uction.

Freed from all the trammels which bound the ordinary warrior of the day in
which they lived, they were able, as we have seen, to go far; for the man
in whom supreme ability is united to absolute unscrupulousness is the most
dangerous foe of the human race. The despotism of the leaders among the
sea-wolves was not theirs by right divine, as men considered it to be in
the case of the Padishah; none the less in its practical application it was
but little inferior to that wielded by the Sultan. For reasons of policy,
the Sea-wolves allied themselves to the Grand Turk; for reasons of policy
that monarch employed them and entrusted them with the conduct of important
affairs. The bargain was really a good one on both sides; as to the
sea-wolves was extended the aegis of one of the mightiest empires of the
earth; while to the Sultan came "veritable men of the sea," hardened in
conflict, as fearless of responsibility as of aught else; capable in a
sense that hardly any man could be capable who had grown up in the
atmosphere of the court at Constantinople. To Kheyr-ed-Din the Sultan had
extended his fullest confidence; he had been rewarded by seeing the
renowned Doria forsake the field of battle at Prevesa, and by the perpetual
slights and insults put upon his Christian foes by that great corsair. To
Dragut he had now turned, and, as we have said, when Sinan Basha sailed
from the Golden Horn he had orders to attempt nothing important without the
advice of the corsair. It is impossible to say why the command-in-chief had
not been entrusted to him, as the Sultan had the precedent of Kheyr-ed-Din
upon which to go. It can only be conjectured that Soliman, having
discovered how unpopular that appointment had been amongst his high
officers, did not care to risk the experiment the second time; and in
consequence employed Sinan. To this officer the aphorism of Seignelay
applies in its fullest force. He was as brave a man as ever drew a sword in
the service of his master; he was, however, a hesitating and incompetent
leader, with one eye ever fixed on that distant palace on the shores of the
Golden Horn in which dwelt the arbiter of his destiny and of all those who
sailed beneath the banner of the Crescent.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN

The Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, afterwards known as the Knights
of Rhodes, and eventually as the Knights of Malta--A brief sketch of the
Order, including the re