SCHOOL AND PASTIMES.


Guernsey abounded in the natural attractions that are dear to the youth
of robust body and adventurous nature. Isaac, though he excelled in
field sports and was the admiration of his school-fellows, was
sufficiently strong within himself to find profit in his own society. In
the thickets that overlooked Houmet Bay he found solace apart from his
companions. There he would recall the stories told him of the prowess of
his ancestor, William de Beauvoir, that man of great courage, a Jurat of
the royal court. Even here he did not always escape intruders. Outside
the harbour of St. Peter's Port, separated by an arm of the sea, rose
the Ortach Rock, between the Casquets and "Aurigny's Isle," a haunted
spot, once the abode of a sorcerer named Jochmus. To secure quiet he
would frequently visit this isolated place, in spite of the resident
devil, the devil-fish, or the devil-strip of treacherous water which ran
between.

He was not ten when, to the amazement of his friends in imitation of
Leander but without the same inducements, he swam the half mile to the
reefs of Castle Cornet and back again, through a boiling sea and
rip-tides that ran like mill-races. This performance he repeated again
and again. For milder amusement he would tramp to the water-lane that
stole through the Moulin Huet, a bower of red roses and perfume, or walk
by moonlight to the mystic cromlechs, where the early pagans and the
warlocks and witches of later days flitted round the ruined altars.

Though Isaac was self-contained and resolute he had a restless spirit.
Fearless, without a touch of the braggart, his courage was of the