But, nevertheless, such an emergency as this found the man at his best:
ready to take fortune at the flood when she smiled upon him, he was perhaps
at his very greatest in adversity; and when all around him trembled and
paid one of their infrequent visits to the Mosque to implore the aid of the
Prophet, the veteran corsair was coolly reviewing the situation, seeking a
way to weather the tempest before which lesser men shrank appalled,
declaring that the end had come. The storm was coming in a squall of such
violence as even he had never before experienced, but, thanks to his friend
the King of France, he had been forewarned. He sent at once to his master,
Soliman the Magnificent, at Constantinople, to impart to him the direful
intelligence; then the bagnios were thrown open, and, under pitiless lash
and scourge, the Christian captives toiled from dawn till dark to repair
the fortifications of Tunis. Silent and unapproachable, conferring with
none, the grim old Sea-wolf sat in his palace overlooking the bay and
considered the question of whether he should give battle by land or sea
when the time came. If it were possible, he came to the conclusion that it
should be the latter; he had been evicted from his kingdom on land once
before, but he knew that in the open ocean few cared to face Barbarossa,
and he might fall on Doria first and the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem
second if matters turned out favourably for him.
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