They kissed his feet, received the communion with martial devotion, and listened to the prayer of Leo, that the same God who had supported St.Peter and St.Paul on the waves of the sea, would strengthen the hands of his champions against the adversaries of his holy name.

After a similar prayer, and with equal resolution, the Moslems advanced to the attack of the Christian galleys, which preserved their advantageous station along the coast.

The victory inclined to the side of the allies, when it was less gloriously decided in their favor by a sudden tempest, which confounded the skill and courage of the stoutest mariners.

The Christians were sheltered in a friendly harbor, while the Africans were scattered and dashed in pieces among the rocks and islands of a hostile shore.

Those who escaped from shipwreck and hunger neither found, nor deserved, mercy at the hands of their implacable pursuers.