Many a well-directed arrow did he of Rothesay receive, but he placed before him his great white shield with a red cross engrailed.  With his head protected by a strong brass helm, and his chest with a well-wrought coat of mail, he escaped all hurt.  Nor did he lose courage, but cheered his men lustily as though it were but a boy’s game he was playing.  But ever he kept his watchful eye upon the Norsemen, eager to pick out the tall figure of his uncle and dreaded foe Roderic.  Not once but many times did he see him standing with a dozen of his companions directing the siege.

Kenric many times took up his longbow and sent his arrow shafts swiftly towards the heart of his enemy.  Roderic was clothed in complete armour, and though many of his nephew’s arrows struck him, yet they but broke upon his breastplate and fell shivered to his feet.

For four long hours the battle continued, and at Kenric’s side many brave men lay dead.  On the plain before the castle seven score of Norsemen lay slain.  Then, as the sun went down, and the evening clouds brought heavy rain, the enemy retired to their ships.  By this time the three vessels that had been engaged with the ships of Bute were drawn alongside their consorts, and Kenric’s four galleys had sailed out to sea, so that in the cover of darkness they might approach under the abbey of St. Blane’s, and give ready succour should the enemy discover the retreat of the women and children.

Early in the morning the whole of Roderic’s forces landed, and now they stormed the castle gates with all their strength.  So stoutly did they assail them with their powerful battering rams that in the space of an hour the doors fell in with a loud crash.

In the wide hall stood Kenric with his sword in hand.  Behind him were ranked a good three hundred fighting men.  In their midst was the maid Aasta the Fair, wearing, as all the men wore, a coat of mail and a brass headpiece.  In firm ranks they all stood with pikes and spears aslant to meet the inrush of valiant Norsemen.

The first man whom Kenric encountered was Erland the Old of Jura.  Enraged to see this man, who had taken hospitality in the castle, now helping to storm it, he fought with his full strength and felled him with one blow.  Cutting his way through the ranks of his foes he at last reached the fallen gates.  But nothing did he yet see of Roderic.  Many men did he kill, for none could stand against the terrible onslaught of his great sword.  And ever at his side, fighting with fearless courage, was Aasta the Fair, and of the foemen a full half dozen did she slay with her sword, for she was most powerful of arm and feared not the sight of blood.

Well might Kenric seek in vain for the towering helm of Roderic.  For even as the gates gave way that warrior, with Magnus of Man, had taken off a body of their Manxmen to the west postern.  This little door, which, as Roderic well knew, was the weakest point in all the castle, they assailed with their ponderous battle-axes, and never did smith with his hammer strike his iron as Roderic struck there.