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Now it chanced that it was in that same bay that the invaders landed, and before Lulach could escape, the first ship was close upon the shore. The first man to spring into the water and wade to land was the great pirate Rudri. Seeing Elspeth standing near, leaning upon her long staff, he accosted her. "What, ho! thou witch of Satan!" he cried in thundering voice.
"What mean you? Who then was this youth? Of what land was he, and what was his name?" Elspeth paused and stepped nearer. "His name, my lord, was Lulach, and he was the son of Roderic MacAlpin and Sigrid the Fair." "You lie, vile witch, you lie!" cried Roderic, recoiling as he heard her words, and pressing his hands to his brow.
Then he went forth to meet him, and threw himself on his knees before him, for Lulach was a thrall, and it was his custom thus to pay homage to the sons of the brave lord of Bute. "Rise, Lulach, rise!" said Kenric, speaking now in the Norse tongue that the lad might better understand him.
Ailsa and Allan were behind their father, and near them were Lulach and Aasta the Fair, with Elspeth Blackfell and many hillmen and dalesmen, with their women.
And 'twas she also who cursed me over at Barone ay, cursed her own father! Great God, the curse has come true! For my own two children have been slain before my eyes first Lulach, then herself and I their father slew them both!" "What means this?" cried Kenric, growing pale in the moonlight and grasping his sword. "You slew Aasta? you? Oh, villain!"
Go to him and he will tell you of these strange men." So Ailsa and Kenric bade each other goodnight, and Kenric sped lightly over the heather to where the young shepherd was driving home the long-horned cattle. When Lulach heard a shrill whistle from afar and saw Kenric, he tarried a while that the cattle might begin to browse upon the lush grass that grew on the marshes beside the sea.
He cannot walk but with pain, or I might have sent him to you." "That is most unfortunate," said Kenric, "for saving Lulach and myself there is none in the island who can speak the Norse tongue. I would have sent him to Gigha to learn the truth of this you tell, and to discover if there be further danger." "You forget, my lord, that it was I who taught Lulach the Norse tongue," said Aasta.
We have not space to disentangle the intricacies of David's first great domestic struggles; briefly, there was eternal dispeace caused by the Celts, headed by claimants to the throne, the MacHeths, representing the rights of Lulach, the ward of Macbeth. In 1130 the Celts were defeated, and their leader, Angus, Earl of Moray, fell in fight near the North Esk in Forfarshire.
"If Lulach lose me my sheep he cannot return full value for them," said Blair, bethinking himself of his own interests, "whereas if they be lost by your unwatchfulness, then can I duly claim my own from your father." "Why did you refuse the better dog that my father offered you in place of the one I slew?" asked Allan.
"And tell me, what manner of men were the three strangers you saw landing in the bay of Scalpsie this forenoon?" "They were men out of the North, my master. I heard them speaking in my own tongue," said Lulach, throwing back his long red hair that had fallen over his suntanned face. "And were they men of peace?"
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