of the very shortest duration.

The misfortunes that had attended Kenric of Bute and Sir Piers de Currie
were due almost entirely to the bad work of the wild men of Galloway,
whose lust for slaughter and pillage, whose wanton plunderings of
churches and slaying of women and children brought down upon the Scots
the hatred of the Norsemen in whose lands these depredations had been made.

It was not long ere the word had travelled far and wide among the
Western Isles that the barbarities committed by the Gallwegians were the
work of young Kenric of Bute. It was said that Kenric of Bute alone had
ordered the massacre of the children of Colonsay. It was said that he
had wantonly ordered similar atrocities in Jura, in Barra, and indeed in
all those isles which the unruly men of Galloway had invaded. Upon
Kenric and his people, therefore, the sons of the vikings swore deadly
vengeance, calling upon their patron saint to aid them.

The Norsemen of the Western Isles lost little time in sending messengers
to Norway, telling how the King of Scots had attempted to force their
allegiance to his crown.

Hakon, the Norwegian king, was roused to anger. He determined to revenge
the injuries offered to his vassals, and at once issued orders for the
assembling of a vast fleet and army, whilst he repaired in person to his
great seaport of Bergen to make ready for an expedition which should not
only restore his vassals to their lands and rights, but which should
also sweep away every kilted Scot from the isles, and convert the great
kingdom of Scotland itself into a dependency of Norway.

These great preparations for war commenced in the autumn of 1262. It was
not until eight months afterwards that they were completed.

When Allan Redmain, with Earl Kenric and Duncan Graham lying ill in his
cabin, rejoined the combined forces of Sir Piers de Currie and the Earl
of Ross, he found these two chiefs on the point of separating. The Earl
of Ross left the sound of Iona and sailed northward again, while Sir
Piers, with the eight galleys of Bute and Arran, bent his course south
to Colonsay, there to pick up the vessel that Kenric had left in guard
over that island. These nine vessels thereupon returned to the Clyde,
and Sir Piers made a journey into Scotland to make his report to the King.

For many weary weeks Kenric remained a helpless invalid in his castle,
tended by his gentle mother and by old Janet the nurse. His wounds were
of small acc