore, awaited the result of
+investigations made by spies from Algiers. At last, in the beginning of
+the year 1569, when the offers from the Alcaids had been three times
+renewed and the Basha was assured that the people in Tunis were sincere
+in their offer to him of the sovereignty of the kingdom—which they
+begged him to conquer and hold in the name of the Ottoman Empire—the
+ex-galley-slave no longer hesitated. He left Algiers in the month
+of October, leaving that city in charge of one Mami Corso, a fellow
+renegado. Unlike Dragut, who would have gone by sea, he set out by
+land with some five thousand corsairs and renegadoes. On the way he
+was reinforced by some six thousand cavalry of the wild tribes of the
+hinterland, then as ever ready to join in a fray with promise of
+booty: doubly ready in this case, as it was to harass so unpopular a
+tyrant as Hamid. Passing through Constantine and Bona, he continued
+to march towards Tunis, his following augmenting as he proceeded, and
+adding to his forces ten light field-guns. Arriving at Beja, a town
+which Haedo describes as being but two short days’ march from Tunis,
+he came upon a fortress, recently erected by Hamid, mounting fourteen
+brass cannon. Here he halted, whereupon Hamid sallied out to give him
+battle at the head of some three thousand troops, horse and foot. The
+engagement had scarcely begun when the three Alcaids, who had been in
+communication with Ali, deserted with all their following. Hamid fled
+to Tunis, expecting to find shelter there, but he was hotly pursued by
+the corsairs, who followed him up to Al-Burdon, where his summer palace
+was situated. Hamid, finding that his people were everywhere in revolt,
+fled to the Goletta, carrying with him a quantity of money, jewels,
+and portable valuables, and placed himself under the protection of the
+Spanish garrison—not, however, without the loss of the major portion of
+his baggage, plundered from him by certain Moors in the course of his
+flight.
+
+Like Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, Ali was now lord of Algiers and Tunis,
+and as he was, for a corsair, a man of wide views, he treated his new
+subjects with consideration. He made, however, one curious mistake not
+to have been expected from one so politic: he demanded tribute from
+the tribes of the hinterland. In those days, particularly in Northern
+Africa, men paid tribute to an overlord because he was stronger than
+they; because retribution followed swiftly and suddenly upon refusal.
+To order tribute to be paid without being ready to strike was merely
+to expose the man making the demand to derision. Particularly was this
+the case with the fierce land-pirates of the desert, whose habit it was
+to exact and not to pay tribute. To Ali the Sheiks replied that “if he
+wanted tribute from them he must demand it lance in hand in the field,
+for there and nowhere else were they accustomed to pay: that their coin
+was steel lance-heads and not golden aspers.” After this, says Morgan,
+“the Basha thought it well to dissemble.”
+
+Ali, being in no position to wage war in the desert against these
+people, had to swallow the insult and to turn his attention to
+regulating the internal affairs of his newly acquired kingdom. This he
+succeeded in doing sufficiently by the month of June in the following
+year to enable him to leave Tunis in the hands of one Rabadan, a
+Sardinian renegado, and to start himself for Constantinople. His reason
+for doing this was the old one of attempting to consolidate his power
+in Northern Africa by appealing to the Sultan for help. As long as the
+Goletta remained in the hands of the Spaniards no corsair could feel
+himself secure in either Tunis or Algiers. The object of Ali was to beg
+from the Grand Turk men and ships to assist him to chase the Spaniards
+out of Africa.
+
+The month of June 1570, in consequence, saw Ali once more at sea in his
+“Admiral galley,” steering northwards to the Golden Horn. Carrying with
+them a favourable breeze from the south-east, the galleys spread
+their huge lateen sails, and the straining rowers had rest awhile. The
+squadron consisted of twenty-four galleys. Off Cape Passaro, in Sicily,
+a small vessel was captured which gave information that five galleys of
+the Knights of Malta were at anchor at Licata, a small harbour in the
+neighbourhood, and that they were on the point of sailing for Malta.
+The decision of Ali was taken on the instant: were he to go in and
+attack them with the overwhelming force at his command the crews might
+escape to the shore; even the Knights of Malta could hardly be expected
+to fight twenty-four galleys with five. He was anxious to capture the
+ships, but above all to capture those by whom they were manned: to have
+the satisfactory revenge of seeing the proud Knights stripped naked and
+chained to the benches of his own fleet.
+
+The hot Mediterranean sun poured down out of a cloudless sky as the
+Sea-wolves made their offing; out of sight of land they lay, but right
+in the course which the galleys of the Christians were bound to take.
+The great yards, with their lateen sails, were got down on deck, and,
+oar in hand, the Moslems awaited their prey. Presently the Maltese
+galleys were discovered coming leisurely along, under oars and sails,
+and then—when it was too late—the Knights discovered the snare into
+which they had fallen. There was but scant time for preparation or
+deliberation, and who shall blame four out of the five if they decided
+to try to escape? for it was escape or annihilation.
+
+But there was one which did not fly, “Una galera hizo cara a los
+Turcos” (One single galley turned her bows towards the Turks), says
+that faithful chronicler Haedo. She was named the _Santa Ana_, but the
+name of her heroic commander has not come down to us. Even as Grenfell
+“at Flores in the Azores,” stood upon the deck of the little _Revenge_ on
+that memorable August day in 1591, when “he chose to die rather than to
+dishonour himself, his country, and her Majesty’s ship,” so also did
+this Knight of Malta bear down on the twenty-four that were his foes.
+
+When Don John of Austria, being at the time young and inexperienced in
+warfare on the sea, wrote to the Marquis of Villafranca, General of the
+Galleys of Sicily, requesting advice on the subject of galley attacking
+galley, that officer replied to him, “Never fire your arquebus at the
+foe until you are so close at hand that his blood will leap into your
+face at the discharge.” If we bear in mind such an instruction as this
+it will help us to picture that close-packed sanguinary conflict upon
+which the Mediterranean sun looked down on this day. Eight to one, all
+that could find room to get alongside of the _Santa Ana_, fought with the
+Knight and his followers. The issue was, of course, never in doubt for
+a moment. “Muertos y cansados” (Dead and deadbeat), says Haedo, the
+caballeros and soldados of the Christian ship could at length hold out
+no longer. The Sea-wolves were victorious, the proud banner of Saint
+John was lowered; but never in all its history had it been more nobly
+upheld, and the galley _Santa Ana_, commanded by that unknown member
+of the great Christian military hierarchy of the sixteenth century,
+may well stand in the roll of fame alongside of the _Revenge_, the
+_Vengeur_, and the _Victory_.
+
+The _Capitana_, or “Admiral’s galley,” of the Knights, being hotly
+pursued, ran ashore with one of her consorts at Licata: the crews
+landed, but were pursued and overtaken. One galley escaped altogether,
+but four out of the five were taken. So notable a victory as this over
+the Knights caused so much rejoicing in the fleet of the Sea-wolves
+that Ali determined to celebrate it by a triumphal return to Algiers
+instead of proceeding directly to Constantinople. Accordingly, the
+ships’ heads were turned south once more, and upon July 20th, 1570,
+the fleet arrived in the African port, “on sus galeras todas llenas de
+muchas banderas”—with galleys gaily beflagged.
+
+[Illustration: A GALLEY OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA.]
+
+The procession entered the harbour in three divisions of eight galleys:
+and towing behind each division was one of the captured galleys of
+the Knights. In memory of his prowess Ali ordered that the shields
+and bucklers taken from the Maltese galleys, which bore upon them
+emblazoned the white cross of “the Religion,” should be hung up in the
+great arched gate of the Marina. Also there was placed here the image
+of Saint John the Baptist, taken from the _Capitana_ galley, “all of
+which remain,” says Haedo, “until this day” (_i.e._ 1612), except the
+image of Saint John, which in the reign of Hassan Basha, a Venetian
+renegado, was taken down and burned at the instance of the Morabutos,
+“los letrados de los Moros” (the learned among the Moors). It is an
+instructive commentary on the fear and respect in which the Knights of
+Malta were held that such a man as Ali should have considered it a
+triumph worth the celebrating when he defeated five of their vessels
+with twenty-four of his own.
+
+The next occurrence in the life of Ali was one of those to which the
+Sea-wolves were subjected from time to time, and which do not seem to
+have caused them much trouble or anxiety. This was a mutiny of the
+Janissaries in Algiers, who very reasonably objected to being left
+without their pay. A mutiny of the Janissaries, however, was somewhat
+a serious matter, as they were accustomed to the enjoyment of many
+privileges, and were, as we have said elsewhere, a picked corps who had
+it in their power even to coerce the Sultan himself upon occasions.
+
+Those of them who were in Algiers demanded “Who was this corsair who
+dared to keep the picked men of the army of the Grand Turk waiting for
+their pay, as if they were no better than his slaves?” Such a thing as
+a mutiny was, in the days of which we speak, a matter for which any
+prudent corsair had to be prepared. Ali was in no means discomposed,
+and, as the crisis had become acute on shore, he went to sea, where
+he was under no obligation to pay his men, who paid themselves at the
+expense of their enemies. He put to sea with twenty galleys, and,
+shortly after leaving Algiers, he met with a galley from the Levant,
+from which he received information that a powerful armada was preparing
+in Constantinople for an expedition against the Christians. He steered
+for Coron in the Morea, where he was almost immediately joined by the
+Ottoman fleet, the commander of which force was overjoyed to find so
+formidable a reinforcement under so renowned a captain as Ali.
+
+Soliman the Magnificent had died in 1566, and had been succeeded by his
+son, Selim; this prince, bred in the Seraglio, was weak and licentious,
+given to that strong drink forbidden by the Prophet to an extent which
+caused him to be nicknamed by the Spaniards as “el ebrio,” or “el
+bebedor.”
+
+This was a state of affairs which boded ill for the Turkish Empire,
+and Selim II. had been educated in a very different manner from that
+which had hitherto been the custom. Speaking of this, Gibbon says,
+“Instead of the slothful luxury of the Seraglio, the heirs of royalty
+were educated in the council and the field. From early youth they were
+entrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces and of armies;
+and this manly institution, which was often productive of civil war,
+must have essentially contributed to the discipline and vigour of the
+monarchy.”
+
+Drunkard and weakling as he was, Selim had his ambitions. He wished to
+signalise his reign by some great conquest, such as had added lustre to
+the rule of his father; and in consequence he laid claim to the island
+of Cyprus, then belonging to Venice, The Venetians, having strengthened
+the fortifications of the island and fitted out their navy, sought
+alliances in Europe to curb the pretensions of the Porte. In this
+they found support, instant and generous, from the Pope Pius V. Of
+this great ecclesiastic Prescott says: “He was one of those Pontiffs
+who seemed to have been called forth by the exigencies of the time to
+uphold the pillars of Catholicism as they were yet trembling under
+the assaults of Luther.”
+
+The Pope, Philip II. of Spain, and Venice formed what was known as the
+“Holy League,” and, having formed it, immediately began to quarrel
+among themselves as to what its functions were to be. The Venetians
+wished all its efforts to be directed to safeguarding Cyprus, while
+Philip and his viceroys were anxious to attack the Sea-wolves on
+the coast of Africa in their strongholds. After much squabbling,
+an agreement was come to. The principal items of this were, that
+the Pope should pay one-sixth of the expenses, Venice two-sixths,
+and Spain three-sixths; that each party should appoint its own
+Commander-in-Chief, and that Don John of Austria should be in supreme
+command of the whole forces assembled. The contracting parties were to
+furnish 200 galleys, 100 transports, 50,000 foot, 4,500 horse, and the
+requisite artillery and stores.
