By this time all Europe was aflame with excitement:  warriors of noble birth were flocking to serve under the standard of the brother of the King of Spain, who was regarded as the very mirror of chivalry.  The following description of Don John, at Naples, is from the pen of that great historian Prescott: 

“Arrangements had been made in that city for his reception on a more magnificent scale than any he had witnessed on his journey.  Granvelle, who had lately been raised to the post of Viceroy, came forth at the head of a long and brilliant procession to welcome his royal guest.  The houses which lined the streets were hung with richly tinted tapestries and gaily festooned with flowers.  The windows and verandahs were graced with the beauty and fashion of the pleasure-loving capital, and many a dark eye sparkled as it gazed upon the fine form and features of the youthful hero, who at the age of twenty-four had come to Italy to assume the baton of command and lead the crusade against the Moslems.  His splendid dress of white velvet and cloth of gold set off his graceful person to advantage.  A crimson scarf floated loosely over his breast, and his snow-white plumes drooping from his cap mingled with the yellow curls that fell in profusion over his shoulders.  It was a picture which the Italian maiden might love to look on.  It was certainly not the picture of the warrior sheathed in the iron panoply of war.  But the young Prince, in his general aspect, might be relieved from the charge of effeminacy by his truly chivalrous bearing and the dauntless spirit which beamed from his clear blue eyes.  In his own lineaments he seemed to combine all that was comely in the lineaments of his race.”

At Naples Don John found a fleet at anchor under the command of Don Alvaro de Bazan, first marquis of Santa Cruz, of whom much was to be heard in the future in his capacity as Admiral of Castile.  Here also he received from the hands of Cardinal Granvelle a consecrated banner sent to him by the Pope at a solemn ceremony in the church of the Franciscan Convent of Santa Chiara.  On August 25th he left Naples and proceeded to Messina, where he landed under a triumphal arch of colossal dimensions, embossed with rich plates of silver and curiously sculptured with emblematical bas-reliefs.  The royal galley in which the hero embarked was built at Barcelona:  she was fitted with the greatest luxury, and was remarkable for her strength and speed; her stern was profusely decorated with emblems and devices drawn from history; no such warship had ever been seen in the world before.

Cayetano Rosell, in his Historia del combate naval de Lepanto, says that the number of vessels, great and small, in the Christian armada was over 300, of which 200 were galleys, the ordinary warships of the time.  He goes on to say: