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Updated: June 14, 2025
Adela!" and with the name of his loved wife upon his lips, he died there upon the stone of his own hearth. Roderic and his two companions approached the dead man, gazed upon him, and then at each other with satisfaction in their dark looks. But there was fear, too, in Roderic's face, for he was craven of heart.
Blane's, and give ready succour should the enemy discover the retreat of the women and children. Early in the morning the whole of Roderic's forces landed, and now they stormed the castle gates with all their strength. So stoutly did they assail them with their powerful battering rams that in the space of an hour the doors fell in with a loud crash.
When Tarik received the news of the approach of Roderic's army, which is said to have amounted to nearly one hundred thousand men, provided with all kinds of weapons and military stores, he wrote to Musa for assistance, saying that he had taken Algesiras, a port of Andalusia, thus becoming, by its possession, the master of the passage into that country; that he had subdued its districts as far as the bay; but that Roderic was now advancing against him with a force which it was not in his power to resist, except it was God Almighty's will that it should be so.
"Aasta the Fair, Heaven rest her soul! now sleeps beneath the cold ice of Ascog Loch," said Kenric solemnly; "she is dead." A sudden hoarse cry from Roderic followed these words. "Dead?" he echoed, "dead, you say, and under the ice of the loch?" "Even so," replied the youth, keeping his eye fixed upon Roderic's movements. "'Tis but a little time since that I saw her lying in the frozen waters."
He raised his right hand and all saw that he held the bloodstained knife. "Die, slayer of the just!" he cried, bringing down the weapon upon Roderic's breast. But Roderic of Gigha laughed a mocking laugh, and catching Alpin by the wrist he threw him backward. Duncan Graham broke his fall and tore the weapon from his grasp.
But Roderic sprang lightly aside, so that the young man's aim was spent upon the soft ground. Roderic's sword flashed in a circle above his crested helm. There was a dull crunching sound, and then a deep groan. Kenric promptly rushed to his brother's side and tried to raise him from the ground. But the sword of Roderic of Gigha had done its work. Earl Alpin was dead.
She was thinking of these matters as she heard Earl Roderic's story of his great unhappiness, and her eyes were fixed dreamily before her. Now Roderic, to whom the presence of this sweet and beautiful lady was a new experience, observed her pensiveness and wondered thereat. His roving glance presently fell upon her plate. "Ah!" said he, "you have no salt, my lady."
There was a deep groan of anguish from the crowd, and Kenric, seeing the peril in which his brother was placed, would have rushed forward to Alpin's help had not Duncan Graham held him back, fearing that he too might find himself in Earl Roderic's power. Then Allan Redmain was about to run in to Alpin's aid, but his father caught his arm and bade him stand back. "How now?" cried Roderic.
We shall proceed to recount in detail that memorable battle, when Almighty God was pleased to put King Roderic's army to flight and grant the Moslems a most complete victory.
Now it was not without profit that, on that time many months before, Kenric had watched the fatal duel between Roderic and his brother Alpin, and he knew Roderic's invariable trick of aiming at his assailant's head. His successful guarding of the first blow gave him confidence.
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