flocked to the spot in hopes of booty. The Turks, in their hyperbolical style, said that if every one of their fighting men threw one of his sandals into the moat they would fill it up, and might walk into the town. The camping ground of this great army was most agreeable. True that the inhabitants had destroyed the gardens and the groves of orange and cedar that before embellished the vicinity, but they had been unable to stop the numerous rivulets that meandered through the plain, fertilising the soil, and offering delightful refreshment in that burning climate. To defend the town, Astor Baglione, the governor, and Marco Antonio Bragadino, a brave and indefatigable officer, had seven thousand fighting men, little inured to war, but courageous and disciplined.

The besiegers passed a month in fortifying their camp and making their approaches to the counterscarp. They opened trenches three miles in extent, and cut so deep, in some places through the living rock, that when a man-atarms sat on horseback in them, the point of his lance was hardly to be discerned. Thence their arquebusiers incessantly harassed the town. They also constructed ten forts, of beams, fascines, and earth, with platforms for artillery. The besieged, on their part, made frequent sorties, skirmishing with the besiegers, interrupting their works, and habituating themselves to those hand-to-hand conflicts which they afterwards had to maintain on the breaches in their walls. On the morning of the 19th May, a great movement was observed amongst the Turks, who with fierce shouts waved their lances, pennons, and standards, and soon seventy-four pieces of heavy artillery, and four enormous basilisks, thundered against the devoted town. The besieged vigorously replied, causing heavy loss to the enemy, and rendering fifteen of their guns useless; but such was their haste to fire that they soon ran short of ammunition, and the artillerymen were ordered to fire no shot without the consent of their captains. The Turks got possession of the ditch and counterscarp, and opened several mines. Some of these were countermined, but this could not be done to all; and one especially, near the arsenal, was made

before the eyes of the besieged. On the 21st of June it was sprung with terrific effect; the whole city rocked, the wall fell in ruins, an assault was given and resisted with equal valour. The combat lasted five hours; five hundred Italians remained upon the ground, but remained as victors; the Turks, although five or six times reinforced, were fain to retreat. This triumph redoubled the courage of the besieged. Within their shattered wall they formed a new line of defence, composed of casks and bags full of wet sand. Two other assaults followed, at intervals of eight and fifteen days, in the second of which Astor Baglione, fighting at the head of his men, wrenched a Turkish standard from the hands of its bearer. Mustafa was furious. The wall had fallen, the ditch was filled, but still the victory was not his.

But the unfortunate besieged, who displayed such heroic courage, were now exposed to the horrors of famine. Their provisions expended, they resorted to the most disgusting aliments; these exhausted, their strength failed them, though their valour still survived. At last, towards the 20th of July, the principal citizens represented to the governor the impossibility of further defence, and urged him to capitulate upon honourable terms. Baglione called a council of his captains. Some of them were for sallying out of the town and dying with arms in their hands; and the result proved that theirs was the wisest opinion. But others, considering that they had no right thus to leave their fellow-citizens exposed to the fury of the Turks, voted for surrender. The majority coincided, and word was taken to Mustafa to send delegates into the town to arrange terms of surrender. This was done; two Turkish officers entered Famagusta, and two Venetians went into the enemy's camp. The terms demanded by the besieged were granted, and on the 4th August the keys were given up to Mustafa, who received them with signs of joy, lauding the valour of the defenders of the place, and marvelling especially at the heroic firmness of Bragadino, whom he expressed a wish to see and speak with that same day.

"Accordingly," says Señor Rosell,

"Bragadino, accompanied by Baglione and other captains, all on horseback, and attired in his dress of ceremony, with purple tunic and crimson parasol, betook him to the pasha's tent, with a calm countenance and a tranquil heart, neither fearing any risk nor puffed up by the high praise bestowed upon him. Various discourses passed between Turks and Venetians; but after some time it occurred to Mustafa, or thus he disguised his infernal will, to demand securities for the return of the vessels that were to convey the garrison from the island. Bragadino replied that he was not obliged to give them, because no such condition had been stipulated in the capitulation; and on that pretext, and others no less unjustifiable, the pasha, blind with rage, ordered Baglione, Martinengo, Quirini, and the others, to be taken from his tent, and perfidiously and inhumanly butchered. Bragadino was present at the slaughter of his companions the blood of his friends spurted into his very eyes; from that torment he could not exempt himself. And who can relate the tortures reserved for him? Compelled to carry gabions full of earth, and to kiss the ground when he passed before his tyrant, he dragged out a painful existence until the 17th of August, when, by Mustafa's order, he was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed with straw, and suspended from the yardarm of a galley, was triumphantly paraded along all their coasts."

