WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA.
The Emperor Charles the Fifth had been very indignant when he heard of
the sack of Fondi, and the attempt to seize the Duchess. Some months
afterwards, when Muley Hassan, whom Barbarossa had driven from Tunis,
appealed to him for assistance, Charles, who was ambitious of military
renown, resolved at once to rid the coast of a dangerous invader, and
avenge an injured prince, by heading an expedition against Hayraddin.
The united strength of his dominions was therefore called out upon this
enterprise, which he intended to increase his already brilliant
reputation. As the redresser of wrongs, his cause was popular, and drew
on him the applause of Christendom. A Flemish fleet conveyed his troops
from the Low Countries; the galleys of Naples were loaded with the
Italian auxiliaries, and the Emperor himself embarked at Barcelona with
the flower of his Spanish nobility, and considerable reinforcements from
Portugal. Andrea Doria commanded the Genoese galleys, and the Knights of
Malta equipped a small but powerful squadron, and hastened to the
rendezvous at Cagliari.
All this mighty armament to hunt down a Lesbian pirate, the son of an
obscure potter!
Hayraddin was, however, no contemptible foe. Ambitious and relentless, a
skilful and a generous chief, his lavish bounties among his partizans
made them his blind adherents: while his wondrous versatility had
enabled him to ingratiate himself with the Sultan and his Vizier. It was
therefore to be war to the knife between the Crescent and the Cross.
As soon as Barbarossa heard of the Emperor's formidable preparations,
he called in all his corsairs from their different stations, drew from
Algiers what forces could be spared, summoned Moors and Arabs from all
quarters to his standard, and inflamed their fanaticism by assuring them
he was embarking in a holy war.
Twenty thousand horse and a considerable body of foot answered his
summons, and drew together before Tunis. Hayraddin knew, however, that
his greatest dependence must be on his Turkish troops, who were armed
and disciplined in the European manner. He therefore threw six thousand
of them, under Sinan, the renegade Jew, into the fortress of Goletta
commanding the bay of Tunis; which the Emperor immediately invested.
Three separate storming parties attacked the fort; Sinan raged like a
lion at bay: frequent sallies were made by his garrison, while the Moors
and Arabs made diversions. But nothing could withstand the fury of the
assailants; and a breach soon appeared in the walls of the fortress,
which the Emperor pointed out to Muley Hassan.
"Behold," said he, "the gate through which you may re-enter your
kingdom!"
With the Goletta, Barbarossa's fleet fell into the Emperor's hands; and
he was driven to extremities. Having strongly entrenched himself within
the city, he called his chiefs to a council of war, and proposed to
them, that before sallying out to decide their fate in battle, they
should massacre ten thousand Christians whom he had shut up in the
citadel.
Even his pirate chiefs were staggered at this proposal; and Barbarossa,
seeing they would not support him in it, yielded the point with a
gesture of disgust at their want of hardihood. Charles and his chivalry
were meanwhile painfully toiling, under a blazing African sun, across
the burning sands which encompass Tunis, without so much as a drop of
water to cool their tongues:
"Non e gente Pagana insieme accolta,
Non muro cinto di profonda fossa,
Non gran torrente o monte alpestre e folta
Selva, che 'l loro vïaggio arrestar possa."
La Ger. Lib., _Canto I._
Hayraddin, sallying out upon them with his best troops, made a desperate
onset, but was so vigorously repulsed that his forces surged back to the
city, and he himself was irresistibly borne along with them like a straw
on the tide.
Meanwhile, a pale girl, a Christian slave, who had been within earshot
of the council, carried the report of Barbarossa's ferocious proposal to
the keepers of the citadel. They were revolted at his cruelty, and her
entreaties, backed by the clamours of the despairing wretches in their
charge, prevailed on them to release the Christian prisoners and strike
off their fetters. Forth came Tebaldo Adimari, the pride of Fondi;
forth came many a grey-haired senator, illustrious cavalier, and
venerable hidalgo, some in their full strength, others wasted with long
captivity, but nerved at this moment to strike a blow for freedom.
Unarmed as they were, they flung themselves on the surprised guard, and
turned the artillery of the fort against Barbarossa himself as he and
his discomfited troops poured back in disorderly retreat. O, fell rage
and despair of the defeated pirate, late the sovereign of two kingdoms,
as he now heard Christian war-cries defying him from his own
battlements! gnashing his teeth, and cursing the comrades whose humanity
compelled him to spare those who were now manning the walls, he sought
safety in ignominious and precipitate flight.
Then what a cheer arose, as the Christians saw the turbans in retreat,
and themselves masters of the city! The Emperor was first made aware of
the turn affairs had taken, by the arrival of deputies from Tunis, who
brought him the keys, and piteously besought him to check the violence
of his troops. In vain! They were already sacking the city, killing and
plundering without mercy; and thirty thousand defenceless people were
the victims of that day, while ten thousand more were carried away as
slaves.
It is said that Charles lamented this dreadful slaughter, and that he
declared the only result of his victory which gave him any satisfaction
was his reception by the ten thousand Christian captives, who fell at
his feet, blessing him as their deliverer. In all, he freed twenty
thousand slaves, whom he sent, clothed at his own expense, to their own
homes; and they, as may well be supposed, made Europe ring with their
praises of his goodness and munificence. It was a bright day for Fondi
when Tebaldo Adimari returned! Though the Duchess was at Naples, and
though Isaura was in her train, he had seen them both on his way home,
and ratified his vows of love and constancy. The Duchess had promised to
smile on their espousals, which were shortly to take place; and
meanwhile his friends and relations got up a festa to welcome him, and
there was church-going and bell-ringing, and eating and drinking, and
dancing and singing, without any drunkenness, stabbing, or even
quarrelling.
If such was the public joy in a little town of four thousand people at
the return of a young fellow of no mark or likelihood whatever, except
that he was comely, merry, brave, ingenuous, with a good word for
everybody and with everybody's good word,--it may be supposed what a
stir the Emperor's arrival at Naples made, and how that pleasure-loving
capital nearly exhausted itself in demonstrations of welcome. The mole,
when he landed, was so crowded, that you may be sure a grain of millet
thrown upon it would not have found room to reach the ground. Nothing
was to be heard but bell-ringing, acclamations, and the thundering of
cannon; nothing to be seen but gold, velvet, silk, and brocade, festoons
of flowers, triumphal arches, processions, deputations, triumphal cars,
prancing steeds, waving plumes, and bronzed cavaliers looking up at the
balconies of fair women waving their handkerchiefs, among whom, rely on
it, were Vittoria Colonna and Giulia Gonzaga.
Charles, with his Spanish gravity ever uppermost, took it all very
soberly; heard what people had to say, enjoyed it in his way, said very
little himself, and in the proverb style; went to the cathedral, heard
Fra Bernardino Ochino preach, and afterwards observed, composedly, "That
man would make the stones weep!"--his own eyes being quite dry all the
while. Also if anything inexpressibly funny were said, he remarked, "How
very diverting!" but did not smile. He was best at business, and he
entered upon Giulia's affairs.