he German men-at-arms, was not contemplated
by Barbarossa. In his Janissaries, in his hard-bitten fighting men from the
galleys, he could expect much; but there were but some few thousands of
these, while the disciplined host against which he was called upon to
combat was at the least twenty-five thousand--the flower of the imperial
forces. The situation was unique, one on which the world had never looked
before--all the might of Christendom going up against one who, no matter by
what titles he might choose to describe himself, was no more than a vulgar
robber. He was, however, a robber on such a scale as had never before been
equalled--a force which remained unsubdued during the whole of his
extraordinary and unusually protracted career.

CHAPTER X

THE FALL OF TUNIS AND THE FLIGHT OF BARBAROSSA

Autocracy in the sixteenth century was a very real and concrete fact. The
orders of great kings were, as a rule, implicitly obeyed, and, when they
were not, there was likely to be trouble of the worst description for those
by whom they had been contravened. It is this that causes us to regard as
most extraordinary one of the happenings in the armada which sailed from
Barcelona for the coast of Africa. A most peremptory order was issued that
no women, no boys, no one, in fact, save fighting men of approved worth,
should find a place in the ships. Says Sandoval, "No se consintiesen en la
armada mugeres ni muchachos ni otra gente inutil, mas de aquellos solos que
eran para pelear." (There were not allowed in the armada women, boys, or
useless persons, but only those who were capable of fighting.) It appears,
however, that the women paid no sort of attention to this ordinance, and
the historian gravely relates that "it was no use turning them out of the
ships as, as soon as you sent them down one side they returned and climbed
up the other," It seems almost incredible, but is none the less a fact,
that four thousand women accompanied the expedition and landed at Tunis.
The autocracy of the Emperor apparently stopped short where women were
concerned, or else he was indifferent whether they came or not.

On June 16th the armada arrived before Tunis, and the army disembarked to
attack the fortress known as La Goletta. Into this strong place of arms
Barbarossa had sent some six thousand of his best men, mostly Turkish
soldiers, under the command of Sinan-Reis, a renegado Jew, and one of the
fiercest and most faithful of his