"
"I am sorry, friend," said the king, "that my vessel is already chosen,
and that I cannot sail with the son of the man who served my father. But
the prince and all his company shall go along with you in the White
Ship, which you may esteem an honor equal to that of carrying me."
By evening of that day the king with his retinue had set sail, with a
fair wind, for England's shores, leaving the prince with his attendants
to follow in Fitzstephen's ship. With the prince were his natural
brother Richard, his sister the countess of Perch, Richard, earl of
Chester, with his wife, the king's niece, together with one hundred and
forty of the flower of the young nobility of England and Normandy,
accompanying whom were many ladies of high descent. The whole number of
persons taking passage on the White Ship, including the crew, were three
hundred.
Prince William was but a boy, and one who did little honor to his
father's love. He was a dissolute youth of eighteen, who had so little
feeling for the English as to have declared that when he came to the
throne he would yoke them to the plough like oxen. Destiny had decided
that the boastful boy should not have the opportunity to carry out this
threat.
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