Certainly if
Soliman the Magnificent had lost a Grand Vizier he had succeeded in finding
an admiral!
All through the earlier months of 1538 the dockyards of Constantinople
hummed with a furious activity, for Soliman had decreed that the maritime
campaign of this year was to begin with no less than one hundred and fifty
ships. His admiral, however, did not agree with this decision; to the
Viziers he raged and stormed. "Listen," he said, "O men of the land who
understand naught of the happenings of the sea. By this time Saleh-Reis
must have quitted Alexandria convoying to the Bosphorus twenty sail filled
with the richest merchandise; should he fall in with the accursed Genoese,
Doria, where then will be Saleh-Reis and his galleys and his convoy? I will
tell you: the ships in Genoa, the galleys burned, Saleh-Reis and all his
mariners chained to the rowers' bench."
The Viziers trembled, as men did when Barbarossa stormed and turned upon
them those terrible eyes which knew neither fear nor pity. "We be but men,"
they answered, "and our lord the Sultan has so ordained it."
"I have forty galleys," replied the corsair; "you have forty more. With
these I will take the sea; but, mark you," he continued, softening
somewhat, "you do right to fear the displeasure of the Sultan, and I also
have no wish to encounter it; but vessels raised and equipped in a hurry
will be of small use to me. In the name of Allah the compassionate and his
holy Prophet give me my eighty galleys and let me go.
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