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intended as a present for the sultan. But whilst the vessels were still within a few miles of the coast, they were suddenly destroyed by the explosion of their powder magazines, nothing remaining of them but a few planks floating on the water. Some historians attribute their destruction to accident; others, adopting a more romantic version, declare it to have been the work of one of the captives, a beautiful girl, who preferred death to dishonour. Of the catastrophe there can be no doubt, but its cause must ever remain uncertain.

The loss of Nicosia, quickly followed by that of the whole island, is attributed by Señor Rosell, with every appearance of reason, and upon the strength of Italian authorities, to the neglect of the Venetians. Had they, when they first perceived the hostile intentions of the Turk, employed a part of their resources to strengthen and garrison their colonies, and especially Cyprus, Selim's avowed object, instead of attending solely to the fitting out of a fleet which came too late to save the island, they might have retained their valuable colony. Such was the advice given them by the celebrated Duke of Alba, in a letter dated from Brussels, the 31st March 1570, to be found in the appendix to Señor Rosell's work, in which the duke strongly recommends to them to cargar sus plazas, to supply their fortresses well with the best soldiers they have, so that they may gain time-the greatest enemy, he says, of those who besiege strong places-until at last, the numbers of the foe being diminished, relief may be taken to the besieged. But at the same time he recommends that the places should be so provided as if they never were to be relieved. It has been seen how little the republic profited by these wise counsels.

When the news of the fall of Nicosia reached the combined fleet, another council of war was held, at which contrary opinions were emitted, and some angry discussion took place. Colonna attempted to assume the supreme command, and to control Doria, who declared that he acknowledged no superior but Don John of Austria, captain-general of the Spanish navy.

Very high words passed between Colonna and Don Carlos Dávalos, who commanded a strong body of infantry on board the Spanish galleys. Doria interposed his authority, and ordered his subordinate to retire, or the quarrel might have come to blows. Doria then required that Colonna should show him his authority for acting as he did; and it soon became evident that the three powers had made no express arrangement on the important subject of command, but that each pretended to be independent, and even to a right of commanding the other two; whilst, in the instructions given to the generals, no provision had been made for settling the difficulties that could hardly fail to spring up from the want of one directing head. Finally, a few days after the stormy councils, the fleets separated, but met again at Candia, whence Doria, the season no longer allowing of naval operations in those seas, departed, early in October, for Sicily, with the consent of Colonna and Zanne, which he had thought proper to ask out of courtesy. The conduct of the three admirals after the fall of Nicosia, their disputes and their separation, have given rise to much discussion amongst historical writers. Señor Rosell vindicates Doria and casts blame upon Colonna, taxing him with presumption, and with having, in concert with Zanne, abandoned the Spanish fleet. It is not unnatural that a Spanish writer should take this view of the question, but he also brings Italian authorities to his support. The controversy, however, is not now of sufficient interest to be worth dilating upon in this place.

Leaving a garrison in Nicosia, Mustafa laid siege to Famagusta. He pitched his camp at three miles from the town, and daily sent horsemen to ride up to its walls, and to exhibit to its inhabitants the heads of the principal persons killed at Nicosia stuck upon the heads of lances. Neither this bloody menace, nor the fair promises of which he afterwards was lavish, had the slightest effect upon the defenders of Famagusta, who were resolved, as they afterwards showed, to fight to the death, and who, in two sallies, drove the Turks from their trenches, destroying, with the guns of the fortress, three redoubts that they

had thrown up. The reduction of the place not appearing so easy as had been anticipated, Mustafa postponed it until the spring, and went with the fleet in quest of that of the Christians, which he knew from his spies to have separated into two portions. Deprived of the assistance of the Spaniards, the Venetian and Roman squadrons were not in condition to make head against the Turk, the news of whose approach was very unwelcome to them, especially as they had just lost eleven galleys, and had others damaged by a storm at sea. Fortunately, high and contrary winds frustrated Mustafa's design, and he at last changed his plan, and went to winter at Constantinople. Zanne took advantage of his absence to throw a reinforcement of sixteen hundred infantry into Famagusta, and thence went to Corfu, to seek orders from the senate, by whom he was shortly afterwards, either by reason of his ill health, which incapacitated him for the command, or because his conduct of the campaign was disapproved (Señor Rosell says the latter was the cause), removed from his command. It was bestowed upon the proveditore, Sebastian Veniero, who had for his lieutenant Agostino Barbarigo, a man, says Señor Rosell, of singular discretion, and very well beloved by his fellow-citizens. Meanwhile Colonna, passing through many perils, and suffering much damage including the loss of his own galley, which was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes-at last reached Rome, where, although he arrived with scarcely a shadow of his squadron, he was received with great demonstrations of joy.

