clansmen,
was the boy's elder brother. And how the boy followed these two
wherever they went, and begged them to take him to the wars on the
mainland; and they smiled and bade him wait ten years. So he was left
with the women and children on the island, while the men went off in
galleys to fight the invader. Then one fatal day, how they woke to see
white-sailed ships in the offing and boats of armed men landing on the
shore, and how in doubt and terror women and children and old men
hastened to yonder castle on the hill, and begged the few armed men
there stand to their guard.

"Then," said Ludar, with thunder in his face, "the strangers spread like
flies over the fair island and surrounded the castle. To resist was
useless. The armed men offered to yield if the women and children and
old men were spared. 'Yield, then,' said the captain, and the gate was
opened. Then the false villains shouted with laughter, and slew the
armed men before the eyes of the helpless captives. 'Bring a torch!'
shouted some. 'Drive them back into their kennel!' shouted others.
Then a cry went up, so terrible that on the light summer breeze it
floated to the mainland, to where on the headland the noble father of
that boy stood, like a statue of horror, as the flames shot up. The
wretched captives fought among themselves who should reach the door and
die on the sword of the enemy rather than by the fire. That boy saw his
playmates tossed in sport on the swords of their murderers, and heard
his sisters shriek to him--boy as he was--to slay them before a worse
death befel. Then he forgot all, except that when, days after, he
awoke, he was in the heart of a deep cave into which the sea surged,
carrying with it corpses. For a week he stayed there, tended by a rough
shepherd, living on seaweed and fish, and well-nigh mad with thirst. At
last came a boat; and when that boy woke once more he was in the castle
of his noble father, whose face was like the midnight, and whose once
yellow hair was as white as the snow."

"That is the story," said Ludar. "I was that boy."

"And the murderers," said I, falteringly, for I guessed the answer.

"The murderers, Humphrey," said he, "were of the same race as your worst
enemy and mine."

This gloomy story cast a cloud over our voyage; until, after long
silence, during which we sat and watched the rocky coast of the ill-
omened Island, the maiden said:

"Sir Ludar, there are older stories of R