rders that he should be chained and thrust into the
prison of the fortress.

Terror stalked abroad in Algiers. No man knew when his turn might come
after this awful example of what it meant to incur the wrath of Barbarossa.
The corsair gave orders for the execution of Venalcadi, who, it will be
remembered, was with Uruj when that warrior came by his death; but
Venalcadi was popular among the pirates, and they connived at his escape.

For so cool and politic a man as Kheyr-ed-Din this outburst is wholly
inexplicable. Judged by our standards, the flogging of Hassan was not only
brutal but silly, as raising up to himself enemies of the most bitter
description in the midst of his own followers; and yet cruelty was so
engrained in this man that he never forewent his revenge. It is a standing
miracle that he escaped assassination in the age in which he lived, and the
only explanation would appear to be that men were too much afraid of him to
make the attempt.

The immediate result of the flogging of Hassan and the attempted murder of
Venalcadi was that the latter collected a following and made war upon
Kheyr-ed-Din, who, with incredible folly, then released Hassan, and sent
him with five hundred men to fight against Venalcadi. The result was what
might have been anticipated: Hassan joined forces with Venalcadi, and
together they attacked the tyrant and drove him out of his stronghold.

Kheyr-ed-Din had the one supreme merit of never knowing when he was beaten.
Driven from the shore, there was for him always the sea to which to retire;
so on this occasion he embarked his family and such of his riches as were
portable, and took to the sea once more. "Yendo a buscar nuevos asientos y
nuevos amigos" (seeking a new home and new friends), says Sandoval.

It was well for the corsairs that the Christians had selected the previous
year for their attack, as, had they fallen upon them when Barbarossa was no
longer in power at Algiers and the pirates were fighting among themselves,
the latter would have been wiped out of existence. It was ill fighting with
Kheyr-ed-Din, whether you professed the religion of Christ or that of
Mahomet, and this the revolting corsairs were very soon to discover.
Barbarossa sailed away from Algiers a hunted fugitive, only to return again
as a conqueror.

Eastward the dispossessed ruler of Algiers took his course, and very soon
discovered that which he sought--allies to assist him against the revolted
Ve