At last, after much hard thinking, he put on his sword and ordered his pony to be bridled.  Then he rode south to the abbey of St. Blane’s.  Calling to the good abbot he bade him open the chapel and let him enter.  There the young king threw himself down before the altar and fervently prayed to God for help in his hour of need, asking for the power to save the children from the wrath of their enemies.  And in the quiet of that holy place God’s spirit entered into his heart and he felt strong.

So when he had finished his prayers the abbot, hearing him, said:  “My son, have faith, and our Father will give you His help.  And now, tell me, I beseech you, what means you foresee of saving our people from the swords of our enemies?”

And Kenric said:  “Holy father, it is by your help that I hope to do this thing.  This day will I send into your grange all the meal and flour that now lie in my granaries at Rothesay, and you shall store it away in secret places.  Ere the sun sets this night every woman and bairn now alive in Bute shall be brought to the abbey, and they shall live here, guarded by a band of our best men-at-arms.”

“But, my son,” objected the abbot, “is not your own castle a far stronger and safer refuge?”

“It may well be that it is stronger, my father,” said Kenric; “but since it is the first place that our enemies will make for, ’tis not more safe than the abbey, which would be the last place that Christian men would attack.”

“You speak wisely there,” said the father; “but still do I doubt your wisdom in seeking to gather so many women and children together in one defenceless place.  How will it be if our enemies forget the sanctity of this refuge, and discovering our children assail them all in the mass?  Better it were, methinks, to let each family remain in their own home, for thus distributed over the island some, if not all, must surely escape.”

“Father,” said Kenric, “it is not without reason that I propose this course, and the two years that I passed under the care of the holy brethren of the abbey gave me some teaching of a practical sort.  Wist you not that under this very chapel there is a strong, large chamber?  And wist you not also that connected with that chamber there is a long vault running a full four furlongs underground, even unto the inclosed space that the men of Bute name the Circle of Penance?”

“Even so, my lord,” said the abbot; “and now do I well understand your plan.  It is in that underground passage that you would have our helpless people take refuge.  Send me, then, a score of your men to make timely preparation and I will gladly receive the innocents into my care.  God grant that we may be able to protect them, even at the cost of our own lives.”

“Amen,” said Kenric, and then he rode away.  Taking the green road that led westward, he stopped at every farmstead and cottage by the way and there bade all the women, from the aged crone to the young damsel, repair to the abbey of St. Blane’s, taking with them all their children.