+
+While the Christians were negotiating and talking, the Turks were
+acting. It was in May that the Pope caused the treaty to be publicly
+read in full consistory; in April the Turkish fleet had got to sea and
+committed terrible ravages in the Adriatic, laying waste to Venetian
+territory.
+
+While ships and men were gathering, and while the fleet which it was to
+be his fortune to defeat was pursuing its career in the Mediterranean,
+Don John of Austria left Madrid for the south on June 6th, 1571. When
+he arrived at Barcelona he made a pilgrimage to the Hermitage of Our
+Lady of Montserrat, where his father Charles V. had confessed and
+received the sacrament before he sailed on his voyage to the Barbary
+coast in his expedition against Barbarossa. From Barcelona he sailed
+with thirty galleys to Genoa, where he arrived on the 25th, and was
+lodged in the palace of Andrea Doria. In August he arrived by water at
+Naples.
+
+By this time all Europe was aflame with excitement: warriors of noble
+birth were flocking to serve under the standard of the brother of the
+King of Spain, who was regarded as the very mirror of chivalry. The
+following description of Don John, at Naples, is from the pen of that
+great historian Prescott:
+
+“Arrangements had been made in that city for his reception on a more
+magnificent scale than any he had witnessed on his journey. Granvelle,
+who had lately been raised to the post of Viceroy, came forth at the
+head of a long and brilliant procession to welcome his royal guest. The
+houses which lined the streets were hung with richly tinted tapestries
+and gaily festooned with flowers. The windows and verandahs were graced
+with the beauty and fashion of the pleasure-loving capital, and many
+a dark eye sparkled as it gazed upon the fine form and features of
+the youthful hero, who at the age of twenty-four had come to Italy to
+assume the baton of command and lead the crusade against the Moslems.
+His splendid dress of white velvet and cloth of gold set off his
+graceful person to advantage. A crimson scarf floated loosely over his
+breast, and his snow-white plumes drooping from his cap mingled with
+the yellow curls that fell in profusion over his shoulders. It was
+a picture which the Italian maiden might love to look on. It was
+certainly not the picture of the warrior sheathed in the iron panoply
+of war. But the young Prince, in his general aspect, might be relieved
+from the charge of effeminacy by his truly chivalrous bearing and the
+dauntless spirit which beamed from his clear blue eyes. In his own
+lineaments he seemed to combine all that was comely in the lineaments
+of his race.”
+
+At Naples Don John found a fleet at anchor under the command of Don
+Alvaro de Bazan, first marquis of Santa Cruz, of whom much was to be
+heard in the future in his capacity as Admiral of Castile. Here also he
+received from the hands of Cardinal Granvelle a consecrated banner sent
+to him by the Pope at a solemn ceremony in the church of the Franciscan
+Convent of Santa Chiara. On August 25th he left Naples and proceeded to
+Messina, where he landed under a triumphal arch of colossal dimensions,
+embossed with rich plates of silver and curiously sculptured with
+emblematical bas-reliefs. The royal galley in which the hero embarked
+was built at Barcelona: she was fitted with the greatest luxury, and
+was remarkable for her strength and speed; her stern was profusely
+decorated with emblems and devices drawn from history; no such warship
+had ever been seen in the world before.
+
+Cayetano Rosell, in his _Historia del combate naval de Lepanto_, says
+that the number of vessels, great and small, in the Christian armada
+was over 300, of which 200 were galleys, the ordinary warships of the
+time. He goes on to say:
+
+“In this spacious harbour [Messina] there were collected the
+squadrons of the League; the people who managed the oars and sails
+and the innumerable combatants making an immense number when added
+together. Since the days of Imperial Rome, never had been seen in these
+seas so imposing a spectacle, never had there been collected so many
+ships moving towards a single end dominated by a single will. Never
+was there a spectacle more gratifying in the eyes of justice, nor of
+greater incentive to men to fight for the cause of religion.”
+
+The Spanish fleet comprised 90 royal galleys, 24 nefs, and 50 fregatas
+and brigantines “los mejores que en tiempo alguno se habrian visto”
+(the finest that ever were seen at any time), as they were described by
+Don John. The Pope sent 12 galleys and 6 fregatas, under the command of
+Mark Antony Colonna. The Pope had also made a grant of the “Crusada”
+and “Excusada,” and other ecclesiastical revenues which he drew from
+Spain, to the King of that country, to meet expenses.
+
+Venice appointed Sebastian Veniero to the command of her fleet, which
+consisted of 106 galleys, 6 galeasses of enormous bulk and clumsy
+construction carrying each 40 guns, 2 nefs, and 20 fregatas. These
+vessels were, however, so miserably manned and equipped that Don
+John had to send on board Spaniards and Genoese to complete their
+complements. In a manuscript of the Bibliothèque du Roi (Number 10088)
+is an account of the battle of Lepanto by Commandeur de Romegas. He
+gives the number of the Turkish fleet at 333 ships, of which 230 were
+galleys, the rest galeasses and smaller craft. The total which he gives
+for the Christian fleet is 271. Ali Basha was in supreme command of
+the Turkish forces, “a man of an intrepid spirit, who had given many
+proofs of a humane and generous mature—qualities more rare among the
+Turks, perhaps among all nations, than mere physical courage.” With
+Ali was the Basha of Algiers, that other Ali, the corsair, who since
+his arrival at Coron had done more than his share of the fighting,
+marauding, and devastating which were the preliminaries to the battle
+of Lepanto. In this historic conflict he was to show once again how,
+on the face of the waters, the Sea-wolves were supreme; as it was he
+and his corsairs, out of the whole of the Moslem host, who acquitted
+themselves with the greatest credit on that day so fatal to the arms of
+the Ottoman Turk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+LEPANTO
+
+
+  How Ali Basha fought at the battle of Lepanto: his
+  subsequent career—Conclusion.
+
+Lepanto, the last battle of first-class importance in which the
+Sea-wolves bore a leading part, is memorable in many ways. It is one
+of the most sanguinary which was ever fought, the element of personal
+hatred between the combatants, to which we have alluded more than
+once, being singularly in evidence on this occasion. As we have said,
+this campaign was brought about at the initiative of the Venetians,
+and an incident which occurred not long before the battle exacerbated
+the feelings with which the Turks were regarded by the Christians
+to the point of madness. The city of Famagusta, in Cyprus, had been
+captured by that Mustafa of whom we heard so much at the siege of
+Malta. The Venetian defenders made an honourable capitulation, but
+when the four principal Venetian captains were brought before Mustafa,
+that general caused three of them to be beheaded on the spot; the
+fourth, a noble and gallant gentleman who had been responsible for the
+magnificent defence of the city entrusted to his charge, he caused to
+be flayed alive in the market-square. He then had the skin stuffed
+with straw, and, with this ghastly trophy nailed to the prow of his
+galley, returned in triumph to Constantinople. Bragadino, the defender
+of Famagusta, did not die in vain; his terrible fate excited such a
+passion of anger in the whole of the armada of Don John that each
+individual of which it was composed felt that the sacrifice of his
+own life would be but a small thing if it only led to the destruction
+of such fiends as those against whom they were arrayed.
+
+[Illustration: DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA.]
+
+Lepanto was a magnificent triumph for the arms of Christendom, and
+taught a much-needed lesson to Europe that the Ottoman Turk was not
+invincible upon the sea; it was not, however, an interesting battle
+from the point of view of the student of war and its combinations. Of
+all the high officers in command on that memorable day there was only
+one who displayed real generalship and a proper appreciation of the
+tactical necessities of the situation; that officer was Ali Basha,
+the leader of the Sea-wolves. The account of the battle is somewhat
+obscured by the fact that on the side of the Moslems the name of the
+Ottoman Commander-in-Chief was also “Ali”; in order to avoid confusion
+in this narration, we shall allude to the Basha of Algiers by the name
+given to him by the Christians, “Occhiali.”
+
+It was on Sunday, October 7th, 1571, that the Christian fleet weighed
+anchor from Cephalonia and stood southwards along the Albanian coast,
+which is here fringed with rocky islets. The right wing was commanded
+by John Andrea Doria, the left wing by the Provéditeur Barbarigo, the
+centre, or “battle,” as it was called, by Don John in person, who
+had on the one side of him Mark Antony Colonna, the General of the
+Galleys of the Pope, and on the other that fiery veteran Sebastian
+Veniero, the commander of the Venetians. Here also were stationed the
+Prince of Parma, nephew to Don John, Admiral of Savoy; Duke Urbino,
+Admiral of Genoa; the Admiral of Naples, and the Commandeur of Castile.
+The reserve, under the command of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, consisted
+of thirty-five galleys. Immediately in rear of the _Real_, or royal
+galley of Don John, was that of the Grand Commander Requesens. The
+number of seamen, soldiers, officers, and galley-slaves in the fleet
+amounted to over eighty thousand persons; twenty-nine thousand infantry
+had been embarked, of which number nineteen thousand were Spaniards.
+Opposed to the Christians on this day was a Turkish fleet which had
+on board no less than one hundred and twenty thousand men embarked in
+two hundred and fifty galleys, without counting an innumerable host of
+smaller vessels.
+
+[Illustration: SEBASTIAN VENIERO.
+
+Inset, portraits of Don John and Pope Pius V. Heroic statue of Don John
+dominating Christian and Turkish Fleets. The breath of the Almighty
+destroying the Turkish fleet at Lepanto.]
+
+The authorities on whose accounts of the battle this description is
+based are Prescott, the famous historian; P. Daru, a member of the
+Académie Française, who wrote an exhaustive _Histoire de Venise_ and Don
+Cayetano Rosell, member of the Spanish Academy, who is responsible for
+an exposition of the subject, known as _Historia del combate naval de
+Lepanto_. From a comparison of the works of these eminent men one fact
+emerges with great clearness, which is that the battle of Lepanto was
+an indiscriminate mêlée which was decided by some of the most desperate
+fighting ever recorded, but which depended hardly at all upon the
+tactical abilities of the men in chief command. It is true that we are
+told Don John issued written instructions to the commander of each
+ship, but we are left in the dark as to what these instructions were,
+while at the same time we discover that in his line of battle, which in
+the first instance appears to have been that of “single line ahead,”
+the galleys of all nationalities were inextricably mixed up; making it
+thereby impossible for the Papal, Spanish, and Venetian commanders to
+deal, as they should have done, exclusively with their own men. On the
+other hand, Occhiali kept together the squadron of the Sea-wolves; he
+outgeneralled and had all but defeated John Andrea Doria, when the end
+came and he was obliged to retreat.
+
+We are, however, anticipating. Don John passed down his own line in a
+light “fregata” giving a few words of exhortation and advice to each
+ship under his command. If the bastard brother of the King of Spain did
+not exhibit any large measure of ability as a leader on this occasion,
+he was perhaps none the less the right man in the right place, as
+he had about him so winning a way, he was so striking and gallant a
+figure, that the hearts of all under his command went out to him. The
+seamen and soldiers of the great armada greeted him with enthusiastic
+shouts of delight as he bade them remember in whose cause it was that
+they fought. The last of the Knights-errant must have made a brave show
+as he passed down that line four miles in length, the sun shining on
+his damascened armour, and his yellow curls streaming out from beneath
+his helmet.
