With the sound of
trumpets, clarions, chirimias, and atambours the fleet moved to within a
short distance of the Portuguese and saluted them; then, as the thunder of
the guns ceased and the light wind blew away the smoke, they circled round
and stopped abreast of the royal vessel on which Charles had embarked. Once
again the guns barked a royal salute, while knights and nobles, seamen and
soldiers hailed their Emperor with frenzied shouts of "Imperio! Imperio!"
Then Andrea Doria stepped into his boat and was rowed across the shining
water to visit the Emperor, who received him, we are told, "with great
honour and many tokens of love."
On May 12th arrived Don Alvaro de Bazan, General of the Galleys of Spain.
This magnificent caballero made an entrance in much the same state and
circumstance as did Doria, and during the remainder of the stay of the
armada in Barcelona there was much banqueting and feasting and drinking of
healths to the Emperor and confusion to the Moslem foe. It was once again
as it had been in those days in which Ferdinand and Isabella had descended
upon the doomed city of Granada, and had built, in full sight of its
defenders, the town which they called Santa Fe (or the Holy Faith) as an
earnest that they would never leave until that symbol of their faith had
triumphed. To witness this victory the best blood of Europe had flocked,
and now, forty-three years later, when the audacious Moslem had raised his
head once more, the descendant of the warriors who had followed "Los Reyes
Catolicos" rallied to that standard which Carlos Quinto, their grandson,
had set up on the shores of Catalonia.
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