by the combined forces of Spain, Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Sicily, and Genoa,
of one hundred sail which embarked fourteen thousand troops, he was
relieved by Piali, the Admiral of Soliman the Magnificent, who came to his
assistance with eighty-six galleys, each of which had on board one hundred
Janissaries, and who gained so striking a victory over the Christians that
the Turkish Admiral returned to Constantinople with no less than four
thousand prisoners. But in this case, as in so many others, the actual
hostilities took place on shore, where the troops had the opportunity of
displaying their sterling qualities.

There is very little doubt that critics will point out that the corsairs
were by no means universally successful; that, as in the case of the attack
by Hassem, the ruler of Algiers in 1563, on Oran and Marzaquivir (a small
port in the immediate vicinity of Oran), in the end the Moslems were badly
beaten. This undoubtedly was the case, and there is no desire to magnify
the deeds of the Sea-wolves or to minimise the heroic defence of
Marzaquivir by the Count of Alcaudete, or that of Oran by his brother, Don
Martin de Còrdoba, At the last moment of their wonderful defence they were
relieved by a fleet sent by the King of Spain, and Hassem had to abandon
his artillery, ammunition, and stores and beat a hasty retreat to the place
from whence he had come.

There was nothing remarkable in the fact that the corsairs were frequently
defeated; what is really strange is that they should have achieved so great
a success--success vouched for by the concrete instance that they
established those sinister dynasties on the coast of Northern Africa which
were the outcome of their piratical activities.

In speaking of them, historians of later date than that at which they
flourished are apt to hold them somewhat cheaply, to dismiss them as mere