+
+Soon after sunrise the Turkish fleet was descried sailing towards the
+Christians, in such apparently overwhelming force that several of the
+Spanish commanders represented to Don John that it would be imprudent
+to risk a battle. To his honour be it recorded that he replied he had
+come out to fight the Turks and that the time for talk was now over. He
+then hoisted all his banners, and the executive signal for the combat
+to begin was given by displaying at his mainmast head the sacred banner
+blessed by the Pope. As this standard floated out upon the breeze there
+went up a great shout in unison from all that were under the command of
+Don John. The scene of the combat was that area of the Ionian Sea which
+is enclosed on the east by the coasts of Albania and Morea and on the
+west by the islands of Ithaca and Cephalonia, Just to the northward, at
+the entrance to the Gulf of Arta, sixteen hundred years before had been
+fought the battle of Actium between Antony and Octavius; the same spot
+had witnessed, in 1538, the memorable battle of Prevesa between Andrea
+Doria and Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa.
+
+From the point of view of the seaman, who is naturally anxious
+to discover the dispositions of their fleets made by the rival
+Commanders-in-Chief, Lepanto is an almost hopeless puzzle. As far as
+can be gathered, however, it was that the two armadas approached one
+another in what is known as “line ahead,” each ship being immediately
+astern of its next ahead in one long continuous line; and that,
+when they got within striking distance, these lines turned so that
+they formed “line abreast,” when each ship, having turned at right
+angles, simultaneously the line advances abreast, the ships forming
+it being broadside to broadside.
+
+When the Turks discovered the allies they were issuing from between the
+islets and the shore. Seeing John Andrea Doria moving to the right,
+they judged that he was executing a turning movement with the object
+of escaping to the northwards, from whence he had come; they were, at
+the time, unable to see the rest of the fleet, which was hidden by the
+land. With sound tactical judgment they accordingly advanced to attack
+the allies before they should have time to issue from the strait. They
+were, however, too far off to accomplish this, and, by the time they
+arrived within striking distance, the Christian fleet had cleared the
+strait and was ready for them, “drawn up for battle,” says Monsieur
+Daru, which is somewhat vague in describing the disposition of a fleet.
+What is certain, however, is that in advance of the galleys of Don
+John were six great galeasses, which were armed with guns of immensely
+superior power to anything which could be mounted in galleys. As the
+Turks advanced to the attack these vessels opened fire, and did so much
+execution that Ali, the Turkish Commander-in-Chief, ordered his line to
+open out and thus avoid their fire. Whatever formation the fleet was
+in at the time—which was, as far as we can gather, “line abreast”—this
+opening-out process, to avoid the galeasses, threw it into hopeless
+confusion. The Turkish right wing, which was hugging the coast, and
+was the first to come into action, passed on in an endeavour to turn
+the left wing of the allies. While this manoeuvre was in progress
+Ali, the Capitan-Basha of the Turks, arrived in his vessel opposite
+to the royal galley of Don John. At the masthead of the galley of the
+Capitan-Bashaw floated the sacred standard of the Ottomans. This, the
+ancient banner of the Caliphs, was covered with texts from the Koran,
+and had upon it the name of Allah emblazoned no less than twenty-eight
+thousand nine hundred times in letters of gold. “It was,” says
+Prescott, “the banner of the Sultan, having passed from father to son
+since the foundation of the dynasty, and was never seen in the field
+unless the Grand Seigneur or his lieutenant was there in person.” Ali,
+the Commander-in-Chief, a favourite of the Sultan, had been entrusted
+with this most precious of all the possessions of the Padishah, as an
+incentive to him and all under his command to fight their hardest to
+do honour to the Prophet, and to prevent this symbol of their religion
+from falling into the hands of the Christian. Ali, like Don John, was
+young, and burning to distinguish himself; accordingly, as soon as the
+ships of the two leaders came opposite to each other neither regarded
+any enemy save his rival Commander-in-Chief. Ali drove his great galley
+straight on board of the vessel of Don John, and a most obstinate
+conflict ensued. Veniero and Colonna hastened to the assistance of
+their chief, who was sore beset.
+
+The combat now became general, and, as has been said, was for the most
+part nothing but a melee, in which each ship sought out the nearest
+of her foes and closed with her. For some time the fight went hard
+with Don John; time and again the galley of the Moslem leader was
+boarded, but on each occasion the Spaniards were hurled back upon
+their own decks. Loredano and Malipier, two Venetian captains, fell
+upon seven Turkish galleys which were hastening to reinforce the attack
+on Don John, and sank one of them. They then fought with such fury and
+resolution with the six that remained that, although both captains were
+killed, it was conceded that they had saved their general, entirely
+altered the complexion of the battle in their neighbourhood, and
+facilitated the capture of the Turkish admiral. The determined conduct
+of the two Venetians allowed the Spanish division to close in on the
+Turkish flagship, which, after an heroic resistance, was captured,
+principally because there were practically none left alive to fight.
+The head of Ali was struck off by a Spanish soldier, the banner of
+the Moslems was replaced by the flag of the Cross, the head of Ali
+on a pike being exhibited in derision above it. The conquerors seem
+to have seen no incongruity in this performance. The lowering of the
+sacred standard of the Capitan-Basha had a disheartening effect upon
+the Turks; they knew by this that their Commander-in-Chief was dead
+and his ship captured, the result being that the resistance of the
+Ottomans began to weaken. Then thirty galleys took to flight from the
+neighbourhood of the Christian flagship; so hotly were they pursued
+that they ran on shore, the crews swimming or wading to the beach and
+making off inland.
+
+On the right of the Christian line things had not been going so
+propitiously for them. Here Occhiali had managed, by his apparently
+persistent attempts to outflank John Andrea Doria, to decoy that
+commander away from his supports and from the main body of the
+Christians. This tactical manoeuvre of the corsair was successful;
+having drawn off some fifteen of the Christian galleys, he suddenly
+flung the whole of his greatly superior force into the gap and
+surrounded them. These galleys were Spanish, Venetian, and Maltese,
+and, although they offered a most vigorous resistance, they were mostly
+destroyed or captured. Doria, in spite of all his efforts, was on this
+day both outgeneralled and outfought: the Sea-wolves, under their
+grim leader, manoeuvring for position, obtaining it, and then falling
+like a thunderbolt on the foe. They were all brave men at Lepanto on
+this memorable October day; but few there were like the corsair king,
+in whom a heart of fire was kept in check by a brain of ice, who,
+during the whole combat, never gave away a chance, or failed to swoop
+like an eagle from his eyry when the blunders of his enemy gave him
+the opportunity for which he watched. It was the old story of “the
+veritable man of the sea” pitted against gallant soldiers fighting on
+an unfamiliar element. And yet it was against the best seaman on the
+Christian side that Occhiali pitted himself on this stricken field;
+and none can deny that with him rested such honour as was gained by
+the Turks on this day, the day which broke up for ever the idea of the
+invincibility of the Ottomans on the water. It needs not to say, to
+those who have read the story of the siege of Malta, how the Knights
+comported themselves in the battle; and yet Occhiali captured the
+_Capitana_, or principal galley of the Order, He was towing her out of
+action, a prize, when the Marquis of Santa Cruz bore down upon him with
+the reserve. By this time the battle was lost; the Moslems were in full
+retreat.
+
+The corsair recognised that he could do no more: sullenly he cast
+off the tow, and, forming up some thirty of his galleys, still in a
+condition to navigate, stood boldly through the centre of where the
+battle had once raged, and escaped. The _Capitana_ of Malta had been
+taken; and to the Sultan did Occhiali present the great standard of
+Saint John, as an earnest of his achievement.
+
+Bernardino de Escalente, in his work _Diálogos del arte militar_, printed
+in Seville in 1583, says that the Captain Ojeda, of the galley _Guzmana_,
+recaptured the _Capitana_ of Malta; and that, in recognition thereof,
+“the Religion” pensioned him for life. Ojeda, it is to be presumed, was
+under the orders of the Marquis of Santa Cruz during the battle.
+
+There remains one incident connected with the battle of Lepanto which
+must be told. In the _Marquesa_ galley, in the division of Doria, was
+lying in his bed sick of a fever a young man twenty-four years of age;
+a Spaniard of Alcala de Henares, “de padres hidalgos y honrados,” we
+are told, although these parents were poor. When this young man heard
+that a battle was imminent he rose from his bed and demanded of his
+captain, Francisco San Pedro, that he should be placed in the post of
+the greatest danger. The captain, and others, his friends, counselled
+him to remain in his bed. “Señores,” replied the young man, “what would
+be said of Miguel de Cervantes should he take this advice? On every
+occasion up to this day on which his enemies have offered battle to his
+Majesty I have served like a good soldier; and today I intend to do so
+in spite of this sickness and fever.” He was given command of twelve
+soldiers in a shallop, and all day was to be seen where the combat
+raged most fiercely. He received two wounds in the chest and another
+which cost him the loss of his left hand. To those to whom he proudly
+displayed them in after-years he was accustomed to say, “wounds in the
+face or the chest are like stars which guide one through honour to the
+skies.” Of him the chronicler says: “He continued the rest of his life
+with honourable memory of this wonderful occurrence, and, although he
+lost the use of his left hand, it added to the glory of his right.” How
+glorious was that right hand is known to all readers of _El Ingenioso
+Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha_.
+
+The losses at the battle of Lepanto are something so prodigious that
+imagination boggles at them. It is said that the Christians lost five
+thousand men and the Turks no less than thirty thousand. Enormous as
+these numbers are, they represent probably a very conservative estimate
+of the loss. The Turks lost two hundred vessels, and when we recollect
+the number of men embarked on board of the sixteenth-century galleys we
+can see that the numbers are by no means exaggerated, especially as no
+quarter was given on either side. When the Captain Ojeda recaptured the
+battered wreck which had been the _Capitana_ of Malta, we are told that
+on board of her were three hundred dead Turks; if this were the cost of
+the capture of one galley we need not be surprised at the total.
+
+With the results to Europe of this amazing battle we have nothing to
+do in this book. That which it demonstrated, as far as the Sea-wolves
+were concerned, was that they still remained the most competent
+seamen and sea-fighters in the Mediterranean, and that the legend
+of the invincibility of the Ottomans at sea rested on what had been
+accomplished during a long period of years by these insatiable pirates
+and magnificent warriors.
+
+That which the fighting Pontiff, Pius V., said when he heard of the
+victory is in character with everything which history has told us of
+this remarkable occupant of the chair of Saint Peter. It was short but
+very much to the point, consisting of the one sentence, “Fuit homo
+misus a Deo cui nomen erat Joannes.”
+
+In a collection of epitaphs printed in Colonia in 1623 (and edited by
+one Franciscus Swertius) is one in Spanish by an anonymous author on
+Don John of Austria. In this, which takes the form of question and
+answer, it is asked of him “who with so much real glory lies so humbly
+’neath this stone,” what it is that Spain can do for him, what temple
+or what statue can she raise to his honour. To this the hero is made
+to reply that “My temple is found in my works, my statue has been my
+fame.” This is not only a pretty conceit, but it is very substantially
+true when we think of the place in history which this man attained.
