Part 14 (1/2)
”Then again--” resumed he, seeing that Ippolito was in a painful state of vacillation, ”by adopting a more spirited line of action, and uniting yourself with the _fuorusciti_, you would gain immortal honour and glory as the deliverer and true father of your country, _and would see your arms put up all over the city_!”
This last bait was too much for Ippolito to resist. His eye kindled, and he half started from his seat.
”And this would even be your wisest course of action,” pursued his cunning tempter, ”should you feel inclined to make yourself absolute master of the state instead of liberating it, inasmuch as it would obtain such popularity for you in the first instance. All the old friends of your house are so disgusted and alienated by the conduct of Alessandro, that they would gladly transfer their allegiance to you. And _I_ will undertake, if you will only be prudent, to make the _fuorusciti_ espouse your cause. With the French money and favour which my influence can secure to you, you may be certain of success!”
Ippolito's breast heaved. It seemed ”a good plot--an excellent plot”--though a voice in his heart made its stifled accents heard against it. And so, in evil hour, the decision was made; and he became the tool of this wicked man, who designed, through him, to wreak his own vengeance on Alessandro.
But a bird of the air carried the matter to the Grand Duke; else how should he have heard of it? He, ready enough to fight conspirators with their own weapons, communicated secretly with Ippolito's steward, Giovan Andrea di Borgho San Sepolcro, and covenanted with him to do a certain deed for a certain sum of money.
Meantime, Strozzi negotiated with the leaders of the _fuorusciti_, who, knowing his character for craft and treachery, were not at all ready to meet him half way, and sometimes drove him to such desperation with their answers to his advances that he was almost minded to throw up conspiracy altogether, and retire upon his enormous fortune to Venice, and live quietly like an honest man. Well if he had!
The Cardinal, meantime, hearing that the Emperor was fitting out an expedition to Tunis, resolved to follow him thither, accompanied by certain of the _fuorusciti_, and lay his complaints before him in person.
No sooner had he decided on this step than he hastened his preparations for departure. He loved action and the bruit of arms: he would have made a pretty good soldier: probably a noted commander. To supply himself with the necessary funds, he broke up and sold all his plate, and borrowed ten thousand ducats of Felippo Strozzi. Having hired twenty horses for his personal attendants and four Florentines who were to accompany him, he started from Rome at the latter end of July, 1535, _en route_ for the little town of Itri, near Fondi, where he purposed awaiting the vessel in which he was to embark at Gaeta.
The reason he meant to wait at Itri rather than Gaeta was that he believed Giulia to be at Fondi--in which he was mistaken.
As he was in the act of mounting his beautiful mare, she fell beneath him, without any apparent reason; which was afterwards looked back on as an evil omen.
CHAPTER XIV.
WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA.
The Emperor Charles the Fifth had been very indignant when he heard of the sack of Fondi, and the attempt to seize the d.u.c.h.ess. Some months afterwards, when Muley Ha.s.san, whom Barbarossa had driven from Tunis, appealed to him for a.s.sistance, Charles, who was ambitious of military renown, resolved at once to rid the coast of a dangerous invader, and avenge an injured prince, by heading an expedition against Hayraddin.
The united strength of his dominions was therefore called out upon this enterprise, which he intended to increase his already brilliant reputation. As the redresser of wrongs, his cause was popular, and drew on him the applause of Christendom. A Flemish fleet conveyed his troops from the Low Countries; the galleys of Naples were loaded with the Italian auxiliaries, and the Emperor himself embarked at Barcelona with the flower of his Spanish n.o.bility, and considerable reinforcements from Portugal. Andrea Doria commanded the Genoese galleys, and the Knights of Malta equipped a small but powerful squadron, and hastened to the rendezvous at Cagliari.
All this mighty armament to hunt down a Lesbian pirate, the son of an obscure potter!
Hayraddin was, however, no contemptible foe. Ambitious and relentless, a skilful and a generous chief, his lavish bounties among his partizans made them his blind adherents: while his wondrous versatility had enabled him to ingratiate himself with the Sultan and his Vizier. It was therefore to be war to the knife between the Crescent and the Cross.
As soon as Barbarossa heard of the Emperor's formidable preparations, he called in all his corsairs from their different stations, drew from Algiers what forces could be spared, summoned Moors and Arabs from all quarters to his standard, and inflamed their fanaticism by a.s.suring them he was embarking in a holy war.
Twenty thousand horse and a considerable body of foot answered his summons, and drew together before Tunis. Hayraddin knew, however, that his greatest dependence must be on his Turkish troops, who were armed and disciplined in the European manner. He therefore threw six thousand of them, under Sinan, the renegade Jew, into the fortress of Goletta commanding the bay of Tunis; which the Emperor immediately invested.
Three separate storming parties attacked the fort; Sinan raged like a lion at bay: frequent sallies were made by his garrison, while the Moors and Arabs made diversions. But nothing could withstand the fury of the a.s.sailants; and a breach soon appeared in the walls of the fortress, which the Emperor pointed out to Muley Ha.s.san.
”Behold,” said he, ”the gate through which you may re-enter your kingdom!”
With the Goletta, Barbarossa's fleet fell into the Emperor's hands; and he was driven to extremities. Having strongly entrenched himself within the city, he called his chiefs to a council of war, and proposed to them, that before sallying out to decide their fate in battle, they should ma.s.sacre ten thousand Christians whom he had shut up in the citadel.
Even his pirate chiefs were staggered at this proposal; and Barbarossa, seeing they would not support him in it, yielded the point with a gesture of disgust at their want of hardihood. Charles and his chivalry were meanwhile painfully toiling, under a blazing African sun, across the burning sands which encompa.s.s Tunis, without so much as a drop of water to cool their tongues:
”Non e gente Pagana insieme accolta, Non muro cinto di profonda fossa, Non gran torrente o monte alpestre e folta Selva, che 'l loro vaggio arrestar possa.”
La Ger. Lib., _Canto I._