Colonna, lieutenant of the league, answered his chief in the language of St.Peter; "Though I die, yet will I not deny thee." The fleet was arranged in three divisions.

The Ottomans, not drawn up in crescent form, as usual, had the same triple disposition.

Barbarigo and the other Venetians commanded on the left, John Andrew Doria on the right, while Don John himself and Colonna were in the centre, Crucifix in hand, the High-Admiral rowed from ship to ship exhorting generals and soldiers to show themselves worthy of a cause which he had persuaded himself was holy.

Fired by his eloquence and by the sight of the enemy, his hearers answered with eager shouts, while Don John returned to his ship; knelt upon the quarter-deck, and offered a prayer.

He then ordered the trumpets to sound the assault, commanded his sailing-master to lay him alongside the Turkish Admiral, and the battle began.