y that Alpin is not deserving of her great favour?"
The old retainer walked on in silence.
Presently he turned to Kenric and said: "What has your brother done with
the weapon wherewith my lord was slain? He tried in the dead of night to
gain entrance to the traitor Roderic that he might use that fatal knife
even as my lady so weakly charged him to do. Where is it, I say?"
"I know not," said Kenric. "But methinks 'tis a pity he did not drive it
into the villain's heart."
"My son! my son! let me not hear you utter such evil thoughts again. It
ill becomes a pupil of our holy abbot to speak thus. And yesternight you
were disposed to leave the guilty earl to whatever punishment the wise
men should appoint."
"Reflection has changed me, Dovenald; and were Roderic before me at this
moment I would willingly lay him dead at my feet. Should Alpin fail to
slay him, then will I fulfil my revenge. In fair fight or by stealth
Roderic shall surely die."
"Alas, that I should ever hear such words from one so young!" murmured
Dovenald.
And the old man continued his complaints until they had entered the
castle gates.
CHAPTER VIII. AN ERIACH FINE.
Under the clear sky of high noon the people of Bute had assembled on the
great plain of Laws, at the margin of Loch Ascog. They had come from all
parts of the island, for the word had travelled round with the swiftness
of a bird's flight that their good king, Earl Hamish, had been cruelly
slain by his own brother, and all were eager not only to see the man who
had done this treacherous deed, but also to hear judgment passed upon
him for his crime.
At the foot of the great standing stone Sir Oscar Redmain, as steward or
prefect of Bute, took his seat as judge. Noble and comely he looked,
holding his great glittering sword, point upward, waiting for the
prisoner and his accuser. At his right stood Godfrey Thurstan, the good
abbot of St. Blane's, with his cowl drawn over his reverend head to
shield him from the warm sun. At his left Dovenald, most learned in the
laws of the land, ready to explain and discuss the ancient legal
customs; and round them in a circle were the others of the twelve
ruthmen. The witnesses or compurgators stood in an outer ring within a
fencing of cords running from stake to stake. Without the verge of the
sacred circle of justice were gathered a great crowd of islanders --
herdsmen and husbandmen, tribesmen, fishermen, and thralls -- who had
left
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