Roderic was indeed the slaying of the Lady Adela and Alpin.

Assured that the three miscreants were unarmed, he drew Duncan aside and
whispered his commands, which were that four of the guards should follow
him into the room and make prisoners of the three island kings.
Thereupon Duncan went back to the door and forced it open, and Kenric,
with buckler on arm and sword in hand, marched in, and standing firmly
upright faced the three men defiantly.

"Which man of you is Earl Roderic of Gigha?" said he.


CHAPTER VI. ALPIN'S VOW OF VENGEANCE.

Erland the Old, with an empty drinking horn in his bony hand, sat by the
hearth looking vacantly into the dead embers of the fire. Sweyn the
Silent stood beside him with his thumbs stuck in his leathern girdle;
while Roderic of Gigha sat upon the table facing the door and swinging
his legs to and fro. The light of a hanging cruse lamp shone upon his
long red hair and beard. His strong bare arms were folded, one within
the other, across his broad chest, and the back of his right hand was
splashed with blood that had been partly wiped off upon his under jerkin.

"Which man of you is Earl Roderic of Gigha?" repeated Kenric.

The three looked one to the other with evil smiles. Roderic drank off
what remained in his wine cup.

"I am he," he said coolly as he again folded his arms. "And who, then,
are you who demand to know?"