essenger with rich gifts, and overwhelmed him with
honours. For Kheyr-ed-Din this was in a sense the apotheosis of his career.
The Grand Turk, the head of the Mohammedan religion, had not only
recognised his kingship, but had conferred on him an honour unprecedented,
unlooked for, and one of the highest value to a man of such an insatiable
ambition. Into the cool and crafty brain of this prince among schemers
instantly sprang the thought that now at last his kingdom was secure, that
in future the whole of the Barbary coast would own no other lord than he.

Preparations for the voyage were immediately begun, and, as an earnest of
the new importance which he derived from the advances of Soliman, the
corsair actually sent presents to the King of France and proffered him his
aid against his enemies. To such a pass as this had one of the most
powerful monarchs in Christendom been reduced by the defection of Andrea
Doria. Algiers he left in the keeping of his son Hassan, and in charge of
Hassan his kinsman Celebi Rabadan and a captain of the name of Agi. In the
middle of August, 1533, Barbarossa left Algiers, his fleet consisting of
seven galleys and eleven fustas. Sailing northward, he fell in with a fleet
which he at first feared was that of Doria, but which, fortunately for him,
was that of a corsair named Delizuff from Los Gelues. Courtesies were
interchanged between the two leaders, and Barbarossa succeeded in
persuading Delizuff to accompany him to Sicily, where it was possible they
might fall in with Doria, and with their combined forces inflict defeat
upon the Christian admiral. Delizuff was nothing loath to join forces with
so noted a commander as Kheyr-ed-Din, as he had no desire to tackle Doria
single-handed, and at the same time wished to extend the sphere of his
plunderings, which had been cruelly restricted recently by the wholesome
fear instilled into the Sea-wolves by the new admiral of Charles V.

Accordingly, reinforced by the fifteen fustas and one galley of Delizuff,
the Algerian fleet once more proceeded on its voyage. Although bound for
Constantinople at the request of Soliman, at a time when it would have been
thought that delay was not only dangerous but impolitic, and although the
corsair was endeavouring to merge the pirate in the king who dealt on terms
of equality with those whom he now regarded as his brother monarchs, still
the old instinct of robbery was too strong to be resisted; the lust of gain