When
these three years of my outlawry are over you shall see such things as
will surprise you. Farewell, good Erland, and you, dear Sweyn! Hold you
both fast by King Hakon. That is our highest game; and so we serve him
well there is no fear but we will reap a good harvest of power."
"God grant it may be so!" said Erland; "for if his Majesty of Norway
fail in conquering Scotland, then are we all lost men. Farewell, then!"
When Sir Oscar Redmain had left the seat of justice his daughter Ailsa
crept within the circle of the court, and there she found Kenric.
"As I came hither," she said, "I saw Elspeth Blackfell; and she bade me
ask you, Kenric, if what she spake had aught of sooth in it?"
"Ah," said Kenric, "right truly did she tell what was to befall. For
even as it was with your nest of ouzels, Ailsa, so has it been with the
castle of Rothesay. This man Roderic, is he not even as the stoat that
harried the nest?"
"Even so," said Ailsa. "But the stoat also slew the fledgling as well as
the parent bird. Elspeth, when she heard that the good Earl Hamish had
been so cruelly slain, looked grave, and, said she, 'Hasten, Ailsa, to
the sons of Rothesay and bid them still be wary of this man. Not until
he is dead will all danger from him be past.' Those were her words,
Kenric; and lest there should be truth in them I have come to you as
speedily as I might.
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