“My good dame,” said the mariner, “that will I most gladly do, for your holy bishop or abbot, or whatever he be, hath already paid me the sum of four golden pieces in agreeing that I shall do this thing —­ though for the matter of that, this man is a king in his own land, and methinks the honour were ample payment without the gold; so if the winds permit, and we meet no rascally pirates by the way, I make no doubt that ere the next new moon we shall be snug and safe against the walls of our good city of Chester.”

So ere the curtain of night had fallen over the Arran hills the outlawed earl of Gigha had left behind him the little isle of Bute, and it was thereafter told how he had in secret confessed his manifold sins to the abbot of St. Blane’s, and how in deep contrition he had solemnly sworn at the altar to make forthwith the pilgrimage of penance to the Holy Land, there to spend the three years of his exile in the service of the Cross.

CHAPTER XI.  THE SWORD OF SOMERLED.

Now when Kenric, following sadly behind the body of his brother, came within sight of the castle of Rothesay his heart sank heavy with the woe that was upon him.  He thought of how his mother had pressed upon Alpin the charge of vengeance, and of how that charge had ended.  He would far rather have given up his own life than face his mother and tell her the terrible tale of how the man whom Alpin had sworn to slay had himself slain Alpin.  And he was sorrowful beyond measure.

They bore the body of their dead young king into the great hall, and laid him on a bier beside the body of his father, the good Earl Hamish, and the curtains were drawn and many candles and torches were lighted and set round the two biers, while two of the friars of St. Blane’s knelt there in solemn prayer.

Then Kenric went to the door of his mother’s chamber and knocked, and old Janet, a retainer of many years, came out to him.

“Alas!” said she, “my lady your mother is passing ill, and she hath spoken never a word these many hours.  We have sent forth a messenger to Elspeth Blackfell, who is skilled beyond all in Bute for her craft in simples.  But Elspeth was abroad, and the messenger returned without her.”

“Then will I go myself and find her,” said Kenric.

So he went down into the courtyard and called his favourite hound Fingall, that he might have companionship in his quest.  But the dog gave no answer to his call, and searching for it he found the animal lying moaning in a corner of the yard and writhing as in pain.

“The dog well knows that our master, Earl Hamish, is dead,” said one of the servitors.  “Grief is killing him.”

“Not so,” said Kenric.  “The dog is ill.  What manner of food has he eaten?”

“Naught save the few scraps of venison that my lady left upon her plate after the feast,” said the servitor.

“Methinks, then,” said Kenric, “that I must even go alone.  But see you that my poor friend is well tended, for even though he be but a dumb hound, he is a true and a faithful one, and I would not that he should die.”