If Doria had an uneasy consciousness that he
might at any time see the shore littered with oarless galleys and dismasted
nefs, while the sea was filled with drowning men, the same vision had been
vouchsafed to his imperturbable adversary. Had it been left to the entire
initiative of Barbarossa, his Fabian tactics would assuredly have prevailed
in the end; but as it was he was surrounded by a clamouring host of men,
soldiers by trade, who, understanding nothing of the happenings of the sea,
merely derided as cowardice any postponement of what they regarded as the
inevitable battle. The admiral of the Sultan held out as long as it was
possible, but at last, owing to a new factor in the case, was forced,
against his better judgment, to offer the battle which it was in his power
to have withheld.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BATTLE OF PREVESA
How Alessandro Condalmiero fought the _Galleon of Venice_--"The
King of the Sea is dead."
There is something almost pathetic in the spectacle of a really great
leader badgered and importuned by lesser men to adopt a course which he,
with a superior insight, knows to be unsound. In the matter of the landing
Barbarossa had demonstrated that it was he whose knowledge of war was
superior to those who were so ready to thrust upon him their opinions;
this, however, did not content them, and they now desired to close with the
foe waiting for them outside. If ever a commander was justified in waiting
on events it was Barbarossa at this juncture; the business of a
commander-in-chief is to ensure victory, and if he sees, as did the Moslem
admiral on this occasion, that more is to be gained by delay than by
fighting, then he is justified in refusing battle: particularly is this the
case when the enemy is in greatly superior force blockading on an open and
dangerous coast at an inclement season of the year.
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