"Truly a bad week's work for you," the prior said. "Were all your
ships wrecked?"

"No; our two consorts, being lighter and more easily rowed, regained
the land when we were blown off it."

"Conrad of Ponthieu is an evil man," the prior said. "Had you come
ashore twenty miles farther south you would have been beyond his
jurisdiction. I fear that all the seacoast people view the goods
obtained from vessels cast ashore as a lawful prey, but your company
would assuredly have received fair hospitality if cast on the shores
of Normandy itself. But now methinks I hear the patter of the
palfreys' hoofs. Farewell, my sons, and may God who has protected
you through these dangers give you his blessing."

The lads knelt before him as he placed his hands on their heads and
gave them his benediction. As they rose brother Gregory entered to
say that the horses were ready, and with renewed thanks to the prior
they followed him to the courtyard, mounted, and rode off with the
lay-brother, glad indeed to find their journey on foot thus abridged.
Impatient as they were to reach Rouen, the gentle pace at which the
palfreys ambled along fretted them very much. Brother Philip kept
up a constant string of talk on the monastery, its estates, the
kindness of the prior, the strictness of the subprior, and other
matters of great interest to himself, but of none to the boys, whose
thoughts were with Harold, chained and in prison. The palfreys,
however, made very fair progress, and it was but three o'clock when
they rode into the streets of Rouen, whose size and grandeur would
at any other time have impressed them much, for it was an incomparably