+
+It remains to speak of the future career of Ali Basha after his
+experiences at Lepanto. He now returned to Constantinople, where he
+found that the bitter complaints of the Janissaries concerning their
+lack of pay had preceded him; this must have been annoying, as by this
+time so insignificant a circumstance had probably escaped his memory.
+His old friend and patron Piali Basha was still in power; the Basha
+used his influence, and the corsair laid at the feet of the Sultan the
+great Standard of Saint John captured by him from the Knights—which
+was the only trophy which came to Constantinople from that disastrous
+battle; and in consequence we are told that “instead of reprimands he
+was loaded with caresses and applauses.”
+
+There was in Ali the same dauntless quality of never knowing when
+he was beaten which had distinguished Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa. His
+exploits at Lepanto had secured him the high favour of the Sultan,
+which he used in a manner most grateful to that sovereign by
+approaching him with a request that he might be allowed to fit out
+another fleet to revenge himself on the Christians. The Sultan acceded
+to his request, and such diligence did he use that in June 1572, only
+eight months after the crushing defeat of the Turks, Ali took the sea
+with two hundred and fifty galleys besides smaller vessels. So powerful
+had he now become that Selim nominated him as his Admiralissimo,
+allowing him also to retain the Bashalic of Algiers. With his new fleet
+he sought out the allies once more, finding them at anchor in a port in
+the Morea. He lay outside the harbour defying them to come out, which
+they refused to do—“but they parted without bloody noses”—is Morgan’s
+comment. Haedo attributes this inertia on the part of the allies to
+dissension among their leaders; but, however that may have been, Ali
+gained almost as much favour with the Sultan as if he had defeated them
+in a pitched battle. “But these are the judgments of God and things
+ordered by His divine providence and infinite wisdom,” says Haedo. The
+connection is somewhat hard to establish.
+
+In 1573 the Bashalic of Algiers passed into the hands of Arab Ahmed,
+and in this same year Don John of Austria recaptured Tunis from the
+Turks. Ali, with a fleet of two hundred and fifty galleys and forty
+smaller vessels, recaptured it again in a siege lasting forty days,
+and once more returned to Constantinople in triumph with thousands
+of Spanish captives. He was yet to live some years to harass the
+Christians, against whom he ever displayed a most inveterate rancour.
+In 1576 he set out from Constantinople with sixty galleys and ravaged
+the Calabrian coast, where he had been born. In 1578, the Janissaries
+of Algiers having assassinated Arab Ahmed the Basha, he was sent to
+chastise them, which he did with a heavy hand.
+
+Ali was never married, and left no descendants; in the later years
+of his life he built himself a sumptuous palace some five miles from
+Constantinople, and no man in all the realm save the Sultan himself
+was so great a man as the Calabrian renegado, the unknown waif from
+Southern Italy who possessed neither name nor kindred. He was tall and
+robust in stature, but all his life suffered from “scald-head”; for a
+definition of which ailment we may refer the curious to the dictionary.
+He possessed, for a chieftain and a fighting man, the disadvantage
+of a voice so hoarse as to be inaudible at a few paces distant.
+In default of offspring he maintained at his charges five hundred
+corsairs, whom he called his children. He died in the year 1580, and
+with him what has been called the “Grand Period of the Moslem Corsairs”
+in this book may be said to have come to an end.
+
+By the men whose deeds have been here chronicled the pirate States of
+Northern Africa were established; and, as we have seen, they maintained
+an unceasing warfare against all that was mightiest in Christendom,
+aided and abetted by the Sultans of Constantinople. In the sixteenth
+century the Sea-wolves had this at least to recommend them, that they
+feared neither King nor Kaiser, albeit these great ones of the earth
+were bent on their destruction. Villains as they were, they were none
+the less men to be feared, men in whom dwelt wonderful capabilities
+of leadership. Such, however, was not the case with those by whom
+they were succeeded; and the great and civilised nations of the world
+tolerated for centuries in their midst a race of savage barbarians
+whose abominable insolence and fiendish cruelty were only equalled
+by their material weakness and military impotence. Algiers, Tunis,
+and Tripoli became recognised States, and the Great Powers degraded
+themselves by actually accrediting diplomatic agents to the “Courts” of
+these people.
+
+“The Algerines are robbers, and I am their chief,” was the remark made
+by the Dey of Algiers to the English Consul in 1641, and the man spoke
+the plain unvarnished truth. Yet at this time the Algerines had no more
+than sixty-five ships, and no organisation which could have held out
+for twenty-four hours against such attacks as had been successfully
+resisted on many occasions in the previous century.
+
+On April 10th, 1682 (O.S.), “Articles of peace and commerce between the
+most serene and mighty Prince Charles II., by the Grace of God King of
+Great Britain, etc., and the most illustrious (_sic_) Lord, the Bashaw,
+Dey, and Aga, Governor of the famous city of Algiers in Barbary,”
+were concluded by “Arthur Herbert, Esquire, Admiral of His Majesty’s
+Fleet.” It need hardly be said that such a treaty as this was not worth
+the paper on which it was written; that the barbarians by whom it was
+signed were as ignorant as they were unprincipled, and that the only
+argument which they understood at that, or any other time, was that of
+the right of the strongest.
+
+When we of the present day read of the deeds of the corsairs we are
+filled with horror, we fail to understand how such things could have
+been tolerated, we seek for some explanation. When we hear of a
+“League of Christian Princes,” and find that all its members could
+accomplish was to turn their arms the one against the other, we are
+even still more puzzled. What was it, then, that lay at the root of
+this problem? The answer would appear to be in the ethical standpoint
+of the sixteenth century. We are so accustomed in the present day to
+hear of the rights of man that we are apt to forget that, in the time
+of Barbarossa, of Dragut, of Charles V., and the Medicean Popes such a
+thing did not exist, and the only rights possessed by the common man
+were those vouchsafed to him by his sovereign lord. We have also
+to take another factor into consideration, which is that what we call
+“humanity” simply did not exist, the result being that the raids of
+the Sea-wolves were not judged by the great ones of the earth from the
+standpoint of the amount of suffering which they inflicted, but in what
+manner these proceedings affected the wealth and power of the lord of
+the territory which had been despoiled. So differently was society
+constituted in those days that the very victims acquiesced more or less
+meekly in their fate, each one unconsciously voicing that most pathetic
+saying of the Russian peasant that “God is high and the Czar is far
+away.”
+
+The fact of the intolerable lot of the common man in these times helps
+us to understand one thing which otherwise would be an insoluble
+problem: which was, why did Christian soldiers so often become
+renegadoes and fight for the corsairs under the banner of those who
+were the fiercest and most irreconcilable foes of themselves and their
+kindred? The life of the common soldier or sailor did not offer many
+advantages; it was generally a short and anything but a merry one, and
+the thing by which it was most profoundly affected was capture by the
+corsairs.
+
+When this happened he became either a “gallerian,” rowing out his
+heart on the benches of the Moslem galleys, or he festered in some
+noisome dungeon in Algiers, Oran, or Tlemcen. For him, however, there
+was always one avenue of escape open: he had but to acknowledge that
+Mahomet was the Prophet of God and the prison doors would fly open,
+or the shackles be knocked off the chain which bound him to the hell of
+the rower’s bench. Many of the Christian captives had really nothing
+to bind them to the faith of their fathers—neither home nor lands,
+wealth nor kindred, and they were doubtless dazzled by the amazing
+success which accompanied the arms of the leaders of the pirates. Is
+it wonderful, then, that such men in such an age should grasp at the
+chance of freedom and throw in their lot with their captors?
+
+It was treachery, it was apostasy, and no amount of sophistry can
+prove it to have been otherwise; but the man who would sit in judgment
+in the present day must try to figure to himself what the life of
+a galley-slave meant—a life so horrible and so terrible that it is
+impossible, in the interest of decency, to set down a tithe of what it
+really was.
+
+We who in the present day sit in judgment upon the virtues and vices of
+a bygone age can, in the ordered security of our modern civilisation,
+see many things which were hidden from our forefathers, even as in
+another three hundred years our descendants will be able to point the
+finger of scorn at the mistakes which we are now committing. We have
+seen how it was that the pirate States arose; we have seen also how, in
+future generations, they were allowed to abide. We cannot, in common
+honesty, echo the words already quoted of the historian that “these
+are the judgments of God, and things ordered by His divine providence
+and infinite wisdom,” neither can we acquit the heirs of the ages for
+that slackness which prevented them from doing their duty; we have,
+however, to ask ourselves this question, that, had it fallen to our
+own lot to deal with the problem of the extermination of the pirates,
+should we have done better?
+
+One word in conclusion. That which they did has been set down here; the
+record, however, is not complete, as many of their acts of cruelty,
+lust, and oppression are not fitted for publication in the present day.
+It has been said, with truth, that no man is much better or much worse
+than in the age in which he lives; and to hold the scales evenly—if one
+were tempted to shock contemporary opinion by too literal a transcript
+of all that was done by the corsairs—it would also be necessary to cite
+the reprisals of their Christian antagonists. It has seemed better to
+leave such things unchronicled: to present, with as much fidelity as
+possible, the public lives and acts of these troublers of the peace of
+the sixteenth century. Looking back, as we do, over three hundred and
+fifty years, and judging as fairly as is possible, it would seem that
+there is little which can be said in their favour.
+
+But we may at least concede that, no matter how infamous were the
+Barbarossas, Dragut, and Ali, they proved that in them dwelt one rare
+and supreme quality, which, in all the ages, has covered a multitude of
+sins. At a time when every one was a warrior and the whole world was
+an armed camp, men sought great captains in whose following to serve.
+Among the Moslems of Northern Africa, in ordered succession, there rose
+to the surface “veritable men of the sea,” in the wake of whose galleys
+ravened the Sea-wolves. When we consider how undisciplined and how
+stupidly violent these pirates were by nature, and how they were welded
+into a homogeneous whole by those of whom we speak, we are forced to
+the conclusion that seldom, in all the ages, have abler captains arisen
+to take fortune at the flood, to dominate the minds and the bodies of
+a vast host, to prove that they were, in deed and in truth, supreme as
+leaders of men.
+
+
+
+
+AUTHORITIES CONSULTED
+
+Sailing Ships and their Story. E. Keble Chatterton.
+
+Barbary Corsairs: Story of the Nations. Stanley Lane Poole.
+
+Compleat History of the Present Seat of War in Africa between Spaniards
+and Algerines. 1632. Joseph Morgan.
+
+History of Philip II. William Hickling Prescott.
+
+History of Charles V. Robertson.
+
+Histoire de Barberousse. Richer.
+
+Vie des plus célèbres marins. Richer.
+
+Histoire de Barberousse. Sander Rang et Ferdinand Denis.
+
+Doria et Barberousse. Les derniers jours de la Marine aux Rames.
+Admiral Jurien de la Gravière.
+
+Histoire de Barbarie et ses corsaires. Pierre d’An. Paris, 1637.
+
+Histoire d’Alger. Laugier de Tassy.
+
+Messire Pierre de Bourdeille Seigneur de Brantôme. Vie des hommes
+illustres et grands capitaines etrangers de son temps. 1594.
+
+Histoires de les Chevaliers de Malte. Mons l’Abbé de Vertot. Paris,
+1726.
+
+Histoire de Venise. P. Daru.
+
+Topografia e Historia general de Argel El Señor Don Diego de Haedo.
