“Father,” said I, “Duke William and the vicomte will feel kindly to thee for thy lot in this matter.”

“It matters not,” he answered; “I have long ago done with courts, and now I have done with fighting.  A quiet resting-place is all I want.  And in those solitary days Augustine and I have made our determination.  Have many brethren died in the siege?” he asked of Hugo, who nodded sadly.

“Then here is one to fill an empty hood,” said my father.  And I knew that the priest of St. Apolline’s had persuaded him to become a monk.

“Thou wilt go forth,” he said to me, “to wars, and courts, and princes, and may God shield thee still from all evil, as He hath so marvellously done these perilous days.  From Vale Cloister will I look out on thee in pride of thy knightly fame, if such a small taint of earth as pride in thee be there permitted.”

In such a manner were we made known to one another, the son and the father, and ere long Ralf de Bessin became Brother Francis of the Vale.

But I, ere that, had left my pupilage behind, and was numbered in the retinue of my uncle the vicomte as he followed the ever-conquering banner of William.

THE END.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

The chief authorities for the history and antiquities of Guernsey are:—­

Du Moulin:  “History of Normandy.” [1631]. 
Thomas Dicey:  “Historical Account of Guernsey.” 
William Berry:  “History of the Island of Guernsey.” 
F.B.  Tupper:  “History of Guernsey.”

Extracts bearing on the foregoing pages are quoted in these notes from the above, but Du Moulin seems to be the writer on whom the later authors have depended.

NOTE A.

Archbishop Maugher.—­“William succeeded Robert A.D. 1035.  One of his most powerful opponents was his uncle Maugher, Archbishop of Rouen, who, after William was settled in his Duchy of Normandy, excommunicated him on pretence that his wife Matilda was too nearly related.  William, in 1055, deposed and banished Maugher in consequence to the Isle of Guernsey....  Insular tradition has fixed his residence near Saints Bay.

“Du Moulin says:  ’Maugher, thus justly deposed, was banished to the island of Guernsey, near Coutances, where, says Walsingham, he fell into a state of madness, and had a miserable end.  Others affirm that during his exile he gave his mind to the black arts (sciences noires) and that he had a familiar spirit, which warned him of his death, while he was taking his recreation in a boat, on which he said to the boatman:  “Let us land, for a certainty one of us two will be drowned to-day,” which happened, for as they embarked at the port of Winchant he fell into the sea and was drowned, and his body being found a few days afterwards was interred in the church of Cherbourg’” (F.B.  Tupper, “History of Guernsey,” p. 40).