He broke free a year ago.

Then he fell sick.

When he got well he set sail for Jersey, was wrecked off the Ecrehos, and everybody knows the rest.

Diantre, he's had a hard time!" The girl had listened intently.

She had heard all these things in flying rumours, and she had believed the rumours; but now that Maitre Ranulph told her--Ranulph, whose word she would have taken quicker than the oath of a Jurat--she doubted.