was a
victory, and to enable them to co-operate in winning it, they were told
that they would be freed from their chains and armed when the day of battle
came.

The 25,000 fighting-men of Ali Pasha's fleet were chiefly militia. There
were only a few thousand of the formidable Janissaries. And among the small
arms of the Turkish fleet there were more bows and arrows than muskets. Don
Juan had, on the other hand, a considerable number of arquebusiers on his
ships. He had the further advantage that while even the largest of the
Turkish galleys had only low bulwarks, the galleys of the allied fleet were
provided with _pavesades_, large bucklers and shields, to be fitted along
the bulwarks when clearing for action, and also permanent cross barriers to
prevent a raking fire fore and aft.

When Ali left the roadstead of Lepanto, and brought his fleet out from
behind the batteries of the "Little Dardanelles," he believed he had such a
marked superiority over the allied fleet that victory was a certainty, and
he expected to find Don Juan either at Gomenizza or in the waters of the
Ionian Islands. Pertev Pasha and several of the admirals had opposed Ali's
decision, and had urged him either to remain at Lepanto, or run out of the
gulf, round the Morea, and wait in the eastern seas for the campaign of
next year. Their reason for this advice was that many of the fighting-men
were new levies unused to the sea. But Ali's self-confidence made him
reject this prudent counsel.

On 2 October, Don Juan had made up his mind to leave Gomenizza, enter the
Gulf of Corinth, and risk an attack on the passage of the Little
Dardanelles. Accordingly in the afternoon he gave orders that the fleet
should prepare to sail at sunrise next day. During the long delay in the
island waters belated news came that Famagusta had fallen on 18 August, and
with the news there was a terrible story of the horrors that had followed
the broken capitulation. The news was now six weeks old, and this meant
that the whole of the enemy's fleet might be concentrated in the Gulf of
Corinth, but after the disasters of Cyprus an attempt must be made to win a
victory against all or any odds.

At sunrise the armada streamed out of the Bay of Gomenizza, and sped
southwards with oar and sail. The Gulf of Arta was passed, and the admirals
were reminded not of the far-off battle that saw the flight of the Egyptian
Queen and the epoch-making victory of Augustus Caesar, but of a