Barbarossa knew that the end was come, and that
Tunis must pass from his hands to those of the Christian Emperor. It was
not only the fall of the Goletta that troubled him, but the equally
important fact that by this the fleet of the enemy was enabled to lay hands
upon his own fleet, consisting of eighty-seven galleys and galliots,
together with his arsenal, and no less than three hundred cannon, mostly
brass guns of excellent construction, mounted on the walls and planted on
the ramparts. The surprising amount of this artillery gives a measure of
the strength of the fortress and the efforts it must have cost the
besiegers with such a man as Sinan in command.

That the end was near was known to all, and not the least of their
embarrassments was the presence within the city walls of some twenty
thousand Christian captives. The city was large, the defences were spread
out over a great area, it was abundantly evident that it could not be held,
and, in consequence, Barbarossa summoned his principal officers and
communicated to them his decision.

"We will not remain here to be slain like rats in a trap by the accursed
of God by whom we are attacked. No, rather will we perish, sword in
hand, as our fathers have done before us; but first there is a danger
against which we have to guard. Within these walls are twenty thousand
prisoners who will rise against us at the first opportunity; let us,
then, first put them to death, and then we will leave this place and
show our enemies how the true Moslems can die."

Even those hardened men of blood shrank before the horror which was
proposed to them by their chief, and Sinan-Reis took up his parable and
spoke the minds of all when he said that follow him to the death they would
cheerfully do, but stain themselves with so awful a massacre was to place
themselves outside the pale of humanity for ever. It was seldom that they
crossed his mood, and Barbarossa listened in frowning silence, accepting as
a partial excuse that time pressed, and to put to death twenty thousand
persons would occupy longer time than they could spare. On the morrow a
battle was fought which, as Kheyr-ed-Din anticipated, ended in the complete
rout of the Moslems. Everywhere the Corsair King was in the forefront of
the battle, and it is said that he disposed of fifty thousand men on this
occasion; but this is probably an exaggeration, and in any case the bulk of
his forces consisted of those Africa