on: ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN A SPANISH GALLEON AND A DUTCH SHIP.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

Son of the most illustrious monarch of the age, Don John was born to
greatness. His mother was the beautiful singer, Barba Blomberg; his
father was Charles V. The one gave him grace and beauty; the other,
the genius of command. He was but twenty-two when his half-brother,
Philip, confided to him the difficult task of suppressing the
rebellion of the Moors in the Alpuxarras.[47] Where the experienced
veterans of Spain had failed, the beardless general of twenty-two
succeeded to admiration. And now, two years later, he was called to
the command of the whole navy of Southern Europe. He accepted the post
with joy. He had all the hopeful confidence of youth, and he longed to
fight one of the world's great battles. His enthusiasm glowed in his
face: one sees it in his portraits and on the medals struck to
commemorate his victory. "Beau comme un Apollon, il avait tout le
prestige d'un archange envoye par le Seigneur pour exterminer les
ennemis de la Foi."

Squadron after squadron begins to crowd the Straits of Messina.
Veniero, the Venetian admiral, is already there with forty-eight
galleys, and sixty more expected, when Colonna enters, in July, with
eighteen vessels and moors alongside. Don John has not yet arrived. He
has had much ado to get his squadron ready, for no nation understands
better than the Spanish the virtue of the adage _festina lente_. At
last he puts off from Barcelona, and laboriously crosses the Gulf of
Lyons. One may smile now at the transit, but in those days, what with
the mistral and the risk of Corsairs, to cross the Gulf of Lyons was
a thing to be thought about. At Genoa Don John is entertained by G.
Andrea Doria, and attends a fancy ball in a gay humour that becomes
his youth and buoyancy with all his perils still ahead. As he
proceeds, he hears how the Turks are laying waste Dalmatia, and how
the Allies are quarrelling at Messina, but he hastens not: he knows
that a galley on a long voyage has as much a fixed pace as a horse,
and that flogging is of no use except for a short course. At Naples he
reverently receives the standard blessed by his Holiness himself, and
on August 23rd he joins the fleet at Messina. Time is still needed for
the other ships to come up, and for the commander-in-chief to mature
his plans; before they start, each captain of a galley will have a
separate written order, showing him his pl