]j only cast most of
the oars overboard, and thus made escape impossible. Then he lay to
and awaited the foremost galley She came on, proudly, unconscious of
danger. Suddenly her look-out spied Turkish turbans--a strange sight
on the Italian coast--and in a panic of confusion her company beat to
arms. The vessels were now alongside, and a smart volley of shot and
bolts completed the consternation of the Christians. Ur[=u]j and his
men were quickly on the poop, and his Holiness's servants were soon
safe under hatches.

Never before had a galley-royal struck her colours to a mere galleot.
But worse was to follow. Ur[=u]j declared he must and would have her
consort. In vain his officers showed him how temerarious was the
venture, and how much more prudent it would be to make off with one
rich prize than to court capture by overgreediness. The Corsair's will
was of iron, and his crew, inflated with triumph, caught his audacious
spirit. They clothed themselves in the dresses of the Christian
prisoners, and manned the subdued galley as though they were her own
seamen. On came the consort, utterly ignorant of what had happened,
till a shower of arrows and small shot aroused her, just in time to be
carried by assault, before her men had collected their senses.

Ur[=u]j brought his prizes into the Goletta. Never was such a sight
seen there before. "The wonder and astonishment," says Haedo,[6] "that
this noble exploit caused in Tunis, and even in Christendom, is not to
be expressed, nor how celebrated the name of Ur[=u]j Reis was become
from that very moment; he being held and accounted by all the world as
a most valiant and enterprizing commander. And by reason his beard was
extremely red, or carroty, from thenceforwards he was generally called
Barba-rossa, which in Italian signifies Red-Beard."[7]

[Illustration: GALLEY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

The capture of the Papal galleys gave Ur[=u]j what he wanted--rowers.
He kept his Turks for fighting, and made the Christian prisoners work
the oars; such was the custom of every Corsair down to the present
century, and the Christian navies were similarly propelled by
Mohammedan slaves. The practice must have lent a strange excitement to
the battle; for then, assuredly, a man's foes were of his own
household. A Venetian admiral knew well that his two or three hundred
galley slaves were panting to break their irons and join the enemy;
and the Turkish C