Such was the unsatisfactory state of affairs at the close of the campaign of 1570. Meanwhile, Pius V. used every exertion to bring about the much desired league, whose object was to be the humbling of the power of the Turk. Conferences were held at Rome between the representatives of the Pope, the King of Spain, and the Republic of Venice; and Maximilian of Austria was again urged to join in the projected alliance. He would gladly have reconquered the part of Hun

gary that had fallen under the Moslem yoke, but his treasury was low; he was bound by a trace of eight years, signed with the Grand Seignior, and he could not seriously entertain the proposals of the Venetian ambassador. The conferences were prolonged, many difficulties intervened, and at one time Venice, doubting of a favourable result, and cherishing little hope of alone bringing the war to a successful issue, was near entering into negotiations with the Porte, when Muhammed, the Grand Vizier, jealous of Mustafa's triumph, had persuaded Selim to offer peace to the senate-a principal condition of which would have been the cession of Cyprus by the latter, or at least the payment of a tribute, if they were allowed to retain the island or the town of Famagusta. Before, however, these negotiations had commenced, the Pope, learning that Venice had sent a special envoy to Constantinople, nominally to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, feared some underhand dealings, and despatched Colonna to assure the Doge and senators of his desire to carry out the league, and of his willingness to yield certain points that had proved impediments to its completion. The conferences were resumed, and finally, on the 25th May, a perpetual treaty of alliance against the Turks, and also against the Moors of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, was sworn to, and signed by the three ambassadors, on the part of Rome, Spain, and Venice. Don John of Austria was appointed captain-general of the league, and Colonna was to replace him in case of absence or accident. No one of the contracting powers was at liberty to conclude peace or truce with the Porte without the consent of the others. The league was not published in Venice until the 2d of July, but before then the Pontiff, with great zeal and diligence, had sent a legate to Spain, to urge Philip II. to hasten his preparations, and also to Austria and Portugal to press them to join the alliance. The legate deputed to Spain was received with great pomp and magnificence, upon the details of which Señor Rosell complacently dwells. But before

tracing the results of the league, we must revert for a moment to the Turks and to Famagusta.

On the approach of spring, Selim ordered a numerous fleet to be got together, with the purpose of reinforcing the army in Cyprus, and of falling upon the Venetian squadrons wherever they were to be found. He made various changes. Piali, accused of having suffered the enemy's galleys to escape in the previous autumn, was disgraced, and replaced by Aali Pasha; whilst Perteu, an experienced officer, took command of the land forces. Uluch Aali, viceroy of Algiers, brought a good number of galleys, and Hassan Pacha, a son of the celebrated Barbarossa, also came with a squadron, so that the fleet altogether was of two hundred and fifty sail. When this strong force was united, Selim gave orders to his captains not to remain idle a single day, and they immediately attacked various Venetian possessions, landing at Canea in Candia, where, however, they were set upon by the inhabitants as they retired to their ships, and suffered great loss. At Retimo, in the same island, the ferocious Uluch Aali* was more successful; for, although repulsed at first by the admirable artillery-practice of about a hundred men who composed the garrison, he soon discovered with how slender a force he had to deal, returned to the assault, and sacked and burned the town. Land

ings were afterwards effected in the islands of Cerigo, Zante, and Cephalonia, where barbarous cruelties and devastations were committed; and in the month of July, Uluch Aali entered the Adriatic, took two galleys, seized upon Dulcino and Antivari, passed by Curzola, where the women-there being very few men in the place-dressed themselves as soldiers, and showed themselves on the walls, making the Turks believe in the presence of a numerous garrison, and sacked the island of Liesena. Venice, beholding the enemy so near, whilst her own squadrons remained in shameful inaction, was in consternation; but Uluch knew his business too well to remain long in the Adriatic, whose entrance might suddenly be closed to him, so he rejoined Aali at the mouth of the Cattaro, and sailed with him to Corfu, to seek intelligence of the fleets of the league.

