It was not only that fighting
was their particular trade; that, of course, might be said also of any man
who trailed a pike or carried an arquebus and marched in the ranks of
Spain, France, Genoa, or Venice. In the case of the sea-wolves it was the
perpetual practice in the art of war, as it was then understood, that
caused them to be the men that they were. Much of their fighting could
hardly be dignified by such a name, as in their everlasting raids on
villages and undefended places they seldom lost many of their number: when,
however, it came to the real thing, as it did on the occasion we have just
recounted, the long years of training told, and opposition had to be strong
indeed if it were not to be beaten down by such a leader as Dragut, by such
men as his picked five hundred.
What passed between Dragut and the council of "Africa," who in so
unqualified a manner had refused that warrior as a citizen, is not on
record; all that we know is that the Moslem leader dispensed with their
services, and did not invite his new fellow-townsmen to share with him the
burden of government. There was hurry in the administration of the corsair
states, as the form of rule which they adopted was apt to irk the rulers in
Christendom. In this particular instance Dragut, having expelled the
Spaniards from the coast towns, knew that a reckoning with the Emperor and
his militant admiral, Andrea Doria, was but a matter of time, and, in all
probability, of a very short time.
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