+
+Reverendissimo Arcobispo de Palermo. Presidente y Capitan-General del
+Reyno de Sicilia por el Rey Felipe Segundo. Nuestro señor. Valladolid,
+1612.
+
+Descripcion general de Africa. Don Luys de Marmol Caravajal. Granada,
+1573.
+
+Historia de Carlos Quinto. El Maestro Don Fray Prudencio de Sandoval,
+Obispo de Pampluna. 1612.
+
+El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. Cervantes.
+
+Arte de Navegar. Martin Cortes.
+
+Diálogos del arte militar. Bernardino de Escalante. Seville, 1583.
+
+Historia del combate naval de Lepanto. Cayetano Rosell.
+
+Epitaphia joco-seria. Francisco Swertius. 1623.
+
+La Guerra dei pirati e la marina Pontifica dal 1500 al 1560. Padre
+Alberto Guglielmotti.
+
+Storia della sacra religione et illustrissima milizia de San Giovanii
+Gerosolimitano. Jacopo Bosio.
+
+Lo Assedio di Malta, 18 Maggio-8, Settembre, 1565. Conte Carlo,
+Sanminiatelli, Zabarella, Colonello.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, SPAIN, SULTANS OF TURKEY, POPES
+OF ROME, AND GRAND MASTERS OF MALTA, BETWEEN THE DATES 1492–1580, THE
+PERIOD COVERED IN THIS BOOK.
+
+       ENGLAND                FRANCE
+
+  Henry VII., 1485–1509. Charles VIII.,1483–98.
+  Henry VIII., 1509–47.  Louis XII., 1498–1515.
+  Edward VI., 1547–53.   Francis I., 1515–47.
+  Mary, 1553–58.         Henry II., 1547–59.
+  Elizabeth, 1558–1603.  Francis II., 1559–60.
+                         Charles IX., 1560–74.
+                         Henry III., 1574–89.
+
+
+SPAIN
+
+Granada, taken by Ferdinand and Isabella, the sovereigns of Aragon
+and Castile (“Los Reyes Catolicos”) in 1492. Their daughter, Joanna,
+married Philip, son of the Emperor Maximilian of Germany. Ferdinand
+died 1516, and was succeeded by Charles V., son of Philip and Joanna,
+as King of Spain, in 1517. On the death of his grandfather Maximilian,
+in 1519, Charles was elected Emperor of Germany. He resigned all his
+dignities and retired to the monastery of Yuste in 1555, and was
+succeeded by his son, Philip II. Charles died 1558. Philip II., who
+married as his first wife Mary Tudor, of England, reigned from 1555
+till 1598.
+
+
+SULTANS OF TURKEY
+
+Bajazet II., 1481–1512; Selim the Cruel, 1512–20; Soliman the
+Magnificent, 1520–66; Selim II., known to the Spaniards as “el bebedor”
+(the drunkard), 1566–74; Murad III., 1574–95.
+
+
+POPES OF ROME
+
+Pius III., 1503; Julius II., 1503; Leo X., 1513; Hadrian VI., 1522;
+Clement VII., 1523; Paul III., 1534; Julius III., 1550; Marcellus II.,
+1555; Paul IV., 1555; Pius IV., 1559; Pius V., 1566; Gregory XIII.,
+1572; Sixtus V., 1585.
+
+
+GRAND MASTERS OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA
+
+Pierre d’Aubusson, 1476–1503; Emeri d’Amboise, 1503–13; Fabrice
+Carette, 1513–21; Villiers de L’Isle Adam, 1521–36; Juan d’Omedes,
+1536–53; Claude de la Sangle, 1553–57; Jean Parisot de la Valette,
+1557–68; Pierre Dumont, 1568–72; Jean Levesque de la Cassière, 1572–82.
+
+
+
+
+DISTANCES IN SEA MILES ON THE COAST OF NORTHERN AFRICA
+
+  Gibraltar to Oran                            225’
+  Oran to Tenes                                110’
+  Tenes to Shershell                            41’
+  Shershell to Algiers                          40’
+  Algiers to Bona                              104’
+  Bona to Jigelli                               30’
+  Jigelli to Bizerta                           205’
+  Bizerta to Tunis                              55’
+  Tunis to Susa                                120’
+  Susa to Sfax                                  86’
+  Sfax to Jerbah, otherwise known as Los Gelues 54’
+  Jerbah to Tripoli                            130’
+  Gibraltar to Algiers                         410’
+  Algiers to Tunis                             391’
+  Algiers to Tenes                              91’
+  Tunis to Malta                               232’
+  Malta to Tripoli in Barbary                  200’
+  Tripoli to Cape Serrano                      350’
+  Jerbah to Malta                              210’
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+  Abdahar, 141.
+  Abu-Abd-Allah-Mahomed, 40.
+  Actium, battle of, 189, 199, 366.
+  Adam, Prince Philippe Villiers L’Isle, Grand Master of the Knights
+    of St. John, 42, 124, 299.
+  Adorno, Antony, 103.
+  Adriatic, coasts of the, 182.
+  Adrumentum, 251.
+  “Africa,” town of, position and fortifications, 251,
+      attacked and taken by Dragut, 257–259;
+      besieged by Andrea Doria, 265;
+      captured, 267;
+      mutiny, 268;
+      blown up, 268.
+  Ahmed, Arab, Basha of Algiers, 375,
+      assassinated, 375.
+  Albania, coast of, 363, 366.
+  Al-Burdon, 350.
+  Alcadaar, Alcaid, 349.
+  Alcala, Duke of, 311.
+  Alcala de Henares, 371.
+  Alcaudite, Count of, his defence of Marzaquivir, 10.
+  Aldemar, St., Geoffrey de, 291.
+  Aleppo, 120, 125.
+  Alexander IV., Pope, 290.
+  Alexander VI., Pope, 99.
+  Alexander VII., Pope, initiates the “Alliance of Christian Princes,” 38.
+  Alexandria, 49.
+  “Alexandria, The Young Moor of,” defeated, 177,
+      released, 178.
+  Alfonso, King of Navarre and Aragon, 291.
+  Alghieri, Bay of, 235.
+  Algiers, 2,
+      attacks on, 30, 88;
+      captured, 62, 64;
+      Moorish refugees at, 63;
+      appeal for help, 66;
+      surrenders, 89;
+      mutiny of Janissaries, 355;
+      treaty with King Charles II., 377.
+  Ali Ahamed, Admiral of Algiers, 345.
+  Ali, at the siege of Malta, 328.
+  Ali Basha, or Occhiali or Uluchali, 6, 14, 22,
+      present at the conference held by Soliman, 316;
+      his birthplace, 345;
+      endures the life of a galley-slave, 345;
+      becomes a Mussulman, 346;
+      enters the service of Dragut, 346;
+      at the siege of Malta, 346;
+      appointed Viceroy of Tripoli, 347;
+      Governor of Algiers, 347;
+      view of his duties,347;
+      offered the sovereignty of Tunis, 349;
+      expedition against Hamid, 349;
+      captures Tunis, 350, 375;
+      captures galleys of the Knights, 352–355;
+      at the battle of Lepanto, 363,368–371;
+      his banner, 368;
+      captures the _Capitana_, 370;
+      withdraws and escapes, 371;
+      returns to Constantinople, 373, 375;
+      nominated Admiralissimo, 374;
+      his palace, 375;
+      ailment of “scald-head,” 375;
+      death, 376.
+  Ali Basha, in command of the Turkish forces, 361,
+      at the battle of Lepanto, 367;
+      beheaded, 369.
+  Ali-Chabelli defeated, 180.
+  Al-Mehedi, his fortifications of “Africa” blown up, 268.
+  Amalfi, 287.
+  Ambracian Gulf, 189.
+  Amburac, Ibrahim, his plot with Dragut, 253, 256.
+  Ampasta, Rio de, 83.
+  An, Rev. Frere Pierre d’, on the dangers from the corsairs of
+      Barbary, 20–22, 27.
+  Andalusia, 4, 15.
+  Andior, 246.
+  Andrade, Captain Diego de, 73.
+  Andros, island of, 187.
+  Angelo, Michel, 139.
+  Aponte, Antonio de, “Electo Mayor” of “Africa,” 268.
+  Aragon, Alfonso d’, 235.
+  Aragon, Ferdinand of, acquires Granada, 29,
+      attempts to recover Naples, 99.
+  Arba, Francisco d’, 210, 217.
+  Archipelago, islands of the, 182,
+      raid on, 187.
+  Arta, Gulf of, 189, 191, 195, 366.
+  Aubusson Pierre D’, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, 37, 38,
+    39, 298.
+  Augustus Caesar, at the battle of Actium, 189, 199.
+  Austria, Don John of, 23, 230,
+      in command of the forces of the “Holy League,” 357;
+      at Barcelona, 357;
+      reception at Naples, 358;
+      dress, 358;
+      appearance, 359, 365;
+      at Messina, 359;
+      his fleet, 364;
+      instructions, 365;
+      at the battle of Lepanto, 366–371;
+      recaptures Tunis, 375.
+
+  Baetio, 141.
+  Bairan-Ogli, the Reis, in command of the “puissant galleon,” 313.
+  Balearic Islands, 32, 66.
+  Barbarigo, Provéditeur, at the battle of Lepanto, 363.
+  Barbarossa, Hassan, left in charge of Algiers, 312.
+  Barbarossa, Khoyr-ed-Din, 6, 14, 17, 22, 108,
+      King of the Sea, 24;
+      his birth, 43;
+      title, 45, 51;
+      joins his brother at the island of Jerba, 50;
+      attacks _The Galley of Naples_, 51–54;
+      his wealth, 56;
+      captures Jigelli, 56–58;
+      his embassy to Soliman, 60, 76;
+      character, 67, 75, 114–116, 127, 219;
+      treatment of Hassan, 85–87;
+      defeated by Venalcadi, 87;
+      his allies, 88;
+      fight against Venalcadi, 88;
+      assisted by Spanish captives, 89;
+      captures Algiers, 89;
+      lays siege to the fortress of Navarro, 92–95;
+      his plunder of the Christians, 108;
+      requested to take the command of the Ottoman fleet, 111;
+      voyage to Constantinople, 112–117;
+      his captures, 113, 133;
+      cruelty, 115, 133, 220;
+      entry into Constantinople, 117;
+      gifts to Soliman, 118;
+      reception, 120;
+      at Aleppo, 125;
+      appointed head of the fleet, 127;
+      his age, 127, 190;
+      appearance, 127;
+      speech to the Sultan, 128–130;
+      raids on the coast of Italy, 133–137;
+      sacks Reggio, 133;
+      captures 11,000 Christian slaves, 133;
+      his attempt to capture Julia Gonzaga, 134–136;
+      enters Tunis 138;
+      massacre of the inhabitants, 141;
+      his fame, 142;
+      appeal for help against the Christian hosts, 146;
+      preparations for defence, 152;
+      joined by the tribesmen, 153;
+      defeated, 158;
+      flight, 159;
+      sufferings of his army, 163;
+      at Bona, 164;
+      embarks, 165;
+      retires to Algiers, 168;
+      return of his men, 169;
+      captures the castle of Minorca, 172;
+      recalled to Constantinople, 173, 178, 182;
+      ravages, 182;
+      number of slaves, 182;
+      sets sail, 185;
+      his innovation in the manning of galleys, 185–187;
+      raid on the islands of the Archipelago, 187;
+      his age, 190;
+      hesitates to fight, 193;
+      anchored in the Gulf of Arta, 194–207;
+      at the battle of Prevesa, 208–216;
+      withdraws from the battle, 213, 215, 217;
+      his death, 220, 250;
+      ransoms Dragut, 248.
