Thus the irrepressible Khaireddin began already to form new plans, though we were not yet out of danger and the Emperor had sent his swiftest galleys in pursuit of us. Khaireddin’s escape threatened to snatch the fruits of victory from Charles’s hands, for dominion of the sea was the Emperor’s main object; the restoration of Muley-Hassan to the throne of Tunis was a matter of complete indifference to him. But Khaireddin easily shook off his pursuers and we arrived safely in Algiers, whence he instantly dispatched every seaworthy craft to capture unprotected Christian merchantmen and at the same time to spread fire and devastation along the Italian and Sardinian coasts. These raids were well timed, for victory peals were ringing in every village, and Christian congregations flocked into the churches to sing the Te Deum in thanksgiving for Khaireddin’s defeat.
On the third day the Emperor commanded that the looting of Tunis should cease and order be restored in the ravaged city, to allow Muley- Hassan to ascend to the throne of his fathers. In this way the Emperor sought to show how selfless had been his part in the war, which he had embarked upon merely as a favor to a prince who had begged his help.
I have felt it necessary to record the events of this Tunisian crusade, which historians and poets have celebrated and eminent painters immortalized in many pictures. By leading the enterprise in person and exposing himself to countless dangers, the Emperor won the admiration of all Christendom. Poets referred to him as the first chevalier of Europe, to the fury of King Francis I. Yet the true object was never attained, for the summer had not ended before Khaireddin and his captains had given convincing proof of their continued life and vigor. The Emperor’s efforts to annihilate Moslem sea power had been in vain and exceedingly expensive-a circumstance passed over in silence by the historians.
I willingly confess that I was in no hurry to return to Istanbul, and stayed for some time in Algiers as the guest of Khaireddin. Not until just before the onset of the winter gales did I venture upon the long voyage home. The arsenal guns fired no acknowledgment of our salute. The Sultan and the Grand Vizier had not yet returned from the Persian campaign, which was of course a great relief to me, and having handed Khaireddin’s letter to a court official who hurried to meet us at the quay, Andy and I took a boat straight to my house, where I might hide my shame away from the gloating stares of the Seraglio.
Giulia received me with a pale face and swollen eyes, and reproached me bitterly for neither writing to her nor sending her money. Yet when she perceived my exhaustion and grief she let me be. It is no easy thing even for a mature and hardened man to watch high hopes go up in smoke and to witness the death of a good friend.
She promised to forgive me, therefore, and spoke with malicious pleasure of the Sultan’s army, which after three months of campaigning had recaptured Tabriz and remained there for weeks in the vain attempt to lure Shah Tahmasp into decisive conflict. The Sultan had liberally distributed provinces and cities to distinguished Persians who made submission to him, and when his forces began to run short of food he had started on the homeward march. But as they left first one and then another of the Persian lands behind them, the Shah’s forces recaptured them and inflicted severe losses on the Ottoman rear guard. The Shiite heretics rejoiced and purified their mosques from Sunnite pollution; so the great Persian campaign petered out.
“But,” said Giulia, “the Sultan is in no way to blame for the defeat. The culprits are the bad advisers who enticed him on this questionable enterprise. It is high time the Sultan realized Ibrahim’s uselessness as a general. The Mufti is enraged because he protected the Shiite heretics and forbade the plundering of Persian cities, despite the fatwa prepared for the purpose.”
I answered sorrowfully, “While the cat’s away the mice will play. I shall not abate my loyalty to the Grand Vizier just because he has suffered defeat. Now more than ever does he need a friend’s support, and I’ll merely remind you of the old proverb, he laughs best who laughs last.”
“I shall laugh, never fear! Expect no sympathy from me if you choose to ruin yourself. But there’s still time. I have spoken to Khurrem on your behalf and she is willing to forgive you, for the sake of Prince Jehangir. I may tell you in confidence that she does not blame Khaireddin for his defeat and is ready to put in a word for him too if you humbly ask it of her. Such is the honesty of this good and devout lady.”
I suspected deceit, having learned to mistrust everyone and especially Giulia. But next day Sultana Khurrem sent her pleasure barge to fetch me to the Seraglio, where she received me in her own porphyry chamber in the Court of Bliss. At first she spoke from behind a curtain, but later she drew it aside and revealed her face to me. Her immodest behavior showed how customs here had changed in a few years. At the time when I became the Sultan’s slave certain death awaited every man who beheld a woman of the harem unveiled, even by accident.
The Sultana spoke to me in a playful, teasing tone and gurgled with laughter as if someone were tickling her. Yet her eyes were cold and hard, and at length she ordered me to tell her openly and without reserve all that I had seen and done in Tunis and what had happened afterward. I at once admitted Khaireddin’s reverses, but in his defense went on to speak of his success in the later part of the summer, and assured her that with my own eyes I had seen eighteen big galleys under construction at Algiers, so that by the spring Khaireddin’s fleet would be ready to rule the seas once more.
Khurrem held her head a little sideways as she listened, and a smile played continually over her beautiful lips. It seemed to me that she was paying more attention to my appearance than to what I was saying, and at last she remarked absently, “Khaireddin Barbarossa is a devout and valiant man and a faithful servant of the Sultan. The Prophet himself appears to him in dreams and when he shakes his long beard he looks like a lion with a luxuriant mane. He needs no one to speak in his defense, for I know best how to win my lord’s favor for him. But still you have not told me everything, Michael el-Hakim. Why did you go to Tunis in the first place? And what message was it that the malignant Grand Vizier sent by you to Khaireddin and dared not put into writing?”
I stared at her, disconcerted, unable to guess at her meaning. Then I licked my lips and mumbled something. She encouraged me laughingly, “Michael el-Hakim, you’re a great rogue. Confess honestly that Seraskier Ibrahim sent you to Tunis to inquire secretly whether Khaireddin would acknowledge the Grand Vizier’s title of Seraskier-sultan. If he said yes, you were to bid him to take his fleet to the Sea of Marmara and await further orders. But the Emperor’s unexpected attack foiled these ugly schemes and Khaireddin was saved from making a negative reply, which would have brought down upon him the Grand Vizier’s wrath.”
“Allah is Allah!” I exclaimed in dismay. “That is nonsense-base lies from beginning to end. The Grand Vizier sent me to warn Khaireddin against the Emperor’s false promises, for Charles had offered to make him king of Africa.”
“Quite so,” assented Khurrem hastily. “Then the Grand Vizier ordered you to tell Khaireddin that it lay in his power to make him king of Africa with the right to appoint his own heirs. Then with the Emperor as ruler of Europe and the Seraskier-sultan as ruler of Asia, Khaireddin would take his place as the third of the world’s sovereigns.”