[Illustration: SOLIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.]
Soliman the Magnificent, who was not inaptly described by this title, for
he was successful as both warrior and statesman, meditated both long and
anxiously on the new development of affairs before he made up his mind to
the step of calling to his assistance the corsair king. But he possessed
that truest attribute of greatness in a ruler, the faculty of discerning
the right man for any particular post. Brave and reckless fighters he
possessed in super-abundance, but somehow--somehow--none of these fiery
warriors had that habit of the sea which enabled them to make head against
such a past-master in the craft of the seaman as Andrea Doria. The Genoese
was chasing the Turkish galleys from off the face of the waters.
Constantinople itself was a sea-surrounded city; it was necessary that a
check should be administered to the arms of the Christians on this element.
It is easy to imagine the preoccupations of the Turkish monarch. The despot
rules by force, but he also holds his power by the address with which it is
wielded, and he can by no means afford to disregard his personal popularity
if he is to make the best use of his fighting men in such a turbulent epoch
as was the first half of the sixteenth century. Soliman had the wit to know
that he had no mariner who was in any way comparable to Doria; he was also
aware that Kheyr-ed-Din had risen from nothing to his present position by
his sheer ability as a seaman.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125