The Story of Don John of Austria by Luis Coloma (macos ebook reader .txt) 📕

placed his son in a galley, and followed by thirteen other ones, passed like a vapour in front of the prows of the enemy, before they could surround him, and fled incontinently to Santa Maura, all sails set, he at the tiller, the unfortunate rowers with a scimitar at their throats, so that they should not flag or draw breath for a second, and should die rather than give in.

The first moment of astonishment over, the Marqués de Santa Cruz and D. John of Austria hastened in pursuit; but the advantage Aluch Ali had obtained increased each minute, night began to fall, and the storm which had threatened since two o'clock began to blow, and the first claps of thunder were heard. So the famous renegade escaped on the wings of the storm, as if the wrath of God were protecting him and preserving him to be the scourge of other people.

This was the last act of the battle of Lepanto, the greatest day that the ages have seen, as we are assured by a witness who shed his blood there, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

It was then five o'clock on the evening of the 7th of October, 1571.

CHAPTER XII

In the afternoon of that same day, the 7th of October, 1571, the Pope was walking about his room, listening to the relation by his treasurer, Mons. Busotti de Bibiana, of various businesses committed to his care; the Pope suffered terribly from stone, and as usually the pain attacked him while seated, he had to receive and to do his business standing up or walking up and down. He stopped suddenly in the middle of the room and put out his head in the attitude of one listening, at the same time making a sign to Busotti to be silent. Then he went to the window, which he threw open wide, leaning out, still silent and in the same listening attitude. Busotti looked at him in astonishment, which changed to terror on seeing the face of the old Pontiff suddenly transfigured, his tearful blue eyes turned to heaven with an ineffable expression, and his joined and trembling hands raised; Busotti's hair stood on end as he understood that something supernatural and divine was happening, and thus he remained for more than three minutes, as the same treasurer afterwards declared on oath.

Then the Pope shook off his ecstasy, and with a face radiant with joy, said to Busotti, "This is not the time for business. Let us return thanks to God for victory over the Turks."

And he retired to his oratory, says Busotti, stumbling, and with beautiful lights coming from his forehead. The treasurer hastened to acquaint the prelates and Cardinals with what had happened, and these ordered that at once a record should be made, noting all the circumstances of time and place, and that it should be deposited, sealed up, at a notary's office. On the 26th of October a messenger from the Doge of Venice, Mocenigo, arrived in Rome, to announce the victory of Lepanto, and three or four days later the Conde de Priego, sent by D. John to give an account of the details of the battle. Then they made a calculation, allowing for the different meridians of Rome and the Curzolari Isles, and they found that the Pope's vision announcing the triumph of Lepanto took place exactly when D. John of Austria jumped, sword in hand, from the quarter-deck to drive back the Turks who were invading his galley, and when the "Sultana" was being attacked on the side and at the stern by the Marqués de Santa Cruz and Marco Antonio Colonna. Then they gave much importance to this event, and it afterwards figured with all its proofs and documents in the proceedings of the canonisation of Pius V, from which we have taken them.

Meanwhile it was another of God's mercies that the storm which put the renegade Aluch Ali in safety, did not end by destroying the armada of the League. Without thought of danger, the galleys were drifting in the wide gulf, busy, as far as possible, repairing their damages, putting manacles on the Turkish prisoners, and collecting and disposing of the enormous booty provided by the 178 galleys taken from the enemy. No one thought of danger or of anything but enjoying the triumph. However, the Generalissimo was looking after everything, and he suddenly ordered that the alarm gun should be fired on the "Real"; the flagships repeated the same signal, and with haste, by force, and, if one can say so, by driving them, D. John gathered together this scattered flock, and shut them up, as in a fold, in the port of Petala. It was time; the storm was let loose, violent and terrible, and during all that night it swept over those seas with alarming force. But for the prudence of D. John, the victory of Lepanto would inevitably have been reduced to the opposite of the battle of Trafalgar, two centuries and a half later, which was a glorious disaster; Lepanto would have been a disastrous glory.

Very early next morning D. John visited all the galleys, one by one, to comfort and aid the wounded and to take count of the losses suffered. The Christians lost in the battle of Lepanto fifteen galleys and nearly 8000 men; of these 2000 were Spaniards, 800 the Pope's men, and the rest Venetians. Of the Turkish armada 30 galleys got away, 90 were sunk in the gulf, and the remaining 178 were in the hands of the Christians, with 117 big cannon and 250 of smaller size. At the same time more than 12,000 Christian captives whom the Turks had rowing in their galleys regained their liberty. These poor creatures, wild with joy, offered spontaneously, and with the greatest enthusiasm, to take the places of the wounded and killed in the Christian fleet, both as soldiers and sailors.

The division of the spoil D. John made in the following manner, according to what was stipulated in the articles of the Holy League.

To the Pope, 27 galleys, 9 big cannon, 3 swivel guns, 42 small cannon, and 200 slaves.

To the Catholic King, Ali Pasha's galley, the "Sultana," with 81 others, 78 great cannon, 12 swivel guns, 178 small cannon, and 3700 slaves.

To Venice 54 galleys, 38 cannon, 6 swivel guns, 84 small cannon, and 2500 slaves.

To D. John of Austria, as Generalissimo, fell the tenth part of everything; but he only took 16 galleys, 700 slaves, and one of every ten pieces of artillery. Among the prisoners he kept the tutor of the sons of Ali Pasha, Alhamet, who was taken with them by Marco Antonio Colonna on the galley of the King of Negroponto, where they had taken refuge after their own ship had gone to the bottom.

From Santa Maura D. John sent the Field-Marshal D. Lope de Figueroa to the King his brother; also his courier Angulo, carrying the standard of the Prophet called "Sanjac," taken from Ali's galley. To the Pope he sent the Conde de Priego; D. Fernando de Mendoza to the Emperor Maximilian II of Austria; and D. Pedro Zapata de Calatayud to the Signory of Venice, to offer them congratulations.