ture, after the refusal of the council had been conveyed to him, with
undisguised relief. Had they but known their man a little better, their
uneasiness would have been far greater than their joy at his temporary
absence. Those things desired by Dragut which he could not obtain by fair
means he usually seized by the strong hand; and when he left so hurriedly,
and at the same time so unostentatiously, he had already entered into a
plot with Ibrahim Amburac. This leader, furious at the rebuff which he had
received at the hands of his fellow councillors on the subject of the
admittance of Dragut to the citizenship of "Africa," was now ready to
deliver that city into the hands of the corsairs by treachery.

CHAPTER XVI

DRAGUT-REIS

How the corsairs captured the town of "Africa"; of its recapture by
Andrea Doria and its eventual total destruction by Charles V.

Dragut had made it a practice never to appear in the harbour of "Africa" in
any great force, as he had no desire to frighten the birds whom he desired
to snare; on the occasion of which we are now speaking he had but two
galleys, and their departure from the outer harbour passed almost
unnoticed, as the ruck of the population were accustomed to visits from the
corsairs, who came to fill up with provisions and fresh water. Swiftly as
hawks his vessels swept along the coast collecting the garrisons of Susa,
Sfax, and Monastir to aid him in his latest design; they were all picked
men and singularly apt for the stern business which their leader destined
them to undertake. In this manner he soon collected five hundred of the
stoutest and most reckless fighters who sailed out of the ports of Northern
Africa, and, when it became noised abroad among them what the service was
for which they were required, there was universal joy and eagerness. True
the adventure was a formidable one: to capture "Africa" was no light task,
even for such men as these under so renowned a leader; there was further
the difficulty that the persons against whom they went up to fight were no
Christians but Moslems like themselves. But against this was the
declaration of Dragut, who represented to his following that there was
really no choice in the matter; that to these stiffnecked and singularly
ungrateful people he had offered the protection of the corsairs, that they
had refused in the most contumelious manner, and in consequence there was
nothing for it but the strong hand. They--th