The knight ran up to her, and took the child from her arms, while she yet lay motionless, and fainting in her grief and affright. But now every window and door was suddenly burst open;--the Cretan guards and soldiers came forth armed, and with torches in their hands. At the first glance they recognised the beautiful maid of Damascus, as she lay there beside her blooming rose-tree, and determined not only to make a captive of her, but also of the brave Sir Hygies. The knight, however, proved game not so easily to be caught. With his Damascene blade he dealt about him blows so rapid and so powerful, that whoever dared to approach him was felled to the ground; so that they all stood still, and their courage was broken. Thereafter they tried their javelins and arrows, and Hygies protected himself and the beautiful damsel as long as he could, till an arrow came whistling under his golden shield, and struck her to the heart. She fell lifeless, and the red rose-leaves mingled with the blood that streamed from her death-wound. The knight then must leave the lady and the rose behind him on the island; but the sword was still his own, and by its aid he rescued the child, and bore it with him to his fleet, and sailed for Arabia. Thereafter the child proved a valiant warrior,--an avenging sword, that was worth an hundred thousand blades of the best Damascene steel.” CHAPTER VI. How the Lady Bertha sailed from Carthagena. Now this fairy legend, that we have told in plain prose, was sung by Nurreddin in pleasant, well-sounding verses; and Bertha listened thereto with so much pleasure, that the emir repeated it to her many times thereafter, and it seemed as if his own heart was always strangely moved by the recital. Then it came to pass, that she begged him to explain who was in reality the far-famed Hygies, and if he did not know more of this warrior than the song had unfolded?--“Somewhat,” answered the emir, “but not much;--all that I know is,--that he came from foreign countries to Greece; that he was a youth everywhere beheld with fear and wonder; but I could never prove whether his name were properly Hygies, or if this were not a title bestowed on him in Crete, for in the Hellenic tongue it imports, that he was lively, active, and jocose.”--After such answers, it happened for the most part that he would speak no more, and that a deep shade of discontent came over his dark frowning brows.