The galley had been travelling fast before, but her speed greatly increased as the slaves rowed their hardest.  Fast as she was travelling, the impatience of the knights was extreme.  They walked up and down the deck, making vows of candles that should be burnt at the shrine of St. John if they arrived in time to take a share in the fight, stopping at times to listen to the sound of artillery, which was now so frequent as to show that a severe engagement was being fought.  Many of the younger knights ran down to the waist and double banked the oars, and in a shorter time than it seemed possible the galley arrived at the mouth of the bay.

A desperate fight was going on.  Ricord’s ship lay, idle and deserted, at anchor.  Five pirate crafts surrounded Santoval’s galley.  Two of them were alongside of her; the others were raking her fore and aft with their shot.  The young knights left the oars, sprang up to the poop and joined in the shout of encouragement raised by the others, and then, resuming their helmets and armour, stood ready to leap on board an enemy as soon as they reached her.  Piccolomini directed the helmsman to lay him alongside one of the ships grappling with Santoval.  As they came up, their galley’s cannon poured their fire into her, and a moment later the knights sprang on board.

In the din of battle their shout had been unheard.  The pirates thronging the other side of their ship were intent only on overcoming the resistance of the knights, and even the discharge of cannon had not called their attention to their foe, until the latter, shouting the war cry of the Order, fell suddenly upon them.  A panic at once seized them.  Some were cut down almost unresistingly, but the great majority, running to the bow or stern, threw themselves overboard and swam to the other ships.  The pirate ship on the other side of Santoval’s galley instantly threw off the grapnels and thrust off from her side, and, immediately hauling in the sheets of the big sail, began at once to draw away, while her three consorts made for the mouth of the bay.

“Back to your galley, comrades,” Piccolomini shouted, “or with this brisk wind they will escape us.”

The knights at once crossed on to their own craft, the oars were got out, and the chase began.  A minute or two later Don Santoval followed them, but soon gave up, as so large a number of the oars had been broken when the two pirate ships ran alongside him, that it would have been hopeless to pursue.  The wind was blowing freshly, and was rapidly increasing in strength, so that, in spite of the efforts of the galley slaves, the pirates gradually drew away, running straight before the wind, and aiding the effects of the sails with oars.  Seeing the hopelessness of the chase, Piccolomini abandoned it, after rowing for two miles, and returned to the island.  The other two galleys were lying beside each other, and Piccolomini had his craft steered alongside them.