ndered absolutely
unfit for service. The forecastle was a ruin; the bulwark and defences
of all kinds were shattered to pieces; and the masts and spars were
stuck full of arrows. Cardona himself, after escaping a ball from an
arquebus, which was turned by a cuirass of fine steel given to him at
Genoa by the Prince of Tuscany, received a severe wound in the throat,
of which he died. Of the five hundred Sicilian soldiers who fought on
board his galleys only fifty remained unwounded. Many of the officers
were slain, and not one escaped without a wound. Others had suffered
even greater loss. In the Florence, a papal galley, not only many
knights of St. Stephen were killed, but also every soldier and slave;
and the captain, Tommaso de' Medicis, himself severely wounded, found
himself at the head of only seventeen wounded seamen. In the San
Giovanni, another vessel of the Pope, the soldiers were also killed to a
man, the rowing-benches occupied by corpses, and a captain laid for dead
with two musket-balls in his neck. The Piamontesa of Savoy had likewise
lost her commander and all of her soldiers and rowers.

Although Doria, having suffered himself to be outmanoeuvred by Aluch
Ali, and having failed to exchange a shot with that leader, could not
claim any considerable part of the laurels of the day, he was
nevertheless frequently engaged with other foes and made several prizes.
He escaped without a wound, though he was covered with blood of a
soldier killed by a cannon-ball close behind him.

On the left wing of the Christian fleet, the battle, which had begun so
unpropitiously, was also brought to a prosperous issue. The wound of
Barbarigo transferred the command to the commissary Canale. Aided by
Nano, who commanded Barbarigo's galley, Canale engaged and sunk the
vessel of the Pacha of Alexandria. Mahomet Sirocco himself, severely
wounded, was fished out of the sea by Gian Contarini, and sent on board
Canale's galley. As the wound of the Turk appeared to be mortal, the
Venetian relieved him from further suffering by cutting off his head.
Marco Quirini likewise did gallant service, compelling several of the
enemy to strike their flags. Of the remaining galleys many were run
ashore by their crews, of whom the greater number were slain or drowned
as they attempted to swim to land.

The victory of the Christians at Lepanto was in a great measure to be
ascribed to the admirable tactics of their chief. The shock of the
Turkish