o be taken into his own house and
instructed by the chaplain of the garrison. The next day was Easter Day,
and the two young Moors, while the entire garrison were at Mass, signalled
to their co-religionists a prearranged sign indicating that now was the
time to attack. Unfortunately for them, a woman in the employment of De
Vargas saw them, and they were immediately hanged from the battlements in
full view of Barbarossa. That potentate was filled with fury at what he
considered an insult to the Mohammedan religion, and again consulted with
Celebi as to the feasibility of another assault. It was true, he said, that
his messengers had been hanged, but they had made the prearranged signal.
Still, the walls were hardly sufficiently breached, he thought, and his own
men were singularly disheartened by the ill success of their previous
efforts. Did Celebi Rabadan think another attempt desirable?

That person was in a quandary, because he could not gather what it was that
Barbarossa wished him to say. He knew that if he recommended an assault,
and that it proved once again unsuccessful, that the full fury of the
tyrant would fall upon his head; at the same time he was almost equally
afraid to broach the idea which had been prevalent in Algiers for some time
that Martin de Vargas must assuredly be in league with Shaitan, or he could
never have held out in the way that he had done. In consequence he
temporised and hesitated, while Barbarossa pulled at his famous red beard
and regarded him with scowling brows.

The situation was saved for Celebi Rabadan by an accident. There swam off
to the ship a traitor from the Spanish garrison, and this man informed them
that his whilom comrades were positively at their last gasp, ammunition all
but exhausted, and the food-supply barely sufficient to last another two
days.

"To such an end come those who deny the Prophet of God," exclaimed
Barbarossa, and gave orders that this news be communicated to all his men,
who were to prepare for the final assault on the morrow. He further offered
a reward for the capture of Martin de Vargas alive.

On May 16th, 1530, the corsairs once again advanced to the assault. By this
time the walls had been battered until a practicable breach had been
formed, and over this swarmed thirteen hundred of the starkest fighters of
the Mediterranean, In the breach, bareheaded, his armour hacked and dinted,
stood the undaunted chieftain of the Spaniards: over his head