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NUMBEE OF THE CASUALTIES 267 from the spies that nearly ten thousand had been killed ; Phrantzes, that he heard from the Turks themselves that more than twelve thousand of these ' Sons of Hagar ' perished in the sea alone. The version of Critobulus is the most likely to be correct. He gives the killed as upwards of a hundred, and the wounded as above three hundred. 1 The losses on board the four ships were not altogether slight. Phrantzes declares that no Christians were killed in the battle, though two or three who were wounded ' departed after some days to the Lord ; ' while Critobulus gives a much more probable story of twenty-two killed, and half the crews wounded. All writers agree that the fight was manfully sustained on both sides. The ships lay on the water without a breath of wind, though there was probably a slight swell. It was a small but brilliant sea fight of the old type between skilled sailors and skilled soldiers, in which the latter were unable to gain any advantage over their opponents fighting on their own element, and had to withdraw humbled and defeated. The disappointment and rage of the sultan were great and not unnatural. The unfortunate admiral was brought next day before Turkish him and reproached as a traitor. Mahomet asked him how degraded, he could expect to capture the fleet in the harbour since he could not even take four ships, upbraided him for his inac- tivity and cowardice, and declared that he was ready himself to behead him. 2 The admiral pleaded that from the begin- ning to the end of the fight his own ship had never quitted its hold upon the poop of the largest vessel, and that he and his crew had fought on uninterruptedly until recalled. The Turkish officers also spoke on his behalf, testified to his courage and tenacity, and called attention to the severe wound on his eye accidentally inflicted by one of his men. The sultan, after some hesitation, consented to spare his life, but ordered him to be bastinadoed. 3 As a further 1 Crit. xli. 2 'Barbara, p. 24, and Phrantzes. 3 According to Ducas, Mahomet himself inflicted the blows: an absurd statement.