+  Barbarossa, Uruj, 7, 74,
+      his birth, 43;
+      character, 44;
+      first attempt at piracy, 45;
+      taken prisoner, 46;
+      escapes, 47, 48;
+      presented with a ship, 48;
+      winters at Alexandria, 49;
+      at the island of Jerba, 50;
+      joined by his brother, 50;
+      treaty with the Sultan of Tunis, 51;
+      attackes _The Galley of Naples_, 51–54;
+      wounded, 54;
+      attacks on Bougie, 55, 58;
+      loses an arm, 55;
+      appeal from the Algerines, 66;
+      treatment of Kara-Hassan, 66;
+      besieges Navarre’s Tower, 67;
+      slaughters the Berbers, 68–70;
+      defeats Don Diego, 71;
+      marches on Tlemcen, 72;
+      blockaded, 73;
+      killed, 73.
+  Barbary, coast of, 236.
+  Barbary, corsairs of, their character, 21.
+  Barbezieux, his attempt to seize Andrea Doria, 104.
+  Barcelona, 148, 357.
+  Bazan, Don Alvaro de, General of the Galleys of Spain,
+    at Barcelona, 149,
+      Admiral of Castile, 359.
+  Beachy Head, battle of, 283.
+  Beja, 350.
+  Bengabara, Alcaid, 349.
+  Berber tribes, their character, 57,
+      number, 57;
+      conspiracy against Uruj Barbarossa, 68;
+      slaughtered, 69.
+  Bergerac, Jean Marteille de, on the treatment of slaves on board the
+    galleys, 224.
+  Bianco, Cape, 189.
+  Biba, island of, 113.
+  Bizerta, 2, 40,
+      captured, 41;
+      massacre of, 141.
+  Boabdil el Chico, yields up Granada, 29.
+  Bona, 153, 164, 350,
+      Cape, 264.
+  Bonifacio, Straits of, 113, 136.
+  Borgo, Il, fortress, siege of, 32, 324, 342.
+  Bosworth, battle of, 215.
+  Botaybo, Alcaid, 349.
+  Bougaroni, Cape, 56.
+  Bougie, 2, 153,
+      attacks on, 55, 58.
+  Bouillon, Godfrey de, defeats the Saracens, 287.
+  Bourdeille, Pierre de, 242, 344.
+  Bragadino, his defence of Famagusta, 362,
+      killed, 362.
+  Brigantines, 18, 151, 240.
+  Broglio, Commandeur, at the siege of Malta, 333.
+  Byzacena, 40.
+  Byzantine, Empire, fall of the, 33.
+
+  Cabri, 246.
+  Cachidiablo, 88, 90.
+  Cadiz, 4.
+  Cadolin, defeated, 100.
+  Cagliari, Bay of, 152, 236.
+  Calabria, 345.
+  Calibia, castle of, surrender, 264.
+  Canale, Girolame, his victory over the Moslems, 177.
+  Candia, 187.
+  Cañete, Marquis de, Viceroy and Captain General of Navarre, 147.
+  Cantara, La Bocca de, 272, 274.
+  Capello, Vicenzo, his age, 190,
+      in command of the Venetian fleet, 191, 215;
+      at Corfu, 191.
+  _Capitana_, the, captured, 354, 370,
+      retaken, 371.
+  Capua, Prior of, his designs for the building of St. Elmo fortress, 325.
+  Caracosa, Marie, 98.
+  Caramania, coast of, 35, 37, 45, 48.
+  Caravajal, Don Luys de Marmol, his “Descripcion general de Affrica,” 272.
+  Caravels, 231.
+  Carouan, 348.
+  Castel Rosso, Isle of, 47.
+  Castile, Isabella of, 29.
+  Castriot, Constantine, his report on the condition of St. Elmo, 337.
+  Centurion, Adan, fails to attack Barbarossa, 165.
+  Cephalonia, 313, 363, 366.
+  Cervantes, Miguel de, his mention of Ali Basha, 345,
+      at the battle of Lepanto, 371;
+      his wounds, 372.
+  Charabulac, 242.
+  Charlemagne, Emperor, his renown, 286.
+  Charles II., King of England, his treaty with Algiers, 377.
+  Charles V., Emperor, 14, 79,
+      history of, 43;
+      determines to crush the corsairs, 80;
+      total fleet and army, 81,191;
+      caught in a storm, 82;
+      his wrath on the fall of Navarro, 97;
+      acquisitions, 98;
+      suzerain of Genoa, 101;
+      joined by Andrea Doria, 105;
+      his trust in him, 107;
+      preparations for his attack on Barbarossa, 143;
+      at Barcelona, 148;
+      joined by his allies, 148–150;
+      reviews the armada, 150;
+      embarks in the _Galera Capitana_, 150;
+      attack on the fortress of La Goletta, 156;
+      defeats Barbarossa, 159;
+      letter to the potentates, 163;
+      evacuates Tunis, 166;
+      his mistaken policy, 167;
+      at Corfu, 191;
+      orders the destruction of Dragut, 245, 261;
+      orders the capture of “Africa,” 265;
+      denunciation of Dragut, 271;
+      concentrates his fleet at Messina, 278.
+  “Christian Princes, Alliance of,” formed, 38,
+      artillery, 39;
+      seize Naples, 40.
+  Christian slaves, number of, captured, 133.
+  Città Notabile, 308.
+  Civita Lavinia, 140.
+  Coeva, Andrea, 98.
+  Colonna, Camille, taken prisoner, 101.
+  Colonna, Mark Antony, in command of the Papal fleet, 360, 364.
+  Colonna, Vespasian, 134.
+  Columbus, his caravels, 231.
+  Comares, Marquis de, 80.
+  Condalmiero, Alessandro, Captain of the _Galleon of Venice_, 192, 194,
+      attacked by the Moslems, 209–213;
+      his victory, 213.
+  Constantine, 350.
+  Constantinople, fall of, 33,
+      entry of Barbarossa into, 117.
+  Còrdoba, Don Martin de, his defence of Oran, 10.
+  Còrdoba, Gonsalvo de, the “Great Captain,” 39,
+      war against Roverejo, 99;
+      besieges the fortress of Rocca Guillelma, 99.
+  Còrdoba, Mosque at, 64.
+  Corfu, siege of, 179.
+  Cornet, Commandeur de, 337.
+  Cornillan, Pierre de, appointed Grand Master of the Knights
+    of St. John, 298.
+  Coron, 355.
+  Coronado, Capt. Juan Vasquez, 273.
+  Corsairs, Moslem, their iron and rigid discipline, 7.
+      _See_ Moslem
+  Corsica, coast of, 246.
+  Corso, Mami, left in charge of Algiers, 349.
+  Cos, or Lango, island of, fortifications of, 292.
+  Curtogali, at Bizerta, 40,
+      his depredations, 41;
+      attempt to carry off the Pope, 41, 140;
+      Governor of Rhodes, 42.
+  Cyprus, island of, 34, 356.
+
+  Daoud Pasha, Admiral, defeats Grimani, 38.
+  Dardanelles, 116,
+      fortification of the, 34.
+  Daru, P., _Histoire de Venise_, 364, 367.
+  Delizuff, joins forces with Barbarossa, 112,
+      killed, 113.
+  Diou-Donnè, Gozon de, his mode of killing a serpent, 294–296,
+      praises of his services, 297;
+      appointed Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, 298;
+      his death, 298.
+  Doria Andrea, 6, 22, 108,
+      his birth, 98;
+      parents, 98;
+      sent to Rome, 98;
+      at the court of Urbino, 99;
+      in the service of the King of Aragon, 99;
+      joins Roverejo, 99;
+      takes service with Lodovico Sforza, 100;
+      appointed General of the Galleys, 100;
+      captures the Fort of the Lantern, 100;
+      defeats Cadolin, 100;
+      appointed Captain-General of the Galleys of France, 101;
+      the treatment of Francis I., 102, 104;
+      letter to him, 103;
+      joins Charles V., 105;
+      honours received from Genoa, 105;
+      Admiralissimo of the Navy, 107, 151;
+      defeats the Turks at Patras, 109;
+      at Barcelona, 148;
+      captures Bona, 166;
+      pursuit of Barbarossa, 166;
+      defeats Ali-Chabelli, 180;
+      wounded, 180;
+      appearance, 180;
+      age, 190;
+      his fleet, 192;
+      anchors outside the Gulf of Arta, 194–207;
+      at Sessola, 207;
+      tactics at the battle of Prevesa, 214;
+      sails away, 216;
+      ordered to capture Dragut, 261, 271;
+      his pursuit of him, 262–264;
+      expedition against “Africa,” 265;
+      blockades Dragut at Jerbah, 271–275;
+      allows him to escape, 275.
+  Doria, David, 99.
+  Doria, Dominique, 98.
+  Doria, Franco, 192.
+  Doria, Jannetin, captures Dragut, 245–247.
+  Doria, John, 165.
+  Doria, John Andrea, at the battle of Lepanto, 363, 367, 370.
+  Doria, Philippin, defeats Moncada, 101.
+  Dragut-Reis, 10, 14, 22,
+      his birth and parents, 242;
+      career, 242;
+      offers his services to Barbarossa, 243;
+      in command of twelve galleys, 243;
+      his destruction ordered, 245, 261;
+      captured by Jannetin Doria, 245–247;
+      employed as a galley slave, 248;
+      ransomed, 248;
+      increase of power, 250;
+      his desire to capture “Africa,” 251;
+      plot with Ibrahim Amburac, 253;
+      preparations for the attack, 254–256;
+      wounded, 257;
+      attack on the city, 257–259;
+      pursued by Andrea Doria, 262–264, 271;
+      his “Horrid Devastations,” 264;
+      in the siege of “Africa,” 265;
+      escapes, 267;
+      at Constantinople, 269, 276;
+      denounced by Charles V., 270;
+      appointed Sandjak, or governor, of the island of Santa Maura, 271;
+      blockaded at Jerban, 271–275;
+      mode of escape, 275;
+      hatred of the Knights of Malta, 276, 286;
+      autocrat of Tripoli, 309;
+      characteristics, 315;
+      at the siege of Malta, 329–339;
+      mortally wounded, 339;
+      death, 341.
+  Dupuy, Raimond, joins the Hospice of St. John, 288,
+      appointed Grand Master, 289;
+      forms a military corps, 289.
+
+  Eginard, 286.
+  Egypt, Soldan of, his treatment of the Knights of Saint John, 34,
+      besieges Rhodes, 36.
+  Elmo, St., siege of, 6, 301–305, 323–341,
+      appeal of the garrison to abandon the fortress, 335–337;
+      their use of fireworks, 339;
+      fall, 341.
+  Escalente, Bernardino de, his “Diálogos del arte militar,” 371.
+  Esquemelin, John, his literary labours, 1.
+  Etienne, St., Mount, 294.
+  Eutemi, Selim, besieges Algiers, 65,
+      assassinated, 68.
+  Exmouth, Lord, bombards Algiers,30.
+
+  Famagusta, captured, 362.
+  Ferdinand V., King of Spain, joins the “Alliance of Christian
+    Princes,” 38,
+      his death, 65.
