were only too likely to occur when so
capable a head of the State was removed at so critical a time. Renewed
strife was in the air, and endless squabbles between Venice and the Porte
were taking place. With these we have no concern, but, in addition to other
complaints, there were loud and continuous ones concerning the corsairs.
Venice, "The Bride of the Sea," had neither rest nor peace; the pirates
swarmed in Corfu, in Zante, in Candia, in Cephalonia, and the plunder and
murder of the subjects of the Republic was the theme of perpetual
representations to the Sultan. The balance of advantage in this guerilla
warfare was with the corsairs until Girolame Canale, a Venetian captain,
seized one of the Moslem leaders known as "The Young Moor of Alexandria,"
The victory of Canale was somewhat an important one as he captured the
galley of "The Young Moor" and four others; two more were sunk, and three
hundred Janissaries and one thousand slaves fell into the hands of the
Venetian commander. There being an absence of nice feeling on the part of
the Venetians, the Janissaries were at once beheaded to a man.

The whole story is an illustration of the extraordinary relations existing
among the Mediterranean States at this time. Soliman the Magnificent,
Sultan of Turkey, had lent three hundred of his Janissaries, his own picked
troops, to assist the corsairs in their depredations on Venetian commerce.
Having done this, and the Janissaries having been caught and summarily and
rightly put to death as pirates, the Sultan, as soon as he heard of what
had occurred, sent an ambassador, one Yonis Bey, to Venice to demand
satisfaction for the insult passed upon him by the beheading of his own
soldiers turned pirates. The conclusion of the affair was that the
Venetians released "The Young Moor of Alexandria" as soon as he was cured
of the eight wounds which he had received in the conflict, and sent him
back to Africa with such of his galleys as were left. There was one rather
comical incident in connection with this affair, which was that when Yonis
Bey was on his way from Constantinople to Venice he was chased by a
Venetian fleet, under the command of the Count Grandenico, and driven
ashore. The Count was profuse in his apologies when he discovered that he
had been chasing a live ambassador; but the occurrence so exasperated
Soliman that he increased his demands in consequence.

Barbarossa, who had spent his time harrying the Spaniards at