It may
seem a contradiction in terms to speak of the moral courage of a pirate;
but if ever that quality were displayed to its fullest extent it was
exhibited by Barbarossa in the Prevesa campaign. In his intellectual
outlook on all that was passing, both inside and outside of the Gulf of
Arta, in this September of 1538, we see Kheyr-ed-Din at his best. Ever a
fighter, he knew when to give battle and when to refrain, when to sweep
headlong upon the foe, but also when to hold back and to baffle by waiting
till the psychological moment should arrive. Around him Sinan-Reis,
Mourad-Reis, and half a hundred others of their kidney were clamouring;
they hurled insults at his head, they heaped opprobrium on "the corsair,"
they practically incited their troops to mutiny in their mad appeals to be
led against the foe.
But "the corsair" kept his head, and kept his temper, and saved the Ottoman
fleet for his master from his great rival, Doria. That noble Genoese seaman
was for once in his life "letting I dare not wait upon I would"; he would
not order the attack for which his men were waiting, and no provocation,
apparently, could tempt Barbarossa to play Antony to the Octavius of Doria;
the Christian admiral was tempting Providence at that advanced season of
the year in keeping the sea on an hostile coast on which at any time he
might be driven by a tempest. His old and experienced antagonist was well
aware that the winds and the waves might save him the trouble of destroying
the fleet of the enemy; an equinoctial gale would do that far more
effectually than could he.
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