Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/409

1835.] Pope was probably right in his opinion that vigorous action was more likely to proceed from a solemn League, cemented by the oaths of illustrious ambassadors – blessed by himself with all the pomp and splendour which the Church knew so well how to exhibit – proclaimed to the civilised world by the forms with which priestcraft and statecraft are wont to impress the devout and the patriotic, and so subjected to the observation of all Europe, – than from any other method. When his Holiness had done all that his courage, skill, and patience could effect – and he did wonders – all would have been useless had it not been for the chief corner-stone which, by consummate judgment or by most felicitous accident, was made to surmount the edifice of the Holy League. It is abundantly clear that but for the temper, the judgment, and the quick decision of Don John of Austria, the vast armament of the League would have done nothing more worthy of note than was done in the previous year; that state jealousies and divided councils of commanders would have brought to nought all that the wisdom of conclaves and senators had matured, and which the wealth of the Church and of many kingdoms had provided; and that one of the great battles of the world would not have been fought.

This is a convenient place to pause in the outline which we are tracing of Don John's career, that we may say a word of the very interesting information regarding the war navies of his time which is to be found in the pages under review. Ships, armaments, officers, crows, and propelling powers are clearly set before us, giving a veritable advantage to that reader who would realise the naval scenes so cleverly depicted farther on. Accounts of voyaging and fighting would be scarcely intelligible to an understanding not having a true idea of the navies which achieved them ; and the descriptions which we find in the first volume are so clear and so full as to prepare effectually for a complete comprehension of the sea-stories. We must refer the curious to the chapter on navies; but there are one or two matters, of much importance to the general reader, on which we may say a few words.

The propelling power which we mentioned above was, in all but a very few cases, the thews and sinews of galley-slaves, who, chained to their seats on the benches, and incited to exertion by the most savage discipline, plied the oars. How a miserable man might find himself in the condition of one of these propellers, the following extract may explain: –

"The benches of the unhappy slaves of the oar brought into close contact men of all countries and conditions, and all varieties of moral character. The Moslem from the Bosphorus, from Tunis, or the slopes of Atlas, here mingled with Greek and Latin Christians of all races and languages. Here, side by side in common misery, sat the brave soldier whom the fate of war had made a captive, and the wretch who was paying the penalty of the most odious crimes; the gallant gentleman who had shone in the princely tilt-yard or at royal banquets, and the outcast whose home was the street or the pier; the man of thought and feeling, whose conscience refused to receive unquestioned the faith as it was in the Inquisition at Valladolid or Rome, and the ruffian who stabbed for hire in the tortuous lanes of Valencia, or beneath the deep-browed palaces of Naples. Turkish officers, wont to ride in the gorgeous train which attended the Sultan to the mosques of Constantinople, were at this moment chained to the oars of Don John of Austria; and Knights