During the time occupied by this daring expedition, Mustafa was busy at Famagusta. When the middle of April arrived, and with it weather favourable to military operations, he established his camp on the spacious plain, three miles in extent, that intervenes between the city and the sea. This army was very numerous: some writers have stated it at 200,000 men. Señor Rosell estimates it at 80,000, but adds that it is difficult to fix its numbers exactly, owing to the great number of adventurers who had

* This renegade was born of poor parents, in the Neapolitan province of Calabria, and was brought up as a fisherman and boatman. Captured by a Greek renegade corsair, he for many years pulled an oar in a galley. Having lost his hair from a skin disease, the other Christian slaves affronted him, and would neither eat with him nor row upon the same bench. It chanced one day that a soldier struck him; he concealed his anger, but vowed revenge, and, as the only means to secure it, he abjured his religion, and became a Mussulman, an act of desperation characteristic of the man, and which was the commencement of his fortune. As a Turk, he rose to be boatswain of a galley, then associated himself with others to arm a brigantine, and finally became one of the principal corsairs in Algiers. He entered the service of Dragut-arraez, lord of Barbary, who sent him to Constantinople in 1560, to solicit assistance from the Grand Seignior. He returned to Africa with Piali Pasha, and assisted at the battle of Gelves, where he highly distinguished himself. Piali took a great liking to him, made him governor of Tripoli, and in the year 1568 obtained for him the regency or sovereignty of Algiers. In the following year, Uluch Aali conquered the city of Tunis for the Turks; in 1570 he obeyed the summons of Selim to reinforce the Turkish armada with his galleys, and hereafter we shall see him figure as one of the Porte's principal generals. Further details of his life are to be found in the Epitome de los Reyes de Argel, by Fr. Diego de Haedo, from which we have extracted these particulars.-(Note by Señor Rosell, Historia del Combate naval de Lepanto, &c., pp. 62-3.)

flocked to the spot in hopes of booty. The Turks, in their hyperbolical style, said that if every one of their fighting men threw one of his sandals into the moat they would fill it up, and might walk into the town. The camping ground of this great army was most agreeable. True that the inhabitants had destroyed the gardens and the groves of orange and cedar that before embellished the vicinity, but they had been unable to stop the numerous rivulets that meandered through the plain, fertilising the soil, and offering delightful refreshment in that burning climate. To defend the town, Astor Baglione, the governor, and Marco Antonio Bragadino, a brave and indefatigable officer, had seven thousand fighting men, little inured to war, but courageous and disciplined.

The besiegers passed a month in fortifying their camp and making their approaches to the counterscarp. They opened trenches three miles in extent, and cut so deep, in some places through the living rock, that when a man-atarms sat on horseback in them, the point of his lance was hardly to be discerned. Thence their arquebusiers incessantly harassed the town. They also constructed ten forts, of beams, fascines, and earth, with platforms for artillery. The besieged, on their part, made frequent sorties, skirmishing with the besiegers, interrupting their works, and habituating themselves to those hand-to-hand conflicts which they afterwards had to maintain on the breaches in their walls. On the morning of the 19th May, a great movement was observed amongst the Turks, who with fierce shouts waved their lances, pennons, and standards, and soon seventy-four pieces of heavy artillery, and four enormous basilisks, thundered against the devoted town. The besieged vigorously replied, causing heavy loss to the enemy, and rendering fifteen of their guns useless; but such was their haste to fire that they soon ran short of ammunition, and the artillerymen were ordered to fire no shot without the consent of their captains. The Turks got possession of the ditch and counterscarp, and opened several mines. Some of these were countermined, but this could not be done to all; and one especially, near the arsenal, was made

before the eyes of the besieged. On the 21st of June it was sprung with terrific effect; the whole city rocked, the wall fell in ruins, an assault was given and resisted with equal valour. The combat lasted five hours; five hundred Italians remained upon the ground, but remained as victors; the Turks, although five or six times reinforced, were fain to retreat. This triumph redoubled the courage of the besieged. Within their shattered wall they formed a new line of defence, composed of casks and bags full of wet sand. Two other assaults followed, at intervals of eight and fifteen days, in the second of which Astor Baglione, fighting at the head of his men, wrenched a Turkish standard from the hands of its bearer. Mustafa was furious. The wall had fallen, the ditch was filled, but still the victory was not his.

