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HOW THE YELLOW COG SAILED FORTH FROM LEPE.
That night the Company slept at St.Leonard's, in the great monastic barns and spicarium--ground well known both to Alleyne and to John, for they were almost within sight of the Abbey of Beaulieu.

A strange thrill it gave to the young squire to see the well-remembered white dress once more, and to hear the measured tolling of the deep vespers bell.
At early dawn they passed across the broad, sluggish, reed-girt stream--men, horses, and baggage in the flat ferry barges--and so journeyed on through the fresh morning air past Exbury to Lepe.
Topping the heathy down, they came of a sudden full in sight of the old sea-port--a cluster of houses, a trail of blue smoke, and a bristle of masts.

To right and left the long blue curve of the Solent lapped in a fringe of foam upon the yellow beach.

Some way out from the town a line of pessoners, creyers, and other small craft were rolling lazily on the gentle swell.