ainst his better judgment, to offer the battle which it was in his power
to have withheld.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BATTLE OF PREVESA

How Alessandro Condalmiero fought the _Galleon of Venice_--"The
King of the Sea is dead."

There is something almost pathetic in the spectacle of a really great
leader badgered and importuned by lesser men to adopt a course which he,
with a superior insight, knows to be unsound. In the matter of the landing
Barbarossa had demonstrated that it was he whose knowledge of war was
superior to those who were so ready to thrust upon him their opinions;
this, however, did not content them, and they now desired to close with the
foe waiting for them outside. If ever a commander was justified in waiting
on events it was Barbarossa at this juncture; the business of a
commander-in-chief is to ensure victory, and if he sees, as did the Moslem
admiral on this occasion, that more is to be gained by delay than by
fighting, then he is justified in refusing battle: particularly is this the
case when the enemy is in greatly superior force blockading on an open and
dangerous coast at an inclement season of the year. Every day that Doria
was kept at sea added to his difficulties, as fresh water and provisions
would be running short, and the energies of the human engines by which his
galleys were propelled would be weakened; naked men chained to a bench were
suffering from the blazing heat of the days, the cold and drenching dews of
the nights. All these things had the veteran seaman weighed in his mind,
they all inclined him to wait still longer in that secure anchorage where
he could not be touched by his foe.

There was one counsellor, however, whom even Kheyr-ed-Din could not resist,
and who had hitherto kept silence; this was the eunuch Monuc, legal
counsellor to Soliman, who had accompanied the armada. He now brought the
weight of his influence to bear upon the side of Sinan-Reis and his
colleagues.

"Are you going," he asked the admiral, "to allow the infidels to escape
without a battle? Soliman can find plenty of wood to build new fleets,
plenty of captains to command them; he will pardon you if this fleet is
destroyed: that which he will never pardon is that you should allow Doria
to escape without fighting. You have brave men in plenty; why not lead them
to the attack?"

The patience of the veteran gave way at last; none who knew Barbarossa had
ever seen him shrink from fighting--to th