Part 18 (1/2)
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 s.h.i.+p,” 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 s.h.i.+p 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 n.o.bly 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 ash.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+ps' 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 s.h.i.+elds 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 Ha.s.san 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 inst.i.tution, 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 l.u.s.tre 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 a.s.saults 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sembled. 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 n.o.ble 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 fas.h.i.+on 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 a.s.sume 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 wars.h.i.+p 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 wars.h.i.+ps of the time. He goes on to say:
”In this s.p.a.cious 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 s.h.i.+ps 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.