e coast of Italy. He
sacked Reggio, burnt and massacred elsewhere on the coast without
opposition, cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber and if he had
chosen could have sacked Rome and taken the Pope captive. He then
returned to Constantinople with 11,000 Christian captives.

Charles V was roused by this display of corsair power and barbarity
to collect a force that should put an end to such raids. Barbarossa
had recently added Tunis to his personal domains, and the great
expedition of ships and soldiers which the emperor assembled was
directed against that city. Despite the warning given by the King
of France, Barbarossa was unable to oppose the Christian host with
a force sufficiently strong to defend the city. The Christians
captured it and the chieftain escaped only by a flight along the
desert to the port of Bona where he had a few galleys in reserve.
With these he made his way to Algiers before Andrea Doria could
come up with him. The Christians celebrated the capture of Tunis by
a massacre of some 30,000 inhabitants and returned home, thanking
God that at last Barbarossa was done for. Indeed, with the loss
of his fleet and his newly acquired province it seemed as if the
great pirate was not likely to give much trouble, but the Christians
had made the mistake of leaving the work only half done.

In 1537, two years after the fall of Tunis, the Sultan declared war
on Venice. The Turkish fleet, although led by the Sultan Soliman
himself, was defeated by the Venetians off Corfu. Doria, in the
service of Charles V, caught and burned ten richly laden Turkish
merchant ships and then defeated a Turkish squadron. The prestige
of the Crescent on the sea was badly weakened by these events,
but suddenly Barbarossa appeared and raided the islands of the
Archipelago and the coasts of the Adriatic with a savagery and
sweep unmatched by anything in his long career. He arrived in the
Golden Horn laden with booty, and delivered to his master, the
Sultan, 18,000 captives.

This exploit changed the complexion of affairs. During the winter
of 1537-1538 the naval yards of Constantinople were busy with the
preparations for a new fleet which should take the offensive against
the Venetians and the Christians generally. In the spring Barbarossa
got out into the Archipelago and, raiding at will, swept up another
batch of prisoners to serve as galley slaves for the new ships.
Meanwhile the Mediterranean states nerved themselves for a fin