+  _Florence_, the, 236.
+  Floreta, M. de., 144.
+  Forfait, on the speed of the galley, 234.
+  Francis I., 14,
+      appoints Andrea Doria Captain of his fleet, 101;
+      attempts to levy a fine, 102;
+      treatment of him, 102;
+      fortifies Savona, 103;
+      letter from Andrea Doria, 103;
+      attempts to take him prisoner, 104;
+      refuses to join in the war against Barbarossa, 144;
+      treachery, 144.
+  Fundi, 134,
+      sacked by the corsairs, 136.
+
+  Galeasse, the, 18,
+      description of a, 233.
+  _Galera Capitana_, 150,
+      number of flags and banners on board, 151.
+  _Galleon of Venice_, 192, 194, 208,
+      attacked by the Moslems, 209–213;
+      victory, 213.
+  Galley, 2, 18,
+      sufferings of the rower, 19, 221;
+      innovation in the manning, 185;
+      mobility, 222;
+      length, 222;
+      number of men on board, 223;
+      treatment of the slaves, 223–229, 379;
+      size, 229;
+      mode of opening fire, 230;
+      speed, 234;
+      obsolete, 236.
+  _Galley of Naples, The_, attacked by the brothers Barbarossa, 51–54.
+  Gardampe, Chevalier Abel de Bridiers de la, killed at the siege
+    of Malta, 333.
+  Gelves, 271.
+  Genoa, 32,
+      arrangement with the Grand Turk, 34;
+      confers honours on Andrea Doria, 105.
+  Gerard, the founder of the Order of St. John, 287,
+      death, 288.
+  Gibraltar, Straits of, 15.
+  Giou, Chevalier de, 313.
+  Goialatta, 246.
+  Goletta, La, 348,
+      attack on the fortress, 156;
+      fall, 157;
+      captured, 313.
+  Gomez, Alvar, left in charge of Bona, 166.
+  Gonzaga, Hernando de, his advice at the battle of Prevesa, 198.
+  Gonzaga, Julia, attempt to capture her, 134–136,
+      escape, 136.
+  Gozo, island of, Knights of St. John at, 277, 299,
+      sacked, 309.
+  Granada, fall of, 4, 8, 22,
+      expulsion of the Moors from, 8, 29;
+      revolt in, 347.
+  Grandenico, Count, 178.
+  Granvelle, Cardinal, 7, 359.
+  Gravière, Admiral Jurien de la, 17, 54, 127, 214,
+      his description of a Galeasse, 233.
+  _Great Harry_, 232.
+  Grimani, Antonio, the Venetian Admiral, defeated at Zonchio, 38.
+  Grimani, Marco, in command of the Papal contingent, 191, 214,
+      at Corfu, 191;
+      raid on Arta, 191.
+  Guasto, Marquis de, taken prisoner, 101,
+      his suggestion to Andrea Doria, 104;
+      in command of the army, 156.
+  Guerare, Sergeant-Major, at the siege of Malta, 332.
+  Guglielmotti, Alberto, his work “La Guerra dei Pirati,” 39, 41, 180.
+  Guimeran, Commandeur de, success of his ambush, 307.
+  _Guzmana_, the galley, 371.
+
+  Hadj-Hossein, his embassy to Selim I., 76–78.
+  Haedo, Don Fray Diego de, his History of Algiers, 96, 348, 353, 374.
+  Hamid, King of Tunis, character of his rule, 348,
+      conspiracy against, 349;
+      flight, 350.
+  Hassan Ali, 53,
+      ravages towns and villages, 83;
+      repulsed by Spaniards, 84;
+      flogged and imprisoned, 86;
+      released, 87;
+      attacks Barbarossa, 87.
+  Hassem, his attack on Oran, 10,
+      retreat, 10.
+  Henry II., 34.
+  Henry VII., 215.
+  Henry VIII., 14.
+  Herbert, Arthur, concludes a treaty with Algiers, 377.
+  Himeral, Basha, 114, 125.
+  Hogue, La, battle of, 283.
+  Honoré II., Pope, 291.
+  Horusco, Pero Lopez de, 166.
+  Hunyadi, John, 14.
+  Hyères, island of, 234.
+
+  Ibrahim, Grand Vizier to Soliman, 9,
+      his mission to Aleppo, 120;
+      advice, 123;
+      impressions of Barbarossa, 126;
+      return from Aleppo, 132;
+      his relations with Soliman, 173;
+      murdered, 176.
+  Innocent VIII., Pope, 98.
+  Ionian Islands, 179.
+  Ionian Sea, 49.
+  Ithaca, island of, 366.
+  Iviza, 82.
+
+  Janissaries, their character as soldiers, 8,
+      institution, 279;
+      system of training, 280;
+      mutiny in Algiers, 355.
+  Jerbale, 2, 50, 153, 251.
+  Jerusalem, Hospice of St. John at, 287.
+  Jigelli, 2, 56,
+      siege of, 57.
+  John of Jerusalem, St., Knights of, 18. _See_ Knights
+  Judeo, El, 88.
+
+  Kara-Hassan, takes possession of Shershell, 66,
+      beheaded, 67.
+  Khorkud, Governor of Caramania, 48.
+  Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or Knights of Malta,
+    their bigotry, 18,
+      take refuge at Limasol, 34;
+      characteristics, 35, 36;
+      fortifications of Rhodes, 35;
+      faith, 36;
+      repulse the Turks, 37;
+      expelled from Rhodes, 42, 277;
+      forced to retreat to Malta, 42, 277, 292;
+      their use of galleys, 229;
+      fight for their “Religion,” 277;
+      warfare against the corsairs, 277;
+      history of the Order, 286–291;
+      founded at Jerusalem, 287;
+      Grand Masters, 289–298, 301;
+      crusade against the Infidel, 289;
+      composition of the Order, 289;
+      languages, 290;
+      dress, 290;
+      form of government, 291;
+      in the siege of Malta, 300, 324–342;
+      number of deaths, 300;
+      capture fortresses, 312;
+      capture the “puissant galleon,” 313;
+      at Licata, 352;
+      their galleys captured by Ali Basha, 352–355.
+  Knights Templars, foundation of the Order, 291,
+      code of regulations, 291.
+  Kustir-Aga, chief Eunuch of the Seraglio, 313.
+
+  Lamirande, Chevalier, at the siege of Malta, 334,
+      killed, 341.
+  _Lancaster_, the cruiser, 231.
+  Lanciani, extract from “The Golden Age of the Renaissance,” 139.
+  Lantern, Fort of the, captured, 100.
+  Lautrec, Marshal de, 104.
+  Leo X., Pope, 41,
+      attempt on his life, 140;
+      flight to Rome, 141.
+  Lepanto, battle of, 6, 23, 362–372;
+      number of killed and wounded, 372.
+  Lerici, 104.
+  Leyva, Antonio de, 143.
+  Leyva, Don Sancho de, Governor of “Africa,” 267.
+  Liazzo, 246.
+  Licastelli, 345.
+  Licata, 352.
+  Limasol, 34.
+  Loredano, Jacques, 34.
+  Loredano, Captain, at the battle of Lepanto, 369.
+  Los Gelues, 112, 271.
+  Louis XII., 100,
+      joins the “Alliance of Christian Princes,” 38.
+
+  Magliana, Castle of, 140.
+  Mahan, Rear-Admiral, his books on “Sea Power,” 14.
+  Mahomedi, banished from Constantinople, 43,
+      his sons, 43.
+  Mahomet, result of his death, 286.
+  Mahomet II., Caliph, captures Constantinople, 33,
+      fortifies the Dardanelles, 34;
+      defeated Rhodes, 38;
+      death, 38.
+  Majorca, 172.
+  Malipier, Captain, at the battle of Lepanto, 369.
+  Malta, siege of, 6, 22, 299–305, 324–342,
+      number of deaths, 300;
+      position, 315;
+      expedition against, 316;
+      preparations for the siege, 318–321.
+  Malta, Knights of, _see_ Knights
+  _Marquesa_, the galley, 371.
+  Marsa Muzetto harbour, 325, 331.
+  Marsaquivir, attack on, 10.
+  Maura, Santa, island of, 207, 271.
+  Mecca, 4.
+  Medina-Celi, Juan la Cerda, Duke of, expedition against Tripoli, 311.
+  Medran, Chevalier Gonzales de, at the siege of St. Elmo, 327, 332, 335.
+  Mehedia, 251.
+  Melac, Commandeur Gozon de, 312.
+  Mendoza, Bernard de, in command of La Goletta, 166.
+  Mendoza, Don Luis Hurtado de, 143.
+  Messina, 180, 278, 359.
+  Minorca, 172.
+  Mitylene, island of, 43.
+  Monastir, 2, 250.
+  Moncada, Don Hugo de, Viceroy of Sicily, 80,
+      escapes to Iviza, 82;
+      defeated and slain, 101.
+  Mondejar, Marquis de, 143.
+  Monferrato, Monastery of Nuestra Señora de, pilgrimages to, 150, 357.
+  Monte Cristo island, 113.
+  Montmorency, Anne de, 281.
+  Monuc, the eunuch, 206.
+  Moors, their characteristics, 4,
+      expulsion from Granada, 8, 29;
+      their condition in Algiers, 63.
+  Morea, the, 355, 366.
+  Morgan, Sir Henry, his capture of Panama, 24.
+  Morgan, J., his _Compleat History of Algiers_, 243, 250, 345.
+  Moriscoes, their persecutions, 5,
+      revolt in Granada, 347.
+  Mosca, Lodovico del, 39.
+  Moslem corsairs, their cupidity, 3,
+      driven out of Spain, 4, 29;
+      characteristics, 4, 67, 241;
+      fanaticism, 5, 17;
+      supremacy on the sea, 8;
+      frequent defeats, 10;
+      tyranny, 11;
+      ships, 18;
+      booty, 24;
+      cruel methods, 24, 32;
+      retrogression, 239;
+      mode of commencing their careers, 240;
+      conquer Palestine, 286;
+      at the siege of Malta, 300;
+      number of deaths, 300.
+  Motte, Chevalier de la, at the siege of St. Elmo, 327.
+  Mourad-Reis, 201.
+  Moustafa-Billah, Caliph, 287.
+  Muley Hamid, negotiations with, 330.
+  Muley Hassan, King of Tunis, 130, 137,
+      restored to his kingdom, 161;
+      terms of his vassalage, 162.
+  Mustafa, in command of the land forces against Malta, 316, 322,
+      captures Famagusta, 362.
+
+  Naples, seized, 40,
+      invasion of, 90;
+      reception of Don John of Austria at, 358.
+  Navarro, Count Pedro de, seizes the town of Bougie, 55,
+      captures Algiers, 62, 64;
+      his Tower, 64.
+  Navarro’s Tower, siege of, 65, 67, 91–95,
+      captured, 95;
+      pulled down, 97.
+  Nef, the, 18, 232.
+  Negropont, Bailli of, at the siege of Malta, 326, 332, 333,
+      killed, 341.
+  Nunez, Martin, his embassy to the Pope, 163.
+
+  Occhiali. _See_ Ali Basha.
+  Ojeda, Captain, rescues the _Capitana_ at the battle of Lepanto, 371.
+  Omedes, Juan d’, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, 278,
+      warned of the approach of the corsairs, 281;
+      refuses to take alarm, 281, 306.
+  Oneglia, 98.
