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.
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