powerless to interfere in the crime that was in his mind.

"Oh, devil's messenger, or devil himself that thou art!" he cried.
"Cursed be the hour that brought you in our midst, Roderic MacAlpin. You
have slain my father, you have slain my brother; my dear mother is now
by your cruel hand laid helpless on her couch. But by my father's soul
and by my mother's blessing, I swear that you shall die. By my hand and
none other you shall perish! Oh, God in mercy give me strength -- give
me power to kill this man of blood!"

Then at high speed he ran down the hillside, and the grouse birds lying
low in the heather rose with startled cries and flew off to the further
heights, uttering sounds as of mocking laughter.

Between Loch Dhu and Kilmory, as he crossed towards the marshes, a flock
of lapwings rose in alarm, and Kenric knew by their cries that some
other than himself was near. He turned his course, thinking that old
Elspeth might be there, passing homeward from the peat casting.

Beside the rock where, three hours before, Earl Roderic had stood, he
found Lulach the herd boy, and on the height of the rock sat Aasta
twining a wreath of daisies in her blood-red hair. When they saw Kenric
they both stepped forward, and together they threw themselves upon the
ground before him, pressing his coarse garments to their lips.

"Give you good day, my lord the king," they both said.

Thus did it chance that these two humble thralls, Lulach and Aasta, were
the first of all the dwellers in Bute to hail Lord Kenric as their king,
and not till then did Kenric remember that by the death of Alpin he was