But the unfortunate besieged, who displayed such heroic courage, were now exposed to the horrors of famine. Their provisions expended, they resorted to the most disgusting aliments; these exhausted, their strength failed them, though their valour still survived. At last, towards the 20th of July, the principal citizens represented to the governor the impossibility of further defence, and urged him to capitulate upon honourable terms. Baglione called a council of his captains. Some of them were for sallying out of the town and dying with arms in their hands; and the result proved that theirs was the wisest opinion. But others, considering that they had no right thus to leave their fellow-citizens exposed to the fury of the Turks, voted for surrender. The majority coincided, and word was taken to Mustafa to send delegates into the town to arrange terms of surrender. This was done; two Turkish officers entered Famagusta, and two Venetians went into the enemy's camp. The terms demanded by the besieged were granted, and on the 4th August the keys were given up to Mustafa, who received them with signs of joy, lauding the valour of the defenders of the place, and marvelling especially at the heroic firmness of Bragadino, whom he expressed a wish to see and speak with that same day.

"Accordingly," says Señor Rosell,

"Bragadino, accompanied by Baglione and other captains, all on horseback, and attired in his dress of ceremony, with purple tunic and crimson parasol, betook him to the pasha's tent, with a calm countenance and a tranquil heart, neither fearing any risk nor puffed up by the high praise bestowed upon him. Various discourses passed between Turks and Venetians; but after some time it occurred to Mustafa, or thus he disguised his infernal will, to demand securities for the return of the vessels that were to convey the garrison from the island. Bragadino replied that he was not obliged to give them, because no such condition had been stipulated in the capitulation; and on that pretext, and others no less unjustifiable, the pasha, blind with rage, ordered Baglione, Martinengo, Quirini, and the others, to be taken from his tent, and perfidiously and inhumanly butchered. Bragadino was present at the slaughter of his companions the blood of his friends spurted into his very eyes; from that torment he could not exempt himself. And who can relate the tortures reserved for him? Compelled to carry gabions full of earth, and to kiss the ground when he passed before his tyrant, he dragged out a painful existence until the 17th of August, when, by Mustafa's order, he was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed with straw, and suspended from the yardarm of a galley, was triumphantly paraded along all their coasts."

The conquest of Famagusta is said to have cost the Turks fifty thousand men, and some of their best officers fell in the course of the siege. Mustafa left twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse to guard the island, and returned to Constantinople, which he entered in triumph, to the great contentment of Selim, and amidst the envy of the courtiers. Famagusta taken, Cyprus had become a Turkish possession. The republic's only hope was now in the fleets of the League.

On the 25th August, Don John of Austria reached Messina, the point of junction of the allied squadrons, where Colonna and Sebastian Veniero anxiously awaited his coming, and where he was received with infinite joy and great magnificence, the streets throng

ed, the windows full of richly-attired ladies, the squares adorned with triumphal arches, columns, inscriptions, and hieroglyphics; the shore crowded with the banners, arms, and plumes of the captains and soldiers of half Europe; by day the thunder of salutes, the rattle of drums, the clang of trumpets, by night illuminations and fireworks. "Such great rejoicing," quaintly remarks Señor Rosell, "could not but be the presentiment of another greater, which Heaven reserved for those who, with lively faith, invoked its holy name." The valiant bastard of Charles V., whose arrival was the signal for a display of enthusiasm which he was soon to justify by his high deeds, was, says Van der Hammer, in his History of Don John of Austria, "of sanguine temperament and lordly presence, somewhat above the middle height, of joyous disposition, and inclined to what was just; quick of wit, and of a good memory. He was very vigorous and strong-so much so that he swam in armour as if he had nothing on him. He was agreeable and courteous, a great respecter of letters and arms, and an excellent horseman. He had a noble, clear, and spacious forehead; his blue eyes were large and lively, with a grave and amorous look; his countenance was handsome, he had little beard, and was of a light and elegant figure." The command reserved for this accomplished and martial prince, who had refused a cardinal's hat to follow the profession of war, was worthy of his high qualities; since the great days of ancient Rome no such fleet had been seen in the Italian waters as that now mustered under his orders. There were more than three hundred vessels, carrying upwards of eighty thousand men, assembled under the banner of the League, in the spacious harbour of Messina. The fighting men amounted to twentynine thousand, including eight thousand of the famous Spanish infantry. The Venetian galleys being thinly manned, Don John ordered Veniero to take on board four thousand Spaniards and Italians, which was done, although not without some opposition and murmuring on the part of the Venetians. Whilst these and other arrangements were making, the Turk

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