the Mediterranean was in some sort an infringement of the rights of himself
and his brother. One of the most salient peculiarities of the corsairs at
this time was the apparent recklessness with which they assailed others who
were participants in their nefarious business. Self-interest and policy
would seem, to the observer in the present day, to have dictated quite a
different course of action; but we shall see, when we come to deal with the
life-history of Kheyr-ed-Din, that this infinitely wiser and more
intellectual man apparently allowed himself to be swayed by gusts of
passion, in which he savagely maltreated those with whom he was associated,
and from whom dangerous hostility was certainly to be feared if they
escaped with their lives. At this distance of time it is impossible to
gauge the motives by which men such as these were actuated, more
particularly in the case of Kheyr-ed-Din, whose character was a blend of
the deepest subtlety and calculated ferocity.

Having settled with Kara-Hassan, Uruj continued his march along the coast.
Arrived at Algiers, he opened in form a siege of Navarro's Tower; but,
being unable to make any impression on its defences, he abandoned the siege
after twenty days' fruitless fighting, during which he lost a number of men
in his assaults. Baffled and furious, he turned on the Berber chieftain,
the luckless Selim Eutemi, and caused him to be assassinated, regarding him
as being responsible for the failure. The Spanish chroniclers relate, with
some wealth of detail, how Uruj personally fell upon Selim Eutemi, when
that chieftain was in his bath, and strangled him with his own hands.
However this may have been, the Spanish records of the deeds of the
corsairs cannot well be taken _au pied de la lettre_; there is no doubt
that Selim was murdered, and from that time the Berbers recognised that he
who had come to help was now remaining to plunder. Uruj now established
himself in the town, and set to work making raids into the adjoining
country, carrying off sheep, cattle, and slaves. For the Berbers this was a
true awakening. He who now oppressed them had come in the guise of a
champion to assist them in the sack and plunder of Navarro's Tower; they
had exchanged King Log, who dwelt securely locked up, for a King Stork of
the most active description. Although we cannot sympathise with such
people, it is quite possible to understand their very natural annoyance at
the turn which things had