Time and again the heavy
menacing clouds gathered around his head; strenuous and unceasing were the
efforts made by his enemies to destroy his power, to capture the person of
this militant robber who flung an insolent defiance to the whole of
Christendom. The storms gathered and broke with various effects, which
sometimes sent the corsair flying for his life a hunted fugitive, as others
saw him once more victorious. But no reverses had the power to damp his
ardour, or to render him less eager to arise, like some ill-omened phoenix,
from the ashes of defeat: to vex the souls of those who held themselves to
be the greatest men on earth.
It was shortly after the death of his brother Uruj that the storm arose
which bade fair to sweep, not only Kheyr-ed-Din but all the corsairs of the
North African coast, clean out of their strongholds, for the Emperor
Charles V., at this time young, eager, and enthusiastic, gave orders for
their destruction. These robbers troubled the peace of Europe; they did
more than this, they insulted the Majesty of the Emperor, and Charles
regarded their perpetual incursions in the light of an affront to his
personal dignity. The divinity which hedged such a monarch as the grandson
of "Los Reyes Catholicos," Ferdinand and Isabella, was a very real thing,
and, if offended, was likely to find concrete expression in the most
vigorous form. Charles, much annoyed at the necessity for chastising a band
of robbers, determined that he would make an end of them once and for all.
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