in the past that will it continue to
do for me in the future. Age has not enfeebled me, continual exercise
has but rendered me stronger; I can therefore promise to you the most
ready service both by land and sea. The desire which has always been
mine to persecute the Christians caused me to conceive the idea of
serving in your sea-army.

"If Heaven is favourable to my vows, the Spaniards will soon be chased
from Africa; the Carthaginians, the Moors, will soon be your very
submissive subjects; Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, will obey your will. As
for Italy, it will soon be desolated by famine when I attack it in
formidable force, without fearing that the Christian Princes will come
to its aid.

"Mahomet II., your illustrious grandfather, formed the project of
conquering this country; he would have succeeded had he not been carried
off by death. If I counsel you, dread Sovereign, that you should carry
war into Europe and Africa, it is not that I desire your arms should be
turned back in Asia from against the Persians, the ancient enemies of
the Ottomans. I require but your sea-army, which is no use against the
Persians. While you shall be conquering Asia I shall be
subduing Africa. The first enterprise which I shall undertake will be
against Muley Hassan, the King of Tunis; he has all the vices and
possesses not one single virtue. He is a man of sordid avarice, of
unexampled cruelty; he has rendered himself odious to the entire human
race.

"He had twenty-two brothers, all of whom he has caused to be murdered.
That which is a common failing among tyrants is his: he dare not place
himself at the head of his troops. He prefers to endure the outrages
which he suffers at the hands of the Moors to taking up arms and
inflicting upon them a salutary vengeance. He had the baseness to enter
into an alliance with the Spaniards, and to favour their conquests in
Africa. It will be all the easier for me to exterminate this wild beast
because I have with me his brother, who prayed me to save him from the
cruelty of Muley Hassan.

"When I besiege Tunis I shall present him to the inhabitants, who love
him as much as they hate Muley Hassan. They will open their gates to me,
and I shall gain the town without the loss of a single man: it will be
then you who will be master. On my way thither I will do what harm I can
to the Christians; I will endeavour to defeat And