But some robbers of Arabs, who kept a watch upon all the road, would not allow us ... to wander any distance from the city. Accordingly, on the arrival of spring, a fleet of Genoese ships arrived in the port of Joppa. On board of these we all embarked, after the Christian merchants had exchanged their wares throughout the maritime cities ... and so committed ourselves to the sea. After being tossed by waves and storms innumerable we arrived at last at Brundusium, and then making a prosperous journey through Apulia, repaired to Rome.... Then the archbishops and other princes of the Empire returned to Germany, taking the way to the right, while we turned to the left on our way to France, taking leave of each other, with kind words and kisses of inexpressible fervency on both sides. And thus at last, instead of our number of thirty horsemen, who took our departure from Normandy in excellent condition, hardly twenty returned, poor pilgrims and all on foot, attenuated and famished in the extreme.... In order that I might not in future be involved in the vanities of this world ... I took refuge in the holy convent of Fontenelle.... At length, after not a few years ... the lord abbot, Gerbert ... appointed me prior of his monastery, bound as I was, by the ties of duty, to obey (p. 149). At this time, my lord William ... was long waiting at the port of St. Valery for a favourable wind, it being his intention to cross over, in order to assert his rights. Thither I then repaired with the subsidy offered by my lord the abbot, and ... presented twelve chosen youths, on horses and supplied with arms, together with a hundred marks for their expenses, as his contribution, on behalf of my father the abbot. Being most abundantly thanked for so welcome a present, and having obtained (the duke’s) charter of donation for ever to our house of ... vineyards, ... overjoyed and exulting, I returned to our monastery.... In the course of some years ... king William, sending a messenger ... to Gerbert ... to enquire for my humble self ... placed me, with mingled feelings, of extreme sorrow at assuming such a heavy burden of responsibility, and of extreme delight at seeing myself transferred to my native soil ... in the church of Croyland.... I was installed there in the year of our Lord, 1076 (p. 150). I found in this monastery [of Croyland] of which, by the will of God I am a servant, sixty-two monks, of whom four were lay brethren, besides monks of other monasteries, who were making profession of the monastic life there, together with those of our chapter. All these when they came, had stalls in our choir, seats in our refectory, and beds in our dormitory. These, too, exceeded one hundred in number, and just when they pleased, some after the expiration of half a year, and some after a whole year, they returned to their own monasteries; and this, more especially in time of war ... so did they flock from every quarter to Croyland (p. 152). EXPLORATIONS