Nor were their last experiences such as to sweeten their feelings towards the land they were leaving. Despite the king’s merciful provision, there was no lack of opportunities for expressing, otherwise than by looks and words, the bitter hatred nourished against the emigrants. The old chroniclers have handed down to us an incident which may safely be regarded as only an extreme specimen of the cruel memories which the children of Israel carried away from England. On St. Denis’ Day the Jews of London set out on their way to the sea-coast, and got on board a ship at the mouth of the Thames. The captain had cast anchor during the ebb-tide, so that his vessel grounded on the sands. Thereupon he requested the passengers to land, till it was again afloat. They obeyed, and he led them a long way off so that, when they returned to the river-side, the tide was full. Then he ran into the water, hauled himself on board by means of a rope, and referred the hapless Jews to Moses for help. Many of them tried to follow him but perished in the attempt, and the captain divided their property with his crew. The chroniclers add that the ship-master and his sailors were afterwards indicted, convicted of murder, and hanged. Similar crimes of robbery and murder were brought home to the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports; but the punishment of the offenders brought little consolation to the victims. The sea proved as cruel to the Jews as the land had been. Fierce storms swept the Channel, many of the ships were wrecked and many of the exiles were robbed and drowned by the captains, or were cast naked on the French coast. Those who escaped shipwreck and murder reached the shore they sought only to find it as inhospitable as the one from which they fled. A decree of the Parliament de la Chandeleur, issued in obedience to the Pope’s wishes, bade all Jewish refugees from England to quit the kingdom by the middle of next Lent. Some of them, thanks to their French tongue, may have escaped detection and remained in France, sharing the treatment of their co-religionists already described; another party, mostly poor, took refuge in Flanders; but the majority joined their brethren in Spain, whither we shall follow them. CHAPTER X THE JEWS IN SPAIN