No time was to be lost. He commanded his ships lying in the harbor to slip their cables and make the best of their way to Algiers. Orders were given at once to raise the siege. Everything was abandoned. Whatever could be of service to the enemy was destroyed. Hassem caused his guns to be overcharged, and blew them to pieces.[1285] He disencumbered himself of whatever might retard his movements, and, without further delay, began his retreat.
No sooner did Alcaudete descry the army of the besiegers on its march across the hills, than he sallied out, at the head of his cavalry, to annoy them on their retreat. He was soon joined by his brother from Mazarquivir, with such of the garrison as were in condition for service. But the enemy had greatly the start of them. When the Spaniards came up with his rear-guard, they found it entirely composed of janizaries; and this valiant corps, maintaining its usual discipline, faced about and opposed so determined a front to the assailants, that Alcaudete, not caring to risk the advantages he had already gained, drew off his men, and left a free passage to the enemy. The soldiers of the two garrisons now mingled together, and congratulated one another on their happy deliverance, recounting their exploits, and the perils and privations they had endured; while Alcaudete, embracing his heroic brother, could hardly restrain his tears, as he gazed on his wan, emaciated countenance, and read there the story of his sufferings.
The tidings of the repulse of the Moslems were received with unbounded joy throughout Spain. The deepest sympathy had been felt for the brave men who, planted on the outposts of the empire, seemed to have been abandoned to their fate. The king shared in the public sentiment, and showed his sense of the gallant conduct of Alcaudete and his soldiers, by the honors and emoluments he bestowed on them. That nobleman, besides the grant of a large annual revenue, was made viceroy of Navarre. His brother, Don Martin de Cordova, received the encomienda of Hornachos, with the sum of six thousand ducats. Officers of inferior rank obtained the recompense due to their merits. Even the common soldiers were not forgotten; and the government, with politic liberality, settled pensions on the wives and children of those who had perished in the siege.[1286][{408}]
Philip now determined to follow up his success; and, instead of confining himself to the defensive, he prepared to carry the war into the enemy's country. His first care, however, was to restore the fortifications of Mazarquivir, which soon rose from their ruins in greater strength and solidity than before. He then projected an expedition against Peñon de Velez de la Gomera, a place situated to the west of his own possessions on the Barbary coast. It was a rocky island fortress, which, from the great strength of its defences, as well as from its natural position, was deemed impregnable. It was held by a fierce corsair, whose name had long been terrible in these seas. In the summer of 1564, the king, with the aid of his allies, got together a powerful armament, and sent it at once against Peñon de Velez. This fortress did not make the resistance to have been expected; and, after a siege of scarcely a week's duration, the garrison submitted to the superior valor—or numbers—of the Christians.[1287]
This conquest was followed up, the ensuing year, by an expedition under Don Alvaro Bazan, the first marquis of Santa Cruz,—a name memorable in the naval annals of Castile. The object of the expedition was to block up the entrance to the river Tetuan, in the neighborhood of the late conquest. The banks of this river had long been the refuge of a horde of pestilent marauders, who, swarming out of its mouth, spread over the Mediterranean, and fell heavily on the commerce of the Christians. Don Alvaro accomplished his object in the face of a desperate enemy, and, after some hard fighting, succeeded in sinking nine brigantines laden with stones in the mouth of the river, and thus effectually obstructed its navigation.[1288]
These brilliant successes caused universal rejoicing through Spain and the neighboring countries. They were especially important for the influence they exerted on the spirits of the Christians, depressed as these had been by a long series of maritime reverses. The Spaniards resumed their ancient confidence, as they saw that victory had once more returned to their banner; and their ships, which had glided like spectres under the shadow of the coast, now, losing their apprehensions of the corsair, pushed boldly out upon the deep. The Moslems, on the other hand, as they beheld their navies discomfited, and one strong place after another wrested from their grasp, lost heart, and for a time, at least, were in no condition for active enterprise.
But while the arms of Spain were thus successful in chastising the Barbary corsairs, rumors reached the country of hostile preparations going forward in the East, of a more formidable character than any on the shores of Africa. The object of these preparations was not Spain itself, but Malta. Yet this little island, the bulwark of Christendom, was so intimately connected with the fortunes of Spain, that an account of its memorable siege can hardly be deemed an episode in the history of Philip the Second.
MASTERS OF RHODES.