[300] Authorities differ as usual as to the precise number both of vessels and troops. I have accepted the estimate of Rosell, who discreetly avoids the extremes on either side.
[301] Vanderhammen has been careful to transcribe this precious catalogue.—Don Juan de Austria, fol. 156 et seq.
[302] Ibid. fol. 159 et seq.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. x. p. 251.—Herrera, Hist. General, tom. ii. p. 15 et seq.
[303] "Luego su Alteza, el Coro, y Pueblo dixeron con musica, vozes, y alegria; Amen."—Vanderhammen, Juan de Austria, fol. 159.
[304] For a minute account of these arches and their manifold inscriptions, see Vanderhammen, Don Juan de Austria, fol. 160-162.
[305] Rosell, Combate Naval de Lepanto, p. 84.
[306] Don John, in his correspondence with his friend Don Garcia de Toledo, speaks with high disgust of the negligence shown in equipping the Venetian galleys. In a letter dated Messina, August 30, he says: "Póneme cierta congoja ver que el mundo me obliga á hacer alguna cosa de momento, contando las galeras pro número y no por cualidad."—Documentos Ineditos, tom. iii. p. 18.
[307] Rosell, Combate Naval de Lepanto, p. 82.
The clearest and by far the most elaborate account of the battle of Lepanto is to be found in the memoir of Don Cayetan Rosell, which received the prize of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid, in 1853. It is a narrative which may be read with pride by Spaniards, for the minute details it gives of the prowess shown by their heroic ancestors on that memorable day. The author enters with spirit into the stormy scene he describes. If his language may be thought sometimes to betray the warmth of national partiality, it cannot be denied that he has explored the best sources of information, and endeavoured to place the result fairly before the reader.
[308] Torres y Aguilera, Chronica de Guerra que ha acontescido en Italia y partes de Levante y Berberia desde 1570 en 1574 (Çaragoça, 1579), fol. 54.—Vanderhammen, Don Juan de Austria, fol. 165 et seq.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. lx. cap. 23.