+  Oran, 2, 73,
+      attack on, 10.
+  Oristano, Gulf of, 236.
+  Osmanli, their warlike achievements on land, 15.
+  Ottoman, 292,
+      his siege of Rhodes, 293.
+  _Our Lady of the Conception_, 45.
+
+  Palamos, Bay of, 236.
+  Palermo, 265.
+  Palestine, conquered by Moslems, 286.
+  Palma, 172.
+  Panama, capture of, 24.
+  Pantellaria, island of, 236.
+  Pantera, Captain Pantero, “L’ Armata Navale,” 225.
+  Parma, Prince of, at the battle of Lepanto, 364.
+  Paschal II., Pope, 301.
+  Passaro, Cape, 352.
+  Patras, Turks defeated at, 109.
+  _Patrona_ galley, capture of, 275.
+  Paul III., his scheme of defence for Rome, 139.
+  Paxo, island of, 180.
+  Payens, Hugues de, founds the Order of the Knights Templars, 291.
+  Pedro, Francisco San, 371.
+  Penne, Barras de la, on the treatment of men on board the galleys, 223.
+  Peter the Hermit, 287.
+  Philip II., King of Spain, 274, 311,
+      forms the “Holy League,” 357;
+      his fleet, 360.
+  Piali, Admiral, 10,
+      in command of the fleet against Malta, 316, 322.
+  Pierre, St., Isle of, 235.
+  Pius V., Pope, 356, 373,
+      forms the “Holy League,” 357.
+  Portugal, Don Juan, King of, his armada at Barcelona, 148.
+  Portugal, Prince Luis of, at Barcelona, 148, 150.
+  Prescott, William Hickling, 4,
+      his description of the Janissaries, 279;
+      of Don John of Austria, 358;
+      of the battle of Lepanto, 364, 368.
+  Press-gang, methods of the, 226.
+  Prevesa, battle of, 6, 22, 108, 189, 190, 194–218, 366.
+  Punta delle Forche, 277, 333.
+
+  Rabadan, Celebi, 92, 112.
+  Rabadan, left in charge of Tunis, 351.
+  Raschid, 130, 137.
+  Raschid, Caliph Haroun, 287.
+  Ravenstein, Count Philip of, 39.
+  _Real_, the, 364.
+  Reggio, 32,
+      sack of, 133.
+  Reis, Aisa-, left in charge of “Africa,” 261, 264,
+      his defence, 266;
+      captured, 267.
+  Reis, Dragut-, _See_ Dragut
+  Requesens, Don Luiz de, disaster to his fleet, 234.
+  _Revenge_, the, 354.
+  Rhodes, island of, 242,
+      seized by the Knights of St. John, 35, 292;
+      besieged, 36, 293;
+      serpent at, 294–296;
+      derivation of the name, 297.
+  Ribera, Don Perisan de, 80.
+  Ricasoli, 333.
+  Richard II, 215.
+  Rio, Juan del, taken captive, 71.
+  Rivière, Chevalier La, 322.
+  Robeira, Captain, repulses the corsairs, 84.
+  Rocca Guillelma, fortress of, besieged, 99.
+  Rodas, Capitan de, 111.
+  Roderick the Goth, conquered by the Osmanli, 15, 29.
+  Rome, fortifications of, 139.
+  Romegas, Commandeur de, 312, 313,
+      his account of the battle of Lepanto, 360.
+  Rosell, Don Cayetano, his _Historia del combate naval de Lepanto_,
+    359, 364.
+  Roverejo, Juan, war with Cordoba, 99.
+  Roxalana, Sultana, her influence over Soliman, 174,
+      characteristics, 174;
+      jealousy, 174;
+      murders Ibrahim, 176.
+
+  Salaerrez, 88.
+  Saleh-Reis, 187.
+  Salerno, Gulf of, 101.
+  Sallee, the rovers, 237.
+  Sandoval, El Maestro Don Fray Prudencio de, his history of Charles V.,
+    43, 70, 71, 108, 142, 144, 150, 155.
+  Sangle, Claude de la, his death, 309.
+  Sangullo, Antonio de, 139.
+  _Santa Ana_, bravery of the, 353.
+  Santa Cruz, Marquis of, at the battle of Lepanto, 364,
+      rescues the _Capitana_, 371.
+  _Santa Maria_, the flagship of Columbus, 231.
+  Sardinia, 136.
+  Satalie, Gulf of, 47.
+  Savona, fortification of, 103.
+  Sceberass, Mount, 301, 307, 325, 342.
+  Scutari, 38.
+  Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean,
+      take refuge in Northern Africa, 1;
+      their deeds of terror, 2;
+      cupidity, 3;
+      fanaticism, 5, 17;
+      autocratic rule, 7, 25;
+      equality, 7;
+      aptitude for the sea, 8;
+      defeats, 10;
+      nefarious doings, 15;
+      characteristics of their leaders, 16, 25, 284, 376;
+      ships, 18;
+      character of the men, 26;
+      leagues against, 29;
+      relations with the Turks, 33.
+  Seignelay, his criticism of Admiral de Tourville, 283.
+  Selim I., Sultan of Turkey. _See_ Soliman
+  Selim II., Sultan of Turkey, 356,
+      his character, 356;
+      lays claim to the island of Cyprus, 356.
+  Serpent, method of killing, 294–296.
+  Sesse, Duke of, 311.
+  Sessola, islet of, 207.
+  Sfax, 2, 250.
+  Sforza, Lodovico, Duke of Milan, 100.
+  Shershell, 2, 66.
+  Shott-el-Jerid, 153.
+  Sinan-Reis, in command of La Goletta fortress, 156,
+      at the battle of Prevesa, 197;
+      in command of the Janissaries, 279, 281;
+      character as a leader, 285, 307;
+      his expedition against Malta, 306;
+      sacks the island of Gozo, 309;
+      captures Tripoli, 309.
+  Skiathos, 187.
+  Skios island, 187.
+  Slaves, on board galleys, their treatment, 223–229,
+      mutiny at Lepanto, 228.
+  Smyrna, Basha of, 48.
+  Soliman the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey, 9, 14, 109,
+      expels the Knights of St. John from Rhodes, 42, 277, 299;
+      embassy from Barbarossa, 60, 76;
+      sends reinforcements, 61;
+      recalls his ships, 61;
+      his conquest of the Mamelukes, 77;
+      invites the cooperation of Barbarossa, 110;
+      appoints him commander of his fleet, 111, 117, 127;
+      receives gifts from him, 118;
+      his reception of him, 120;
+      relations with Ibrahim, 173;
+      under the influence of Roxalana, 174;
+      declares war against Venice, 179;
+      defeated, 179;
+      preparations for campaigns, 183, 277, 316;
+      his demands from Charles V., 270;
+      loss of his “puissant galleon,” 313;
+      lamentations of his people, 314;
+      holds a conference, 316;
+      expedition against Malta, 316;
+      his death, 356.
+  Spaniards, under Moorish rule, 30,
+      expedition against the Barbarossas, 62;
+      repulse Hassan, 84;
+      captives, assist in the capture of Algiers, 89;
+      restored to liberty, 89.
+  Spartivento, Cape, 136.
+  Spezzia, Gulf of, 104.
+  Susa, 2, 250.
+  Swertius, Franciscus, his collection of epitaphs, 373.
+
+  Tabas, 88.
+  Taranto, 32.
+  Tarik, 15, 29.
+  Tenes, 2,
+      fall of, 72.
+  Thevenot, his Travels, 297.
+  Tiber, the, 139.
+  Tineo, Garzia de, kills Uruj Barbarossa, 73.
+  Tlemcen, 2.
+  Tlemcen, Sultan of, his flight to Fez, 72.
+  Toledo, Don Garcia de, 230;
+      in the expedition against Dragut, 265;
+      his character as a ruler, 317.
+  Toledo, Don Pedro de, 273.
+  Tours, Viscomte de, sent to Genoa, 102.
+  Tourville, Admiral de, criticism on, 283.
+  Traparni, 265.
+  Tripoli, 2, 153,
+      defence of, 10;
+      capture, 309;
+      fortifications, 311;
+      expedition against, 311.
+  Trivulce, Theodore, 104.
+  Tunis, 2,
+      captured by the corsairs, 137, 375;
+      massacre in, 141, 159;
+      fortifications repaired, 146;
+      rebellion in, 348;
+      appeal to Ali Basha, 349;
+      flight of Hamid, 350.
+  Tunis, Sultan of, his treaties with the Barbarossas, 51, 61,
+      repudiates treaty, 59.
+  Turks, their character as soldiers, 8, 124,
+      relations with the Sea-wolves, 33;
+      attack on Rhodes, 37;
+      defeated at Patras, 109.
+  Tuscany, Duke of, 235.
+
+  Urbain II., Pope, 287.
+  Urbino, Duke of, 99,
+      at the battle of Lepanto, 364.
+
+  Vagnor, Chevalier, 333.
+  Valentia, ravaged by corsairs, 83.
+  Valetta, position of, 307, 342.
+  Valette, Jean Parisot de la, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John,
+    6, 248;
+      his characteristics, 301, 309;
+      creed, 302;
+      personal example in the siege of Malta, 302–305;
+      his high conception of duty, 310;
+      expedition against Tripoli, 311;
+      repulsed, 312;
+      summons help, 318;
+      preparations for the siege, 318–321;
+      address to his brethren, 319;
+      at the siege of Malta, 324–328;
+      reinforcements, 328.
+  Vargas, Martin de, in command of the fortress of Navarro, 91,
+      besieged, 91–95;
+      wounded and taken prisoner, 95;
+      beheaded, 96.
+  Vasto, Marquis de, 143.
+  Vega, Don Alvaro, in command of “Africa,” 267.
+  Vega, Don Juan de, Viceroy of Sicily, 273,
+      in the expedition against Dragut, 265.
+  Velez, Peñon de, captured, 312.
+  Venalcadi, 73,
+      escapes, 86;
+      attacks Barbarossa, 87;
+      fight, 88;
+      beheaded, 88.
+  _Vengeur_, the, 354.
+  Venice, 32,
+      treaty of commerce concluded, 34;
+      relations with Soliman, 179;
+      war declared, 179;
+      “Holy League” formed, 357.
+  Veniero, Sebastian in command of the Venetian fleet, 360, 364.
+  Vera, Don Diego de, sent to capture Algiers, 70,
+      defeated, 71.
+  Vercoyran, Chevalier de, at the siege of Malta, 332.
+  Vertot, M. L’Abbé de, 273, 297, 311.
+  _Victory_, the, 354.
+  Villaret, Fulke de, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, 35,
+      seizes Rhodes, 35, 292.
+  Villegagnon, Commandeur de, his interview with the Grand Master, 281.
+  Villeneuve, Helion de, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, 293,
+      character of his rule, 293;
+      death, 297.
+  Vittoriosa, 299.
+  Volo, Gulf of, 187.
+
+  Ximenes, Fray Francisco, Cardinal Bishop of Toledo, 70.
+  Yamboli, 216.
+  Yonis Bey, sent to Venice, 178.
+
+  Zante, island of, 114, 313.
+  Zara, port of, 227.
+  Zay, Basha, 114, 125.
+  Zonchio, battle of, 38.
+
+PRINTED BY
+HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LTD.,
+LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea-wolves of the Mediterranean, by 
+Currey E. Hamilton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13689 ***