Olaf I will
slay every man in your ship. As to the lord of Bute, I will haul him up
by a rope's end to your masthead!"
"So ho!" said Kenric, "methinks, Sir Piers, that this little dog might
now have a chain about his pretty neck. What say you?"
Sir Piers then ordered one of his men to take the lad below and keep
strict guard over him.
Late that afternoon the galley entered the beautiful Loch Andail and
sailed in between ranges of fertile hills, whose lower slopes were gold
with ripening oats and waving barley fields. Islay was at that time one
of the most wealthy and prosperous of the Western Isles, thickly
populated, and famous over all Scotland for the rich produce of its
looms and the beauty of its native pottery wares. It was important to
Alexander that he should win over the complete and undivided adherence
of the powerful ruler of so wealthy a country, and Sir Piers de Currie
well understood the gravity of his mission.
The anchor was dropped in the middle of the loch where it widens above
Bowmore. Sir Piers and Kenric, attended by six armed men, were taken
ashore. A tall husbandman with a long golden beard and sea-blue eyes
stood upon the rocks where they landed, looking out at their great ship
from under his wide flapping hat.
"Say, my good man," said Sir Piers, addressing him, "say if we may hope
to find my lord the Earl John in his castle of Bowmore?"
"That," said the man smiling as he swung his sickle from side to side,
"must needs depend upon whether I enter that castle before you or behind
you.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156