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.
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