caid, of the ten thousand of the baser
sort; nay, what to him was the value of "Africa" itself when once again
like a mocking spirit Dragut had glided beyond the sea horizon to
devastate, to plunder, and to slay once more, the scourge and the menace of
Christendom.

It will be interesting to record briefly the fate of this city which we
have seen taken and retaken. Don Alvaro de Vega remained as governor till
the end of July, 1551, when his place was taken by Don Sancho de Leyva; at
which time there took place one of those curious military mutinies so
characteristic of the sixteenth century. The soldiers, unpaid for months,
possibly for years, mutinied, expelled the governor and other officers,
even the sergeants, from the city, and placed themselves under the
direction of a stout soldier called Antonio de Aponte, to whom they gave
the title of "Electo Mayor."

Don Sancho repaired to Brussels to report matters to the Emperor, and
during his absence a circumstance which is also singularly characteristic
of this faithless epoch took place, for the Prior of Capua, then general of
the French galleys, entered into negotiations with the mutineers for the
surrender of the city to the French King.

Bluff Antonio de Aponte would have none of this treachery; he held the city
for the Emperor Charles and only wanted his pay. Eventually a mutiny within
a mutiny was fomented from without, and with the mutineers divided the
Emperor regained possession of the city; some of the mutineers were hanged,
and Aponte, who had been captured by the Turks, died at Constantinople.

The Emperor offered "Africa" to the Knights of Malta with a yearly
allowance of twenty-four thousand ducats; the Knights refused, much to the
chagrin of Charles, who gave orders for its complete destruction. This was
accomplished by blowing up with gunpowder the walls, towers, and
fortifications which Al-Mehedi, after whom the city had been named, "had
erected with such art and strength, and had his mind so fixed upon that
work that he used to say, 'If I thought building these fortifications with
iron and brass would render them more durable, I would certainly do it.'"

CHAPTER XVII

DRAGUT-REIS

How Dragut was blockaded in the Island of Jerbah--How he left Andrea
Dona "with the dog to hold"--His return to Constantinople, and how he
sailed from thence with a great expedition against the Knights of Malta.

Charles V. had "smoked out the fox," but h