CHAPTER V
KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA
Uruj had arrogated to himself the title of King of Tlemcen, but with his
death this shadowy sovereignty came to an end, and the Spaniards seized
upon the province. This, however, did not avail them much, as the Sultan of
Fez sent against them an innumerable army, and they in their turn were
dispossessed. It was in the year 1518 that Uruj fell beneath the pike of
Garzia de Tineo, and now the first place in the piratical hierarchy was
taken by Kheyr-ed-Din. In this man the genius of the statesman lay hidden
beneath the outward semblance of the bold and ruthless pirate; ever
foremost in the fight, strong to endure, swift to smite, he had by now long
passed his novitiate, had established an empire over the minds of men which
was to endure until the end of his unusually prolonged life. With a brain
of ice and a heart of fire, he looked out, serene and calm, upon the
turbulent times in which he lived, a monstrous egotist desiring nothing but
his own advancement, all his faculties bent upon securing more wealth and
yet more power.
He played a lone hand, for he brooked even less than did his truculent
brother any approach to an equality with himself among the men who followed
in his train. Absolute supremacy was his in the life which he lived, but
none knew better than he upon what an unstable basis his power rested. He
now called himself the King of Algiers, but still that lean, sun-dried
garrison held with desperate tenacity to the tower of the redoubtable
Navarro, and any moment a fresh Spanish relieving force might be upon him
and chase him forth even as Uruj had been chased from Tlemcen.
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