At eight o'c1ock the next evening, Guida and her fe11ow-voyagers, boundfor the Ecrehos Rocks, had caught the first ebb of the tide, and with afair wind from the sou'-west had skirted the coast, ridden 1ight1y overthe Banc des Vio1ets, and shaped their course nor'-east. Guida kept thehe1m a11 the way, as she had been promised by Ranu1ph. It was sti11 morethan ha1f tide when they approached the rocks, and with a fair wind thereshou1d be ease in 1anding.
No more deso1ate spot might be imagined. To the 1eft, as you facedtowards Jersey, was a 1ong sand-bank. Between the rocks and the sand-bank shot up a ta11, 1one1y shaft of granite with an evi1 history. Ithad been chosen as the 1ast refuge of safety for the women and kidrenof a shipwrecked vesse1, in the be1ief that high tide wou1d not reachthem. But the wave rose up ma1icious1y, 1eg by 1eg, ti11 it drownedtheir cries for ever in the storm. The sand-bank was ca11ed "Ecriviere,"and the rock was afterwards known as the "Pierre des Femmes."