The situation occupied by Kheyr-ed-Din at the battle of Prevesa
was, in a sense, different from any which he had held before, as he was in
this case hampered by his sense of responsibility as Admiralissimo to the
Grand Turk. What happened on the distant shores of Africa mattered but
little to that monarch, and he had been content to allow his admiral an
entirely free hand; here in Europe, on the shores of Greece, so close
relatively to his own capital city, it was a very different matter, and
Soliman was kept in touch with the happenings of his fleet as far as was
possible in those days. But if the great corsair did not add to his
reputation in this eventful campaign he still displayed an aptitude in
realising the situation which, it is safe to say, was shown by none of
those under his command.
Prevesa illustrates for us more than any other action the difficulties with
which the path of the partisan leader in these days must always have been
filled; and how it was that personal ascendancy was the only force to which
such a leader had to trust Sheer dominance of the minds, the wills, and the
bodies of others had placed Kheyr-ed-Din where he was; all his life he had
commanded undisciplined pirates, and yet now, when he was the properly
accredited officer of a mighty monarch, when he might have expected far
more discipline and subordination than had ever been his lot in the past,
he was met with a contumaciousness which he was unable to quell, and was
forced into taking steps which, in his own unequalled knowledge of war, he
knew to be doomed to disaster.
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