midnight
The ship -LRB- he said , naming her -RRB- lay below at Avonmouth and would sail that same night . Prince knew the ship and her master , and judged from the young squire 's apparel and bearing that here was one of those voluntary expeditions by which our young nobles made it a fashion to seek fame at the expense of our enemies the French ; a venture dangerous indeed but carrying a hopeful chance of high profits . He agreed , therefore , and joined the ship a little after nightfall . Toward midnight arrived a boat with our young squire and one companion , a lady of extreme beauty , who had no sooner climbed the ship 's side than the master cut the anchor-cable and stood out for sea . `` The names of these pretty runaways were Robert Machin and Anne d'Arfet , wife of a sour merchant of Bristol ; and all their care was to flee together and lose all the world for love . But they never reached France ; for having run prosperously down Channel and across from the Land 's End until they sighted Ushant , they met a north-easterly gale which blew them off the coast ; a gale so blind and terrible and persistent that for twelve days they ran before it , in peril of death . On the thirteenth day they sighted an island , where , having found -LRB- as they thought -RRB- good anchorage , they brought the ship to , and rowed the lady ashore through the surf .