are great morasses and swamps, extending over wide tracts, where heavy armed soldiers cannot penetrate, and where many people still maintain a sort of wild independence, defying all the efforts of the English to subdue them.  The people are wild and savage, and ever ready to rise against the English.  Here, then, is the country where you are most likely to find chiefs who may enter into our plans, and agree to second our efforts for independence.  Here are some rings and gold chains, which are all that remain to me of my possessions.  Money I have none; but with these you may succeed in winning the hearts of some of these savage chieftains.  Take, too, my royal signet, which will be a guarantee that you have power to treat in my name.  I need not tell you to be brave, Sir Archie; but be prudent —­ remember that your life is of the utmost value to me.  I want you not to fight, but simply to act as my envoy.  If you succeed in raising a great fire in the west of Ireland, remain there and act as councillor to the chiefs, remembering that you are just as much fighting for Scotland there as if you were drawing sword against her foes at home.  If you find that the English arm is too strong, and the people too cowed and disheartened to rise against it, then make your way back here by the end of three months, by which time I hope to sail hence and to raise my standard in Scotland again.”

On leaving the king Archie at once conferred with Duncan the fisherman, who willingly agreed that night to set him ashore in Ireland.

“I will land you,” he said, “at a place where you need not fear that any English will meet you.  It is true that they have a castle but three miles away perched on a rock on the coast.  It is called Dunluce, and commands a wide seaward view, and for this reason it were well that our boat were far out at sea again before morning dawned, so that if they mark us they will not suppose that we have touched on the coast; else they might send a party to search if any have landed —­ not even then that you need fear discovery, for the coast abounds in caves and hiding places.  My sons have often landed there, for we do a certain trade in the summer from the island in fish and other matters with the natives there.  If it pleases you my son Ronald, who is hardy and intelligent, shall land with you and accompany you as your retainer while you remain in Ireland.  The people there speak a language quite different to that which you use in the lowlands of Scotland and in England, but the language we speak among ourselves closely resembles it, and we can be easily understood by the people of the mainland.  You would be lost did you go among the native Irish without an interpreter.”

Archie thankfully accepted the offer, and that night, after bidding adieu to the friends and his comrades, started in Duncan’s boat.