Freed from all the trammels which bound the ordinary warrior of the day in
which they lived, they were able, as we have seen, to go far; for the man
in whom supreme ability is united to absolute unscrupulousness is the most
dangerous foe of the human race. The despotism of the leaders among the
sea-wolves was not theirs by right divine, as men considered it to be in
the case of the Padishah; none the less in its practical application it was
but little inferior to that wielded by the Sultan. For reasons of policy,
the Sea-wolves allied themselves to the Grand Turk; for reasons of policy
that monarch employed them and entrusted them with the conduct of important
affairs. The bargain was really a good one on both sides; as to the
sea-wolves was extended the aegis of one of the mightiest empires of the
earth; while to the Sultan came "veritable men of the sea," hardened in
conflict, as fearless of responsibility as of aught else; capable in a
sense that hardly any man could be capable who had grown up in the
atmosphere of the court at Constantinople. To Kheyr-ed-Din the Sultan had
extended his fullest confidence; he had been rewarded by seeing the
renowned Doria forsake the field of battle at Prevesa, and by the perpetual
slights and insults put upon his Christian foes by that great corsair. To
Dragut he had now turned, and, as we have said, when Sinan Basha sailed
from the Golden Horn he had orders to attempt nothing important without the
advice of the corsair.
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