Kenric was about to snatch up the children in his arms when he
saw it was too late. The Norsemen were upon him. He gripped his sword
and stood his ground. At the same moment Ailsa Redmain brushed past him
and took the little Ronald by the hand. One of the men of Colonsay
darted forward, levelling his spear, and with its sharp point caught the
little Rachel. The child fell down, and the spear was but caught in her
woollen frock. In an instant Kenric had leapt forward, swinging his
sword in air. His heavy blade crashed into the man's skull. Then other
twenty men surrounded Kenric, menacing him and pressing forward to reach
the children he defended. A man of Colonsay caught Ailsa by her hand,
and with his dagger was about to take her life. With a great cry of
furious rage Kenric sprang upon him and felled him.
Closer still the Norsemen pressed in upon him. But Ailsa lay down at his
feet with the two little ones clasped tightly in her arms, protecting
them as a moor hen protects her chicks under the cover of her spreading
wings. Kenric, sweeping his blade from right to left, felled every man
who came within a couple of paces of Ailsa, until at last the yelling
warriors drew back, leaving the young earl standing in the midst of a
circle of dead men, with Ailsa and the two children still unscathed.
Then as the enemy, reinforced by many of their comrades from among the
trees, and ranking themselves shoulder to shoulder, drew in again,
suddenly a shower of arrows poured upon them, and a troop of the men of
Bute rushed forward from their ambush.
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