Turn back to your ships and ask of Heaven
the forgiveness which no man on earth will now accord you! Go, Roderic
MacAlpin!"
"Miserable hag!" cried Roderic grasping his sword. "And think you that I
would lead my brave men away ere they have had their full revenge upon
this stripling? No, no! Listen now, how they cry for his blood! Hear how
they cry out for the children whom you have spirited away! Elspeth
Blackfell, you know where those children are hidden, and by Saint Olaf
you shall now tell me where they are, or I will drive my blade into your
shrivelled carcase. Tell me, I say!"
"My lord Roderic," said Elspeth, looking at him with glittering eyes,
"you have lost your own two children. Do you still remember them? Do you
still remember their rosy cheeks, their sweet blue eyes, their golden
hair? Do you still hear the music of their laughter as they played among
the pebbles on the beach? Ah, it was a sad, sad day for you when they
were taken from you, my lord."
"A sad day indeed, Elspeth," echoed the sea rover, mechanically
sheathing his sword, and speaking in an altered voice that had a touch
of tenderness in it.
"And yet," added Elspeth, "there lives in Cowall one who might tell you
what became of your little ones."
"What? You tell me this! Who is that man?"
"On one condition shall you know," said Elspeth.
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