years' struggle, been subdued, and the remnants of the romantic race
which had once swayed the Peninsula been swept into slavery. The Moors
had sustained the unequal conflict with a constancy not to have been
expected of so gentle a people. "If a nation meek as lambs could resist
so bravely," said the Prince of Orange, "what ought not to be expected of
a hardy people like the Netherlanders?" Don John of Austria having
concluded a series of somewhat inglorious forays against women, children,
and bed-ridden old men in Andalusia and Granada; had arrived, in August
of this year, at Naples, to take command of the combined fleet in the
Levant. The battle of Lepanto had been fought, but the quarrelsome and
contradictory conduct of the allies had rendered the splendid victory as
barren as the waves: upon which it had been won. It was no less true,
however, that the blunders of the infidels had previously enabled Philip
to extricate himself with better success from the dangers of the Moorish
revolt than might have been his fortune. Had the rebels succeeded in
holding Granada and the mountains of Andalusia, and had they been
supported, as they had a right to expect, by the forces of the Sultan,
a different aspect might have been given to the conflict, and one far
less triumphant for Spain. Had a prince of vigorous ambition and
comprehensive policy governed at that moment the Turkish empire; it would
have cost Philip a serious struggle to maintain himself in his hereditary
dominions. While he was plotting against the life and throne of
Elizabeth, he might have had cause to tremble for his own. Fortunately,
however, for his Catholic Majesty, Selim was satisfied to secure himself
in the possession of the Isle of Venus, with its fruitful vineyards.
"To shed the blood" of Cyprian vines, in which he was so enthusiastic
a connoisseur, was to him a more exhilarating occupation than to pursue,
amid carnage and hardships, the splendid dream of a re-established
Eastern caliphate.