rties lost sight of one
another. Then Ludar ordered silence and speed; and so, all day long, we
tramped over the rugged hills and across the deep valleys; till, near
sundown, Ludar, having halted his men in a deep-wooded hollow, took me
forward and brought me to the summit of a little green hill. Here he
took my arm and pointed ahead.

"Dunluce!" said he.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

HOW LUDAR TOOK DUNLUCE.

At first I saw nothing but a jagged line of cliff-top, lower than where
we stood, with the sea beyond. Then I perceived that where Ludar
pointed the line broke suddenly, and disclosed a great naked rock
standing alone, sheer out of the water which leapt wildly all round it
and thundered into the cave at its base. I looked further. I saw a
narrow bridge across the chasm, while what I had first thought to be
rugged piles of rock took the form of grim battlements and towers,
rising so straight from the edge of the rock that I had thought them a
part of it. Across the bridge frowned an angry portcullis. As the
place stood, it looked as if one man could hold it against a thousand,
so unapproachable did it seem. On our side the bridge, on the mainland,
was a large courtyard or barrack, with an outer wall and moat round it,
of itself no easy place to carry; and when, beyond that, hung this angry
castle, perched like an eagle over the sea, I marvelled not so much that
the McDonnells should hope to take it, as that they should ever have
lost it.

I could understand Ludar's excitement as he stood there and gazed at
this old fortress of his fathers, with the standard of the foreign
invader floating above its top-mast tower. He said nothing; yet, I
could tell by the heaving of his chest, what thoughts were passing in
his mind, what hatred of the usurper, what impatience to stand once more
on those battlements and fling open the gate to his noble father.

The light faded from the sky as we stood there, until turrets and rock
and flag melted away into a common blackness, and left us only the
thunder of the waves in the hollows below, to tell us where Dunluce
stood. Then Ludar led me quickly back to his men.

We found no little stir afoot. For the McDonnells' scouts had come in
with a man of the English garrison whom they had found foraging for
meat; while, almost at the same moment, a herdsman from Ramore (which
was a district westward of us), had come to tell us news of the enemy.

Ludar heard the soldier first.