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Updated: June 6, 2025
"Which man of you is Earl Roderic of Gigha?" said he. 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.
Their leader was, in truth, none other than his own brother, the Earl Roderic of the Isle of Gigha. The other two were Erland the Old of Jura, and Sweyn the Silent of Colonsay. What their unexpected mission to the lord of Bute might be had yet to be learnt.
In the midst of this bloody work Erland the Old again appeared with his army of islanders from the south, and at last drove off the invaders, capturing the galley of Galloway and dealing with her crew as the gallant men of Dunoon had already been dealt with. Thus repulsed, Sir Piers drew off and crossed to the mainland, taking shelter in the loch of Crinan.
Alpin lowered his weapon and, leaving old Erland to be arrested by the guards, he sped towards the hall. Kenric, hearing that scream, followed after him. In the hall they found their mother. A crowd of the men and women of the castle were there with her, holding torches and lighted cruse lamps over the body of the dead lord of Bute. The Lady Adela was wringing her hands in frantic grief.
And are they all as you are, Roderic, who have failed these many years to pay due tribute to the King of Scots?" "You are the only one among us," croaked Erland the Old, "who pays not homage to our rightful lord and sovereign the good King Hakon." "I owe no sort of fealty to Norway," said Hamish. "Nor do I know by what right Hakon claims sovereignty over any one of the isles south of Iona."
Now the position held at this time by both Erland of Jura and Sweyn of Colonsay vassals both of Hakon of Norway was shown in the conversation that was the prelude to the murder of the good Earl Hamish of Bute.
When Erland found that he was being pursued a great fear came upon him lest he should be driven farther into the fiord and into the clutches of the bonders, whom he knew to be waiting to give him battle, so when he saw that Olaf was coming close upon him he ran his ships aground, leapt overboard, and straightway made for the shore.
In 1658, Sir Erland the Priest had in his possession a chart, even then thought ancient, of "The Land of the White Men, or Hibernia Major, situated opposite Vinland the Good," and Gaelic philologists pretend to trace a remarkable affinity between many of the American-Indian dialects and the ancient Celtic. But to return to the "Foam."
Now the retreating ships were commanded, not by Earl Hakon, but by his favourite son Erland, who had come into the fiord to his father's help against the bonders.
"On, on, men of Jura!" croaked Erland the Old. "Down with the Scots!" thundered Magnus of Man. From the topmost towers of his castle Sir Oscar Redmain watched the hosts advance. Nearer and yet nearer they came. "Steady, my lads, and take good aim," he said coolly as he fixed an arrow to his bowstring.
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