The conquest of Famagusta is said to have cost the Turks fifty thousand men, and some of their best officers fell in the course of the siege. Mustafa left twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse to guard the island, and returned to Constantinople, which he entered in triumph, to the great contentment of Selim, and amidst the envy of the courtiers. Famagusta taken, Cyprus had become a Turkish possession. The republic's only hope was now in the fleets of the League.

On the 25th August, Don John of Austria reached Messina, the point of junction of the allied squadrons, where Colonna and Sebastian Veniero anxiously awaited his coming, and where he was received with infinite joy and great magnificence, the streets throng

ed, the windows full of richly-attired ladies, the squares adorned with triumphal arches, columns, inscriptions, and hieroglyphics; the shore crowded with the banners, arms, and plumes of the captains and soldiers of half Europe; by day the thunder of salutes, the rattle of drums, the clang of trumpets, by night illuminations and fireworks.

Such great rejoicing," quaintly remarks Señor Rosell,"could not but be the presentiment of another greater, which Heaven reserved for those who, with lively faith, invoked its holy name." The valiant bastard of Charles V., whose arrival was the signal for a display of enthusiasm which he was soon to justify by his high deeds, was, says Van der Hammer, in his History of Don John of Austria, "of sanguine temperament and lordly presence, somewhat above the middle height, of joyous disposition, and inclined to what was just; quick of wit, and of a good memory. He was very vigorous and strong-so much so that he swam in armour as if he had nothing on him. He was agreeable and courteous, a great respecter of letters and arms, and an excellent horseman. He had a noble, clear, and spacious forehead; his blue eyes were large and lively, with a grave and amorous look; his countenance was handsome, he had little beard, and was of a light and elegant figure." The command reserved for this accomplished and martial prince, who had refused a cardinal's hat to follow the profession of war, was worthy of his high qualities; since the great days of ancient Rome no such fleet had been seen in the Italian waters as that now mustered under his orders. There were more than three hundred vessels, carrying upwards of eighty thousand men, assembled under the banner of the League, in the spacious harbour of Messina. The fighting men amounted to twentynine thousand, including eight thousand of the famous Spanish infantry. The Venetian galley's being thinly manned, Don John ordered Veniero to take on board four thousand Spaniards and Italians, which was done, although not without some opposition and murmuring on the part of the Venetians. Whilst these and other arrangements were making, the Turk

ish fleet had reached Previsa, and Aali Pasha, having Selim's orders to seek and fight the Christians, resolved to pass into the neighbouring gulf of Corinth or Lepanto, a convenient position, whence he could undertake any expedition that seemed advisable. When the allied fleet sailed out of Messina, the Pope's nuncio stood upon the quay, blessing each vessel as it quitted the port. Conspicuous amongst all was the royal galley, built three years previously at Barcelona, having its poop covered with delicate carvings and ingenious allegories. Don John of Austria was on board this vessel. All the galleys and ships were well supplied with arms, artillery, and ammunition. Besides the vast number of Spanish, Venetian, Italian, and Maltese knights and nobles who served in the fleet, there were upwards of eighteen hundred adventurers, and persons pertaining to the household of Don John himself. An order of battle was published, to be constantly preserved, when in motion as well as in front of the enemy. It consisted of a vanguard, a main body and wings, and a reserve. The right wing was commanded by Doria, the centre by Don John, the left by the proveditore Agostino Barbarigo, and the reserve by the Marquis of Santa Cruz. At first, circumstances appeared little favourable to the League's formidable armada. The season was already advanced, and the allies encountered severe gales, which retarded their progress, and even compelled them to put in to shore for shelter. At last the weather improved, and on the 27th of September they cast anchor before Corfu. Here

a council of war was held, and although some of its members were for half measures, for attacking Turkish forts, and suchlike unimportant operations, others,-Colonna and Barbarigo, and the Marquis of Santa Cruz, and especially Don John himself were for going instantly in search of the enemy's fleet, and assailing it, without a doubt of the victory being theirs. This generous ardour and enthusiasm communicated itself to all present, and it was resolved to follow up the Turk, though he were to take refuge in the very heart and citadel of his dominions.

