liberated twelve thousand, of Ottoman ships taken or destroyed two hundred and thirty.  Documentos Ineditos, iii. 249.  Philip sent an express order, forbidding the ransoming of even the captive officers.  The Turkish slaves were divided among the victors in the proportion of one-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice.  The other booty was distributed on the same principle.  Out of the Pope’s share Don John received, as a present, one hundred and seventy-four slaves (Documentos Ineditos, iii. 229).  Alexander of Parma received thirty slaves; Requesens thirty.  To each general of infantry was assigned six slaves; to each colonel four; to each ship’s captain one.  The number of “slaves in chains” (esclavos de cadena) allotted to Philip was thirty-six hundred (Documentoa Ineditos, 257).  Seven thousand two hundred Turkish slaves, therefore, at least, were divided among Christians.  This number of wretches, who were not fortunate enough to die with their twenty- five thousand comrades, must be set off against the twelve thousand Christian slaves liberated, in the general settlement of the account with Humanity.]

But whatever the cause of the victory, its consequence was to spread the name and fame of Don John of Austria throughout the world.  Alva wrote, with enthusiasm, to congratulate him; pronouncing the victory the most brilliant one ever achieved by Christians, and Don John the greatest general since the death of Julius Caesar.  At the same time, with a sarcastic fling at the erection of the Escorial, he advised Philip to improve this new success in some more practical way than by building a house for the Lord and a sepulchre for the dead.  “If,” said the Duke, “the conquests of Spain be extended in consequence of this triumph, then, indeed, will the Cherubim and Seraphim sing glory to God.”  A courier, despatched post haste to Spain, bore the glorious news, together with the, sacred, standard of the Prophet, the holy of holies, inscribed with the name of Allah twenty-eight thousand nine hundred times, always kept in Mecca during peace, and never since the conquest of Constantinople lost in battle before.  The King was at vespers in the Escorial.  Entering the sacred precincts, breathless, travel-stained, excited, the messenger found Philip impassible as marble to the wondrous news.  Not a muscle of the royal visage was moved, not a syllable escaped the royal lips, save a brief order to the clergy to continue the interrupted vespers.  When the service had been methodically concluded, the King made known the intelligence and requested a Te Deum.