V.

1535.

BOOK ed before Tunis; and landing his men, gave out that he came to assert the right of Alraschid, whom he pretended to have left sick aboard the admiral galley. The fort of Goletta, which commands the bay, soon fell into his hands, partly by his own address, partly by the treachery of its commander; and the inhabitants of Tunis, weary of Muley-Hascen's government, took arms, and declared for Alraschid with such zeal and unanimity as obliged the former to fly so precipitately that he left all his trea sures behind him. The gates were immediately set open to Barbarossa, as the restorer of their lawful sovereign; but when Alraschid himself did not appear, and when, instead of his name, that of Solyman alone was heard among the acclamations of the Turkish soldiers marching into the town, the people of Tunis began to suspect the corsair's treachery. Their suspicions being soon converted into certainty, they ran to arms with the utmost fury, and surrounded the citadel into which Barbarossa had led his troops. But having foreseen such a revolu→ tion, he was not unprepared for it: he immediately turned against them the artillery on the ramparts, and by one brisk discharge, dispersed the numerous but undirected assailants, and forced them to acknowledge Solyman as their sovereign, and to submit to himself as his viceroy.

Barbaros

His first care was to put the kingdom of which he had sa's formi thus got possession in a proper posture of defence.

dable pow

He

strengthened the citadel which commands the town; and fortifying the Goletta in a regular manner, at vast expence, made it the principal station for his fleet, and his great arsenal for military as well as naval stores. Being now possessed of such extensive territories, he carried on his depredations against the Christian states to a greater extent, and with more destructive violence, than ever. Daily complaints of the outrages committed by his cruisers were brought to the emperor by his subjects, both in Spain and Italy. All Christendom seemed to expect from him, as its greatest and most fortunate prince, that he

BOO芪

V.

1535.

Tunis im

ration for

would put an end to this new and odious species of oppression. At the same time, Muley-Hascen, the exiled: king of Tunis, finding none of the Mahometan princes The exiled in Africa willing or able to assist him in recovering his king of throne, applied to Charles, as the only person who could plores the assert his rights in opposition to such a formidable usurper. emperor's The emperor, equally desirous of delivering his dominions April 21. from the dangerous neighbourhood of Barbarossa, of appearing as the protector of an unfortunate prince, and of acquiring the glory annexed in that age to every expedition against the Mahometans, readily concluded a treaty with Muley-Hascen, and began to prepare for invading Tunis. Having made trial of his own abilities for war in the late campaign in Hungary, he was now become so fond of the military character, that he determined to command on this occasion in person. The united strength of His prepa his dominions was called out upon an enterprise in which the expedi the emperor was about to hazard his glory and which tion. drew the attention of all Europe. A Flemish fleet carried from the ports of the Low country a body of German infantry; the galleys of Naples and Sicily took on board the veteran bands of Italians and Spaniards, which had distinguished themselves by so many victories over the French; the emperor himself embarked at Barcelona with the flower of the Spanish nobility, and was joined by a considerable squadron from Portugal, under the command of the infant Don Lewis, the empress's brother; Andrew Doria conducted his own galleys, the best appointed, at that time, in Europe, and commanded by the most skilful officers; the pope furnished all the assistance in his power towards such a pious enterprise; and the order of Malta, the perpetual enemies of the infidels, equipped a squadron, which, though small, was formidable by the valour of the knights who served on board it. The port of Calgliari in Sardinia was the general place of rendezvous. Doria was appointed high admiral of the

BOOK fleet; the command of the land-forces under the emperor V. was given to the marquis de Guasto.

1535Lands in

Africa.

