"
Kenric looked up at Elspeth in surprise.
"You are young, my lord," she continued, and you know not the things
that have been. But I am old. Not always has it been with me as you see
me now. Time was, my lord, when I, who am now a poor infirm woman,
decried as a witch, despised of men, was a fair and joyous young maid.
My father was a king --"
"A king?" echoed Kenric.
"Even so. And he had his castle under the Black Fell that is in far-off
Iceland. Men named me Elspeth White Arm, and my lord and husband was
also a king. He was the noblest and truest of all the monarchs of the
North, and he was the lord over the Westermann Islands. We had one
child, and we named her Sigrid the Fair."
"Elspeth, Elspeth, What is this that you are saying?" cried Kenric,
partly guessing what was to come.
"Sigrid was a wild and self-willed child," the old woman continued,
fixing her blue eyes on Kenric, "but I loved her well. And on a time --
'tis a full score and four years ago -- she disappeared, and we could
find her nowhere, until my lord went out upon his ship and boarded the
galley of a bold viking of the south whose name was Rudri Alpinson, or,
as the Scots called him, Roderic MacAlpin. On Roderic's galley was
Sigrid found; but she would not return, for she loved this man Roderic
passing well, knowing little of his evil heart.
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