floated that
proud banner which had never cast its shadow on a worthier knight of Spain.
The garrison, worn to a shadow by their hardships and their hunger, most of
them wounded, and all of them sore spent, were in no case to resist this,
the most formidable attack to which they had been subjected. It was all
over in a very short time, and a dreadful massacre ensued.

Martin de Vargas, though sorely wounded, was taken alive and conducted to
the presence of Barbarossa. Wounded, shaken, bruised, his fortress in the
hands of his enemy, the dying shrieks of his murdered garrison still
ringing in his ears, the amazing spirit of the man was still utterly
unsubdued. "It is to the treason of a ruffian that you owe your triumph,"
he said to his captor, "and not to your valour: had I received the smallest
relief I could still have repulsed and kept you at bay. You have my maimed
and mutilated body in your possession, and I hope that you are satisfied.
But my body is accustomed to pain, and I therefore defy you and your
dastardly cruelty."

To do Barbarossa justice he admired the undaunted spirit of his prisoner,
and he replied:

"Fear nothing, De Vargas, I will do all in my power to ease your hurts if
you will do that which I ask of you."

De Vargas replied:

"As an earnest of your faith, I demand the punishment of the traitor
through whose information you were enabled to take the citadel."

Barbarossa ordered the soldier to be brought before them, and, having
nearly flogged him to death, had him beheaded. He then presented the head
to De Vargas, saying:

"You observe my complaisance. I now ask you to embrace the Mohammedan
faith; then I will overwhelm you with benefits and honours, and make you
the Captain-General of my guards."

De Vargas looked at him in indignation and replied:

"Dost thou believe that I, who but now demanded the just punishment of a
man who had forsworn himself, could stoop to such an act of baseness as
this? Keep your ill-gotten riches; confer your dignities on others; insult
not thus a caballero of Spain."

There was a breathless pause. None had ever used such language to
Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa and lived to tell the tale. Nor was it to be so in
this case.

"You and yours have caused me too much trouble," he answered indifferently.
He made a sign to the executioner who had beheaded the soldier, and the
next moment the head of De Vargas was swept from his body.

The gallant Spaniard, it is t