o the total exclusion of the true believer.

Soliman listened to their complaints and promised that soon he would send
forth an armament which should put an end to the misfortunes from which
they were suffering. Once again preparations were begun in the arsenals of
Constantinople, and while these were in progress an event took place which
had an important bearing on the situation. Just after the taking of the
Penon de Velez seven galleys of "the Religion," under the command of the
chevaliers de Giou and De Romegas, which were cruising in the neighbourhood
of Zante and Cephalonia, fell in with "a puissant galleon" filled with the
richest merchandise of the East, armed with "twenty great cannons of
bronze," and a number of smaller guns, under the command of the Reis
Bairan-Ogli, having on board "excellent officers of artillery," as well as
two hundred Janissaries for her defence. This great ship was the property
of Kustir-Aga, the chief Eunuch of the Seraglio of the Sultan, and many of
the ladies of the harem were interested in a pecuniary sense in the safe
arrival of this vessel at Constantinople. The galleys of "the Religion"
attacked, and, after a most obstinate resistance, in which one hundred and
twenty of the Christians and an even larger number of the Turks were
killed, the galleon was captured. If there had been an outcry in
Constantinople before this occurrence it was all as nothing to that which
now arose. Kustir-Aga and the Odalisques of the Harem prostrated themselves
at the feet of Soliman the Magnificent, and with streaming eyes,
dishevelled hair, and frantic gestures, demanded the instant despatch of an
expedition to utterly exterminate these barbarian corsairs, the Knights of
Malta, who had thus injured them and lacerated their tenderest
susceptibilities. The Grand Turk, autocrat as he was, had no peace day or
night; he was surrounded by wailing women and sullen officials, all of whom
had lost heavily by the capture of the puissant galleon. The Imaum, or
preacher in the principal mosque, called upon the Sultan in his discourse
to fall upon the audacious infidel and smite him hip and thigh. He reminded
the Padishah that, in the dungeons of the Knights, true believers were
languishing; that on the rowers' benches of the galleys of "the Religion"
Moslems were being flogged like dogs. In a furious peroration he concluded:
"It is only thy invincible sword which can shatter the chains of these
unfortunates, whose