nd being killed and five thousand taken prisoners. To Don John's
prizes may be added twelve thousand Christian captives, chained to the
oars by the Turks, who now came forth, with tears of joy, to bless their
deliverers. The allies had lost no more than eight thousand men. This
discrepancy was largely due to their use of fire-arms, while many of the
Turks fought with bows and arrows. Only the forty Algerine ships escaped;
one hundred and thirty vessels were taken. The Christian loss was but
fifteen galleys. The spoils were large and valuable, consisting in great
measure of gold, jewels, and rich brocades.

Of the noble cavaliers who took part in the fight, we shall speak only of
Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, a nephew of Don John, whom he was
destined to succeed in military renown. He began here his career with a
display of courage and daring unsurpassed on the fleet. Among the
combatants was a common soldier, Cervantes by name, whose future glory was
to throw into the shade that of all the leaders in the fight. Though
confined to bed with a fever on the morning of the battle, he insisted on
taking part, and his courage in the affray was shown by two wounds on his
breast and a third in his hand which disabled it for life. Fortunately it
was the left hand. The right remained to write the immortal story of Don
Quixote de la Mancha.

Thus ended one of the greatest naval battles of modern times. No important
political effect came from it, but it yielded an immense moral result. It
had been the opinion of Europe that the Turks were invincible at sea. This
victory dispelled that theory, gave new heart to Christendom, and so
dispirited the Turks that in the next year they dared not meet the
Christians at sea, though they were commanded by the daring dey of
Algiers. The beginning of the decline of the Ottoman empire may be said to
date from the battle of Lepanto.

THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.

During almost the whole reign of Philip II. the army of Spain was kept
busily engaged, now with the Turks and the Barbary states, now with the
revolted Moriscos, or descendants of the Moors of Granada, now in the
conquest of Portugal, now with the heretics of the Netherlands. All this
was not enough for the ambition of the Spanish king. Elizabeth of England
had aided the Netherland rebels and had insulted him in America by sending
fleets to plunder his colonies; England, besides, was a nest of enemies of
the church of which Ph