Miss Lane had the story from an old woman of the Castel parish. The fairies won easily: "what can poor mortals avail against supernatural beings!" After the massacre they settled into the homes of the dead. The widows grew reconciled to their new husbands, the girls were pleased with their fairy lovers, and the island prospered. But fairyland does not let its people stay among mortals for more than a set number of years. When their time was up they left with heavy hearts.
Two things were said to prove the story. The small stature of some Guernsey families was put down to fairy blood. And "since then, no Guernsey witch has ever needed a broomstick for her nocturnal journeys, having inherited wings from her fairy ancestors." Two men of St Andrew's were said to have escaped the slaughter by hiding in a bread oven.
MacCulloch suggested that the invasion of 1372 by Yvon de Galles, a Welsh adventurer in French service whose troops fought the islanders on the slopes above St Peter Port, had become "a myth, and how his Spanish troops have been converted into denizens of fairyland". That battle is remembered in a real ballad, "La Descente des Arragousais". Whatever its source, the fairy version is firmly tied to real places. La Rouge Rue is still a street name in the northern part of St Peter Port, climbing towards Mont Arrivé. The map point is placed there.
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