d Kenric quickly rose and climbed the thick
wall, and running with all speed to Dunagoil he ordered Allan Redmain to
take two ships over to Arran, for that Sir Piers de Currie's castle was
in flames.

Not long were the two galleys in crossing the sound. Entering Loch
Ranza, they entrapped three ships of the Norsemen that had been sent
against the castle while Margad their chief was attacking the castle of
Brodick on the eastern side of the island. Attacking these ships, Allan
Redmain speedily put the Norse warriors to the sword and took their
vessels as prizes.

On the beach he found the gallant knight, Sir Piers, standing in the
light of the flames that devoured his home. His wife and six children
were clinging to his side piteously weeping. His castle was completely
wrecked, and as there was not another fit dwelling for many miles
around, Allan Redmain, having driven off the enemies who were on shore,
besought Sir Piers to bring his family on board, and with twelve brave
men of Arran who had escaped, he was taken over to St. Blane's to such
refuge as there remained to him. The beautiful Lady Adela and the Lady
Grace de Currie fell into each other's arms, for in the hour of their
adversity they were as sisters.

At the time when Kenric was thus receiving his neighbours of Arran, the
men whom Roderic had left in charge of the castle of Rothesay were
making merry over their victories. A dozen of them, officers of the
garrison, sat in the great hall -- the hall in which the good Earl
Hamish had met his death. On the bare board of the table there lay a
cooked haunch of venison, with other viands that had been found in the
buttery, with many cakes of brown bread and drinking horns filled with
wine. For these men had not been long in command ere they had broached
more than one wine cask with casks of other liquors of a stronger sort,
and they grew ever more noisy and more boisterous, this one boasting of
how many dogs of Bute he had slain, and that one vaunting that he had
with his own hand struck the stripling lord of the island to the ground.

Often one of them would rise from the long bench before the fire and
maul the venison with his bloodstained hands, turning it over this way
and that; then taking his sword, which had been used that day for a very
different purpose, he would cut off a great slice of the meat, and
spreading a layer of salt upon it, clap it between two cakes of bread
and sit down to enjoy the food.