[318] This fact is told by most of the historians of the battle. The author of the manuscript so often cited by me further says, that it was while the fleet was thus engaged in prayer for aid from the Almighty that the change of wind took place. "Y en este medio, que en la oracion se pedia á Dios la victoria, estaba el mar alterado de que nuestra armada recibia gran daño y antes que se acabase la dicha oracion el mar estuvo tan quieto y sosegado que jamas se a visto, y fué fuerça á la armada enemiga amainar y venir al remo."
[319] Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 71.—Paruta, Guerra di Cipro, p. 156.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, p. 688.—Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.—Otra Relacion, Documentos Inéditos, tom. xi. p. 368.
The inestimable collection of the Documentos Inéditos contains several narratives of the battle of Lepanto by contemporary pens. One of these is from the manuscript of Fray Miguel Servia, the confessor of John of Austria, and present with him in the engagement. The different narratives have much less discrepancy with one another than is usual on such occasions.
[320] Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 72.—Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.
The last-mentioned manuscript is one of many left us by parties engaged in the fight. The author of this relation seems to have written it on board one of the galleys, while lying at Petala, during the week after the engagement. The events are told in a plain, unaffected manner, that invites the confidence of the reader. The original manuscript, from which my copy was taken, is to be found in the library of the University of Leyden.
[321] A minute description of the Ottoman standard, taken from a manuscript of Luis del Marmol, is given in the Colleccion de Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. pp. 270 et seq.
[322] Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. p. 265; tom. xi. p. 368.—Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 70.—Paruta, Guerra di Cipro, pp. 156, 157.—Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.
[323] Herrera notices one galley, "La Piamontesa de Saboya degollada en ella toda la gente de cabo y remo y despedazado con once heridas D. Francisco de Saboya." Another, "La Florencia," says Rosell, "perdió todos los soldados, chusma, galeotes y caballeros de San Esteban que en ella habia, excepto su capitan Tomás de Médicis y diez y seis hombres más, aunque todos heridos y estropeados."—Historia del Combate Naval, p. 113.
[324] "Tomo una Alabarda o Pertesana, y ligando en ella el Sancto Crucifixo, verdadera pendon, se puso delante de todos assi desarinado como estava, y fue el primero que entro en la Galera Turquesca, haziendo con su Alabarda cosas que ponian admiracion."—Torres y Aguilera, Chronicas, fol. 75.
[325] "Vivió hasta que sabiendo que la vitoria era ganada dijo: que daba gracias á Dios que lo hubiese guardado tanto que viese vencida la batalla y roto aquel comun enemigo que tanto deseó ver destruido."—Herrera, Relacion de la Guerra de Cipro, Documentos Inéditos, tom. xxi. p. 360.