On the sixteenth of July, the fleet, consisting of near five hundred vessels, having on board above thirty thousand regular troops, set sail from Cagliari, and, after a " prosperous navigation, landed within sight of Tunis. Barbarossa having received early intelligence of the emperor's immense armament, and suspecting its destination, prepared with equal prudence and vigour for the defence of his new conquest. He called in all his corsairs from their different stations; he drew from Algiers what forces could be spared; he dispatched messengers to all the African princes, Moors as well as Arabs; and, by representing Muley-Hascen as an infamous apostate, prompted by ambition and revenge, not only to become the vassal of a Christian prince, but to conspire with him to extirpate the Mahomedan faith, he inflamed those ignorant and bigoted chiefs to such a degree, that they took arms as in a common cause. Twenty thousand horse, together with a great body of foot, soon assembled at Tunis; and by a proper distribution of presents among them from time to time, Barbarossa kept the ardour which had brought them together from subsiding. But as he was too well acquainted with the enemy whom he had to oppose, to think that these light troops could resist the heavy-armed cavalry and veteran infantry which composed the imperial army, his chief confidence was in the strength of the Goletta, and in his body of Turkish sol diers, who were armed and disciplined after the European fashion. Six thousand of these, under the command of Sinan, a renegado Jew, the bravest and most experienced of all his corsairs, he threw into that fort, which the emLays siege peror immediately invested. As Charles had the comto Goletta. mand of the sea, his camp was so plentifully supplied; not only with the necessaries, but with all the luxuries of life, that Muley-Iascen, who had not been accustomed to see war carried on with such order and magnificence, was filled with admiration of the emperor's power. His

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troops, animated by his presence, and considering it as meritorious to shed their blood in such a pious cause, contended with each other for the posts of honour and danger. Three separate attacks were concerted, and the Germans, Spaniards, and Italians, having one of these committed to each of them, pushed them forward with the eager courage which national emulation inspires. Sinan displayed resolution and skill becoming the confidence which his master had put in him; the garrison performed the hard service on which they were ordered with great fortitude: but though he interrupted the besiegers by frequent sallies, though the Moors and Arabs alarmed the camp with their continual incursions, the breaches soon became so considerable towards the land, while the fleet battered those parts of the fortifications which it could approach with no less fury and success, that an assault being given on all sides at once, the place was taken by storm. Sinan, with the remains of his gar-Takes it by rison, retired, after an obstinate resistance, over a shallow storm, part of the bay towards the city. By the reduction of July 25. the Goletta, the emperor became master of Barbarossa's fleet, consisting of eighty-seven galleys and galliots, together with his arsenal, and three hundred cannon, mostly brass, which were planted on the ramparts; a prodigious number in that age, and a remarkable proof of the strength of the fort, as well as of the greatness of the corsair's power. The emperor marched into the Goletta through the breach, and, turning to Muley-Hascen, who attended him, here,' says he, is a gate open to you, by which you shall return to take possession of your dominions.'

6

Barbarossa, though he felt the full weight of the blow which he had received, did not, however, lose courage, or abandon the defence of Tunis. But as the walls were of great extent, and extremely weak; as he could not depend on the fidelity of the inhabitants, nor hope that the Moors and Arabs would sustain the hardships of a siege, he boldly determined to advance with his army,

BOOK which amounted to fifty thousand men, towards the im

V. perial camp, and to decide the fate of his kingdom by

1535.

Defeats

sa's army.

the issue of a battle. This resolution he communicated to his principal officers, and representing to them the fatal consequences which might follow, if ten thousand Christian slaves, whom he had shut up in the citadel, should attempt to mutiny during the absence of the army, he proposed, as a necessary precaution for the public security, to massacre them without mercy before he began his march. They all approved warmly of his intention to fight; but inured as they were, in their piratical depredations, to scenes of bloodshed and cruelty, the barbarity of his proposal concerning the slaves filled them with horror; and Barbarossa, rather from the dread of irritating them, than swayed by motives of humanity, consented to spare the lives of the slaves.

By this time the emperor had begun to advance toBarbaros wards Tunis; and though his troops suffered inconceivable hardships in their march, over burning sands, destitute of water, and exposed to the intolerable heat of the sun, they soon came up with the enemy. The Moors and Arabs, emboldened by their vast superiority in number, immediately rushed on to the attack with loud shouts; but their undisciplined courage could not long stand the shock of regular battalions; and though Barbarossa, with admirable presence of mind, and by exposing his own person to the greatest dangers, endeavoured to rally them, the route became so general, that he himself was hurried along with them in their flight back to the city. There he found every thing in the utmost confusion; some of the inhabitants flying with their families and effects; others ready to set open their gates to the conqueror; the Turkish soldiers preparing to retreat; and the citadel, which in such circumstances might have afforded him some refuge, already in the possession of the Christian captives. These unhappy men, rendered desperate by. Epistres des Princes, par Ruscelli, p. 119, &c.