[326] Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.—Herrera, Hist. General, tom. ii. p. 33.—Paruta, Guerra di Cipro, pp. 157, 158.—Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. p. 244.
Torres y Aguilera tells a rather extraordinary anecdote respecting the great standard of the League in the Real. The figure of Christ emblazoned on it was not hit by ball or arrow during the action, notwithstanding every other banner was pierced in a multitude of places. Two arrows, however, lodged on either side of the crucifix, when a monkey belonging to the galley ran up the mast, and, drawing out the weapons with his teeth, threw them overboard! (Chronica, fol. 75) Considering the number of ecclesiastics on board the fleet, it is remarkable that no more miracles occurred on this occasion.
[327] Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 72 et seq.—Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.—Vanderhammen, Don Juan de Austria, fol. 182.—Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. p. 247 et seq.—Paruta, Guerra di Cipro, p. 160.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. ix. cap. 25, 26.
| "Dó el estandarte bárbaro abatido |
| la Cruz del Redentor fue enarbolada |
| con un triunfo solene y grande gloria, |
| cantando abiertamente la vitoria." |
| Ercilla, La Araucana, par. ii. canto 24. |
[328] The loss of the Moslems is little better than matter of conjecture, so contradictory are the authorities. The author of the Leyden MS. dismisses the subject with the remark, "La gente muerta de Turcos no se ha podido saber por que la que se hecho en la mar fuera de los degollados fueron infinitos." I have conformed, as in my other estimates, to those of Señor Rosell, Historia del Combate Naval, p. 118.
[329] Rosell computes the total loss of the allies at not less than seven thousand six hundred; of whom one thousand were Romans, two thousand Spaniards, and the remainder Venetians.—Ibid. p. 113.
[330] Ibid. ubi supra.—Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 74 et seq.—Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. pp. 246-249; tom. xi. p. 370.—Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, pp. 295, 296.—Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.
[331] Relacion de la Batalla Naval, MS.
Don John notices this achievement of his gallant kinsman in the first letter which he wrote to Philip after the action. The letter, dated at Petala, October 10, is published by Aparici, Documentos Inéditos relativos á la Batalla de Lepanto, p. 26.
[332] Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes (Madrid, 1819), p. 19.