Unlike Dragut, who would have gone by sea,
he set out by land with some five thousand corsairs and renegadoes. On the
way he was reinforced by some six thousand cavalry of the wild tribes of
the hinterland, then as ever ready to join in a fray with promise of booty:
doubly ready in this case, as it was to harass so unpopular a tyrant as
Hamid. Passing through Constantine and Bona, he continued to march towards
Tunis, his following augmenting as he proceeded, and adding to his forces
ten light field-guns. Arriving at Beja, a town which Haedo describes as
being but two short days' march from Tunis, he came upon a fortress,
recently erected by Hamid, mounting fourteen brass cannon. Here he halted,
whereupon Hamid sallied out to give him battle at the head of some three
thousand troops, horse and foot. The engagement had scarcely begun when the
three Alcaids, who had been in communication with Ali, deserted with all
their following. Hamid fled to Tunis, expecting to find shelter there, but
he was hotly pursued by the corsairs, who followed him up to Al-Burdon,
where his summer palace was situated. Hamid, finding that his people were
everywhere in revolt, fled to the Goletta, carrying with him a quantity of
money, jewels, and portable valuables, and placed himself under the
protection of the Spanish garrison--not, however, without the loss of the
major portion of his baggage, plundered from him by certain Moors in the
course of his flight.
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