a hundred times. But, as has been said
already, the root of true statesmanship was in Kheyr-ed-Din. He watched
with eager eye the quarrels of the great kings on the continent of Europe;
he saw his life-long rival at sea, the greatest of all Christian mariners,
Andrea Doria, the Genoese admiral, transfer his allegiance from the French
King Francis I. to the Emperor Charles V. He noted and took full advantage
of the perpetual squabbles between the Genoese and Venetian Republics, and
all the time was in touch with the Sea-wolves, who swarmed on the coasts of
Africa, and lurked in every creek and harbour of the Ionian Sea. "In all
the bloody hazards of his life," to quote once again the words of the Grand
Turk, "he could, in the end, depend more or less on the corsairs, whether
they ostensibly sailed beneath his banner or whether they did not, as when
danger threatened what name was so potent as that of Barbarossa, which his
followers asserted to be worth ten thousand men, when shouted on the day of
battle!"

That which is most extraordinary in the life of Kheyr-ed-Din is the
perpetual danger and stress in which it was lived. Time and again the heavy
menacing clouds gathered around his head; strenuous and unceasing were the
efforts made by his enemies to destroy his power, to capture the person of
this militant robber who flung an insolent defiance to the whole of
Christendom. The storms gathered and broke with various effects, which
sometimes sent the corsair flying for his life a hunted fugitive, as others
saw him once more victorious. But no reverses had the power to damp his
ardour, or to render him less eager to arise, like some ill-omened phoenix,
from the ashes of defeat: to vex the souls of those who held themselves to
be the greatest men on earth.

It was shortly after the death of his brother Uruj that the storm arose
which bade fair to sweep, not only Kheyr-ed-Din but all the corsairs of the
North African coast, clean out of their strongholds, for the Emperor
Charles V., at this time young, eager, and enthusiastic, gave orders for
their destruction. These robbers troubled the peace of Europe; they did
more than this, they insulted the Majesty of the Emperor, and Charles
regarded their perpetual incursions in the light of an affront to his
personal dignity. The divinity which hedged such a monarch as the grandson
of "Los Reyes Catholicos," Ferdinand and Isabella, was a very real thing,
and, if offended, was likely