Next day the combat between these two noble spirits was renewed, and carried on with equal ardour. As for the emir, he had recourse to several rolls of manuscript palm-leaves, which he brought from his cabin, and out of them read aloud now and then well-sounding verses and deeply-pondered sentences. Bertha meanwhile had no book to assist her; though it is true she should have had in her possession one volume, more estimable than all others, bound in black velvet, adorned with silver-clasps and beautiful pictures; but this was left at the fortress of Trautwangen, while the history of saints, that she had been wont to read with so much pleasure, still remained at Gabrielle’s castle in Gascony. Yet these books, more especially the lives of saints, had been studied by the good pious Bertha with such care, that she now never failed by memory to command their assistance. Many times indeed she reflected long and silently; so that one might have thought she was embarrassed and overpowered by the splendid and poetic language of Nurreddin; yet, in answer to what he read from the Koran and other Moorish records, she failed not at last to answer in the spirit of faith, hope, and charity, moreover with a dove-like simplicity, whereby the serpent’s cunning shewn in Mahomet’s doctrine was wholly overcome. So their meetings continued for several weeks, and the sea-voyage passed over after a fashion which the mariners and soldiers little expected. Instead of banquets, music, and mirth, there prevailed over them all a solemn meditative silence, whose influence seemed indeed extended to the ocean and the sky. Only so much wind breathed on the sails as was required to bring the voyagers onward in their course towards Ostia; the wide sea lay around them almost like a mirror, only varied by light rippling waves as the vessels ploughed their adventurous way, furrowing the deep fathomless waters. CHAPTER VIII. How the Pope baptized the Emir Nurreddin, and many of his Moors.