oomed to fail or gloriously to succeed?

Through the darkness that shrouded their forward path shone one
bright star of love--but for which of them did that star shine,
or was it perchance for neither? They knew not. How could they
know aught save that the venture seemed very desperate. Indeed,
the few to whom they had spoken of it thought them mad. Yet they
remembered the last words of Sir Andrew, bidding them keep a high
heart, since he believed that things would yet go well. It seemed
to them, in truth, that they were not quite alone--as though his
brave spirit companioned them on their search, guiding their
feet, with ghostly counsel which they could not hear.

They remembered also their oaths to him, to one another, and to
Rosamund; and in silent token that they would keep them to the
death, pressed each other's hands. Then, turning their horses
southwards, they rode forward with light hearts, not caring what
befell, if only at the last, living or dead, Rosamund and her
father should, in his own words, find no cause to be ashamed of
them.

Through the hot haze of a July morning a dromon, as certain
merchant vessels of that time were called, might have been seen
drifting before a light breeze into St. George's Bay at Beirut,
on the coast of Syria. Cyprus, whence she had sailed last, was
not a hundred miles away, yet she had taken six days to do the
journey, not on account of storms--of which there were none at
this time of year, but through lack of wind to move her. Still,
her captain and the motley crowd of passengers--for the most part
Eastern merchants and their servants, together with a number of
pilgrims of all nations--thanked God for so prosperous a
voyage--for in those times he who crossed the seas without
shipwreck was very fortunate.

Among these passengers were Godwin and Wulf, travelling, as their
uncle had bidden them, unattended by squires or by servants. Upon
the ship they passed themselves off as brothers named Peter and
John of Lincoln, a town of which they knew something, having
stayed there on their way to the Scottish wars; simple gentlemen
of small estate, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in
penitence for their sins and for the repose of the souls of their
father and mother. At this tale their fellow-passengers, with
whom they had sailed from Genoa, to which place they travelled
overland, shrugged their shoulders. For these brethren looked
what they were, knights of high degree; and c