of 



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de Maloleone, who served the French king, and kept 

 watch over the adjoining coast, and great peril would 

 have accrued to Earl William, had not two of Maloleone's 

 retainers gone secretly to the abbey and warned him to 

 remain no longer, telling him, that unless he left the 

 island before the following morning, he would be cap- 

 tured by their comrades, who guarded the island and the 

 straits. Upon this the earl, after presenting them with 

 twenty pounds sterling, hastened to the shore, from which 

 the whole company embarked on a raging sea. They 

 trusted, as the distance was but short, that they should 

 speedily gain the English coast, but in this they were 

 mistaken, and, for three long wintry months, did those 

 ill-fated men struggle with the raging elements, before 

 they arrived within sight of land.* 



Meanwhile, the Lady Ela hoped from day to day that 

 the earl might yet return, but, still as weeks past on, and 

 the storms of winter gathered strength, she began to fear 

 that his ships had been lost at sea. There were also 

 other wives and mothers, who suffered as intensely as the 

 countess, for among the knights and soldiers that accom- 

 panied him on his perilous undertaking, many had 

 families at home, who looked wistfully for their return. 

 But the Lady Ela had trials that especially attended her 

 high rank and large possessions, for although a matron, 

 whose age and dignity might have commanded more 

 respect, she became an object of pursuit to the fortune- 

 * Matt. Paris. 