On the 30th September the combined fleet was moored in the spacious Albanian harbour of Gomeniza, selected by Don John as convenient to pass a review of the whole of the armada, he himself inspecting some of the vessels, and his generals the others. It is related by some historians, (amongst others by Arroyo and Torres Aguilera, both of whom served in the fleet), that upon this occasion, it being the duty of Juan Andrea Doria to inspect the Venetian galleys, General Veniero refused to allow it, and the inspection was passed by another officer, against whom the Venetians were not prejudiced. Afterwards the republican general, either irritated by the contention he had provoked, or in consequence of his naturally irascible character, discharged his ill-humour on a captain named Mucio Tortona, who served in the Italian regiments. This officer having got into a dispute with the crew of a Candian galley, in which he and his soldiers were, the general ordered his arrest. Mucio resisted, and the affair ended by Veniero's having him forcibly seized and hung to the yard-arm of his flagship. Don John considered, as well he might, that this act was unjustifiable, and an insult to his authority, and so great was his anger that he was on the point of hanging Veniero; but the sight of his white hair and the entreaties of the other leaders appeased him, and he contented himself with forbidding the fine old soldier to appear thenceforward at his councils, where Barbarigo replaced him. The threat sufficed to awe the Venetians, and perhaps to prevent other breaches of discipline. But the time was close at hand when such jealousies and quarrels would be forgotten, and when the sole rivalry of Spaniard and Venetian would be, which should most distinguish himself against the common foe. On the 5th October the fleet received intelligence of the fall of Famagusta, and of the unhappy end of its brave defenders. The news of Mustafa's treachery and cruelty inspired all, and especially the Venetians, with an ardent desire of revenge. The wind was unfavourable to the progress of the armada, and for two days it advanced little; but at two hours before daybreak, on the morning of the 7th,

Don John," conquering," says Señor Rosell," the opposition of the elements, and his soul moved by an irresistible power, gave, to the general astonishment, the signal to weigh anchor." The sun had not long risen when the look-out man on board the royal galley announced a sail in sight, and soon afterwards that he saw the whole Turkish fleet. This news was confirmed by others who ascended the rigging, and by Doria, from his division of the armada; whereupon Don John ordered the standard of the League to be hoisted, and a gun to be fired, in announcement of battle. The whole fleet broke out into loud acclamations. The Turks, who had left Lepanto the night before, were not less rejoiced than the Christians at the prospect of action. Their force, increased during their stay at Lepanto, was not less than one hundred and twenty thousand men, embarked in two hundred and forty-five galleys, many of them of twenty-eight and thirty benches of rowers, seventy galliots, and a host of inferior vessels. A famous corsair, named Caracush, who had been in the disguise of a fisherman, to reconnoitre the Christian fleet, reported its strength as much less than it really was either because he had not seen all the vessels, or that he had made a mistake in counting them, or, as others assert, because he did not wish to discourage his friends. Thus misinformed, it is not surprising that Aali Pasha, at the head of his numerous and well-manned galleys, made sure of victory. The two leaders, therefore, sought each other with a like eagerness, although some of their lieutenants-Doria and Ascanio de la Corna on the one hand, and Uluch Aali and Perteu Pasha on the other would have dissuaded their chiefs from risking so great a combat. Siroco, viceroy of Alexandria, an officer of much valour and wisdom, opposed the pasha's intention, because, he said, after the conquest of Cyprus, and the glorious Albanian expedition, he should remain contented with his laurels and advantages, and not risk all upon the hazard of a general action. But Aali turned a deaf ear to such counsels. As to Don John, when some of his generals, having come on board his galley to learn his final de

VOL. LXXVI.-NO. CCCCLXV.

cision, would have urged the propriety of retreat, "Señores," replied the heroic prince, "this is not the time for counsels, but combat;" and he continued giving his orders. As to Veniero, still crestfallen, and perhaps repentant, our historian says that he showed symptoms of apprehension, as if he feared disaster; but it is not surprising that the irritable soldier, who had incurred the disgrace of his chief, should, at such a moment, appear sad and gloomy. In the battle he set an example to the bravest, and won high praise and distinction. Before it began, however, Don John took an opportunity, when going round the fleet in a swift vessel, and encouraging the men by brief but appropriate speeches, to address to him a few kindly words. Then the prince reminded the Venetians of their injuries, and offered them revenge. His address to the Spaniards, as preserved to us by historians, was admirably appropriate to the time, circumstances, and martial and religious spirit of that age. "My children," he said, " we have come here to die-to conquer, if Heaven so disposes. Give not occasion for the enemy to ask us, with impious arrogance, Where is your God?' Fight in his Holy name; dead or victorious, immortality will be yours." Joyously were the preparations for action made, under the eyes of the chief, and with the stimulus of his exhortations. But as the fleets approached and deployed, exposing their entire strength to each other's view, their respective commanders found a new cause of uneasiness. Aali, beholding the numerous galleys and admirable order of his foe, saw at once that Caracush had deceived him, and Don John at the same time perceived how false was the news he had received and credited that Uluch Aali and his squadron were detached from the Turkish armada. But it was too late for the Turk to retreat, even if such were his wish; and as to Don John, although he felt how great was the hazard of the enterprise, he thought of his father's exploits, says Señor Rosell," and fixing his hope in God, and his eyes on a crucifix, which he always carried with him, he thanked Heaven beforehand for his triumph. And as if Heaven favoured him, the

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