s for another campaign against
the Christian.

"What matter, comrades?" said the veteran on one occasion when he was
superintending the fitting out of the galleys. "These dogs have gone back
from whence they came, and they have left that creature, Muley Hassan, to
do their will in Tunis. It is true that there is Mendoza and his thousand
Spaniards in the Goletta, but did not Martin de Vargas hold the Penon here?
And where is De Vargas, and in whose hands is the Penon now? We know from
whence the garrisons of Spain draw their supplies, and believe me that
there will be hungry men in the Goletta in this coming year. Once we get to
sea again, there will be more than enough for every good man who believes
in the Prophet, and who has the sense to follow Barbarossa. For every ducat
that you have lost see, in the coming year, if you do not gain ten; the
Christians are off their guard now, and they think that they have done with
me because they have captured Tunis." He laughed his great, jovial laugh.
"By the beard of the Prophet--upon whom be peace!--they have yet to find
out the man with whom they have to deal."

It took a master mind to instil heart of grace into men who so recently had
had so bad a beating as these; but in the end they began to cheer up, and
to recollect how Barbarossa had sooner or later always risen from defeat as
strong or stronger than before; also they recalled the fact that he was the
chosen of the Padishah, and that that potentate, the representative of the
Prophet on earth, would assuredly come to his assistance now that Tunis,
which had been taken in his name, had been reft from Barbarossa by the
Christians. Gradually hope took the place of despair, and when the corsairs
took to the sea in the early part of the following year it was with renewed
confidence in both themselves and their leader.

CHAPTER XI

ROXALANA AND THE MURDER OF IBRAHIM

At the coming of spring Barbarossa was at sea again with thirty-two ships
ready for any eventuality, his crews aflame with ardour for revenge against
those by whom they had been so roughly handled. He chose for the scene of
operations a place on the coast of Majorca some fifteen miles from Palma;
from here he commanded the route of the Spaniards from their country to the
African coast, and it was against this nation that he felt a great
bitterness owing to recent events. Eagerly did the corsair and his men
watch for the Spanish ships, the heavier vess