If thou and thy men can set me on English ground before my father, I will never sail more, as long as I live, save in thy ship." The sailor yielded, and turned his helm nearer to the coast, and the crew, clamouring loudly with excitement, pulled wildly at the oars, while the prince and the nobles, with song and laughter, made the quiet night to resound.

So they went for two hours.

Then the prince's sister Adela, Countess of Perche, stepped up to him timidly, and said-- "My brother, what sound is that, like the roar of distant thunder ?" "It is nothing, my sister; go down again and sleep." "It sounds like the breaking of wares on the rocks." "How can that be, when the sea is scarcely ruffled ?" "I fear me we run a risk, sailing so close to shore," said the maiden.
"I myself heard Fitz-Stephen say that the currents ran strong along this coast of Normandy." "Be easy, sister; no danger can befall a night like this." Louder and louder rose the shouting and the revelry.

The rowers sang as they rowed.

And the knights and nobles, who made merry always when the prince made merry, sang too.
But all the while the maiden, as she lay, heard the roar of the breakers sound nearer and nearer, and was ill at ease, fearing some evil.
"Now, my merry men," shouted the prince, "row hard, for the night is getting on!" Fitz-Stephen at that instant uttered an exclamation of horror, and wildly flung round his helm.