As "Earl Miles", he now accompanied her to Winchester, and on the rout of her forces on 14 September 1141 he escaped to Gloucester, where he arrived "exhausted, alone, and with scarcely a rag to his back". Towards the end of the year he was in Bristol making a grant to Llanthony Priory in the presence of the Empress Matilda and the Robert, Earl of Gloucester. In 1142 he is proved by charters to have been with the Empress at Oxford and to have received her permission to hold Abergavenny Castle of Brian Fitz Count. It is probably to the summer of this year that he made a formal deed of alliance with the Earl of Gloucester, and as a hostage he gave the Earl his son Mahel.