They
were the men of Colonsay, led by Earl Sweyn, who had been reinforced by
fifty men from the ships. It was this band whom Aasta had seen setting
the deserted homesteads in flames. Sweyn was now bending his course upon
Rothesay village.
But, as he came within bow shot, Kenric and his archers were ready.
Kenric took careful aim and bent his bow as he had never bent it before.
Swiftly the arrow sped with whizzing noise, and it curved in its flight,
dropping lower and lower until it dived deep into the bare throat of the
Earl of Colonsay. As Sweyn fell, his men saw that the dart had pierced
through his neck even to the back of his collarbone, and, enraged at the
loss of their master, they ran yet farther. But one by one they
staggered and fell, each with an arrow quivering in his broad chest, and
those who remained alive took flight beyond range.
And now Kenric turned to watch the ships of Magnus and Roderic, which,
with the galley of John of Islay in their wake, were now well within the
bay. Driven by their long-sweeping oars, they crept shoreward until
their peaked bows grounded in the shallows. The warriors then swarmed
over the bulwarks and dropped into the water, wading breast deep to the
beach. Kenric's bowmen from the battlements and from the rising ground
above the shore began to assail the bold invaders. But, little daunted,
the Norsemen landed in great numbers, taking ashore their besieging
engines and various instruments of war.
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