ounsel me to shrink from meeting this man? No, no,
my friends. I am no craven, and it is not thus that I will desert my
post. Here do I stand to defend our stronghold; and while I have a drop
of blood in my body so long will I fight."

Soon from the battlements the six ships of Roderic were seen emerging
from the Kyles of Bute, and as they passed Ardmaleish Point, the four
galleys of Rothesay dashed out from the bay of Kames, and encountered
the enemy. They met him with a rain of well-aimed arrows and showers of
missiles. The two ships of Roderic and King Magnus shot ahead, leaving
their four consorts behind to engage broadside to broadside with the
vessels of Bute, and there followed a terrible sea fight hand to hand --
Scots broadsword against Norse battle-axe -- that lasted many hours,
until the vessels of both sides, much damaged, and with the loss of four
score of men and more, found themselves drifted into Rothesay Bay.

From the towers, as he watched the opening of the fight, Earl Kenric
espied a band of men marching upon Rothesay from the northward. They
were the men of Colonsay, led by Earl Sweyn, who had been reinforced by
fifty men from the ships. It was this band whom Aasta had seen setting
the deserted homesteads in flames. Sweyn was now bending his course upon
Rothesay village.

But, as he came within bow shot, Kenric and his archers were ready.
Kenric took careful aim and bent his bow as he had never bent it before.
Swiftly the arrow sped with whizzing noise, and it curved in its flight,
dropping lower and lower until it dived deep into the bare throat of the
Earl of Colonsay. As Sweyn fell, his men saw that the dart had pierced
through his neck even to the back of his collarbone, and, enraged at the
loss of their master, they ran yet farther. But one by one they
staggered and fell, each with an arrow quivering in his broad chest, and
those who remained alive took flight beyond range.

And now Kenric turned to watch the ships of Magnus and Roderic, which,
with the galley of John of Islay in their wake, were now well within the
bay. Driven by their long-sweeping oars, they crept shoreward until
their peaked bows grounded in the shallows. The warriors then swarmed
over the bulwarks and dropped into the water, wading breast deep to the
beach. Kenric's bowmen from the battlements and from the rising ground
above the shore began to assail the bold invaders. But, little daunted,
the Norsemen landed in great