Dragut died with arms in his hands fighting those whom he considered
to be his bitterest enemies. He did not live to see the repulse of Piali
and Mustapha, and it is to be presumed that he died assured in his own mind
that victory would rest with the Moslem host. For such a man as this no
death could have been more welcome.
CHAPTER XXI
ALI BASHA
Ali, the Basha of Algiers, succeeds to Dragut--He conquers the Kingdom
of Tunis, captures four galleys from the Knights of Malta, joins Piali
Basha in his raidings preliminary to the battle of Lepanto--The
gathering of the Christian hosts and the arrival of Don John of Austria
in the Mediterranean to take command.
"Now I have heard several mariners and captains of the sea, nay, even
Knights of Malta, debate among themselves this question, as to which was
the greater and better seaman, Dragut or Occhiali? And some held for one
and some for the other; those who held for Occhiali declaring that he had
held greater and more honourable charges than Dragut, because he commanded
as General and Admiral for the Grand Turk and that _il fit belle action_ at
the battle of Lepanto." Pierre de Bourdeille, the Seigneur de Brantome,
from whom we make the above quotation, was himself present at the siege of
Malta and, besides this, as is well known, gossiped in his own inimitable
way concerning men and women of his time, from corsairs to courtesans. When
such contemporary authorities as those mentioned could not agree it is
quite certain that we of the twentieth century cannot decide on the rival
claims to distinction between the Bashaw of Tripoli and his follower
Occhiali, as he was known to the Christians, or Ali Basha, as he was called
by the Turks.
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