the
mouth, knocking out a tooth; and Kenric ordered that the man's wound
should be measured with a rule, and it was three inches in length and a
half inch in breadth. Then for the length of the wound a fine of
twenty-four pence was imposed upon the wrongdoer, for its breadth six
pennies, and for the tooth twelve other pennies.

Then Kenric asked if there were any further matters to be judged.

"Yes, my lord," said Duncan Graham, entering the circle of the court.
"There is a boon that I your servant would humbly ask."

"And what boon is that?" asked Kenric, already guessing what it might be.

"It is," said Duncan, standing to his full height and growing very red
-- "It is that there lives with Elspeth Blackfell, over at Kilmory, one
whom men name Aasta the Fair, and she is a thrall. The boon I ask is
that you will in your mercy remove from her the yoke of bondage, for she
is a passing worthy maid, and it is no fault of hers, but only her
misfortune that she is a thrall; and, so please you, my lord, I love her
well, and would make her my lawful wife, for a freeman may not wed a
bondmaid and claim her as his own."

"Show me this maiden, that I may speak with her," said Kenric.

And Aasta stood forth, looking very beautiful in a robe of white, and
with her eyes downcast, and her hands clasped before her.

"Tell me your name and history," said the young king.

"My name, my lord, is Aasta, and nothing else," said she. "I am a thrall
to Sir Oscar Redmain, who claimed me as his bondmaid when I was but a
little child, for it was upon his lands that I was found. Whence I came
I cannot tell; but men say that it was with the wild north winds that I
was brought to Bute, from the regions of frost and snow. Of my parentage
I know naught, saving only that Elspeth Blackfell has oft declared that
my parents were of noble station, and that they dwelt in the land of the
Norsemen."

"That you are of gentle blood I can well believe," said Kenric softly,
as he regarded her surpassing beauty. "But do you then remember nothing
of your earliest life?"

"All that yet lingers in my mind, my lord, is the memory of my mother,"
said Aasta. "She was wild and unruly as the winter storm, and cruel as
an angry wolf."

"And your father?"

"He was a viking, who, though he loved me passing well, was ever on the
sea, roving and fighting in his great ship."

"Whosoever you be, Aasta, and whencesoever you came," said Kenric, "I
now declare you