"Fiends and dogs!" cried Kenric grasping firmly his sword. "Cowards and
brutes!" and wielding his weapon with a mighty swoop he brought it down
once, twice, upon the miscreants' heads.

"Now!" he cried yet again as he stood with one foot upon the bleeding
head of one of the men he had slain. "Now, you vile dogs! let another of
you touch one of these innocent children that remain and my sword shall
cleave his head in twain."

He looked to some twenty fear-stricken children who with their mothers
stood in a group at his right side.

"Back to your ships, ye brutes!" he continued. "Back this instant!"

"Who, then, are you that you so dare to command my men?" exclaimed John
Dornoch, their captain, as with dripping sword and menacing looks he
stepped forward and confronted Kenric.

"What? And you, the captain of these men, would excuse this spilling of
innocent blood -- this massacre of women and children!" cried Kenric,
flushing crimson with just fury. "Who bade you thus to take the lives of
the helpless? I am your leader here. By the King's own appointment do I
lead you. It is I who will be held accountable for this most wicked
slaughter.

"And now, John Dornoch, I do command you to return to your galleys and
take your band of ruffians with you."

"Men of Galloway!" cried Dornoch, "heed not the mawkish cries of this
upstart stripling. Obey my bidding and spare not, but kill, kill!"

Then Kenric, hearing this, gripped with both hands his ponderous sword,
looked round for a moment to see that his own faithful men were near to
defend the children, and said with loud voice which all could hear:

"Dornoch of Galloway, those men shall not obey your inhuman commands.
Come on! stripling or man, 'tis not such mean cowards as you whom I
would fear. Come on, I say!"

Dornoch advanced with a mocking smile on his lips and raised his sword.
The crowd drew back. He was full ten inches taller than Kenric of Bute,
and the muscles of his broad bare chest were as the roots of a tree that
rise above the ground; as the nether boughs of the fir tree were his
strong and hairy arms. Little cause did he see to shrink from combat
with the youth who thus challenged him.

Their weapons crossed and clashed. It seemed to Kenric that his sword
urged him with a force that he could not disobey. He made a few quick
passes, then with the full strength in his arms and his supple body he
smote his antagonist a terrible blow upon the head, cutting