e, and Roderic, standing with
his back against the rock, thought that surely she was the fairest woman
his eyes had ever beheld.

"My lord," said she softly, as though she meant to help him to his
coveted power, "if this be indeed your intention, methinks 'twere well
that you should first reckon with me."

Her right hand now grasped the haft of her dirk, her left hand was ready
to fly at the man's bare throat.

"Haply I am but a weak woman; yet a woman can ofttimes do that which men
would shrink from."

"Even so," said he calmly. "And now if you would but help me in this
project, I swear to you that I will love you always, and when I am in
possession of my lands and castles, I will even make you my wedded wife,
and you shall be right happy."

"Villain!" cried Aasta. Then she flung back her cloak and sprang upon
him, seizing his throat and raising her knife to strike it to his heart.

Roderic saw her eyes flash like two fierce fires. He saw her weapon
gleaming in the moon's pale light. With a wild cry of rage he caught her
uplifted arm and arrested it.

"Deceitful witch," he cried, "is it thus that you would help me?"

"Even so," said Aasta the Fair. "For now your last hour has come. No
mercy will I show you, base villain that you are!"

And then they struggled together in each other's arms, swaying and
panting, gripping and twisting, like two furious animals. Aasta held him
firmly with her left hand, burying her strong fingers in his thick
throat. But at last he freed himself and forced her back. Then with
fierce anger he caught her up in his arms and raised her from her feet,
and carried her away.

Thereupon Aasta gave forth a loud and piercing cry that sounded far away
in the keen winter air.

That cry was heard at the farther side of Loch Ascog, where, in the
dingle of Lochly, Allan Redmain was walking northward towards Rothesay.
Allan thought at first that it was the cry of some imprisoned spirit in
the mere; but again he heard it, and no longer doubted that it was a
woman's voice calling for help. He ran back to the southern point of the
lake, and searched in the growing darkness for a sign that might tell
him what had happened. Nothing could he see but the bare bleak land with
its patches of frozen snow, the dark trees waving in the wind, and the
still blue surface of the mere where the frost was swiftly congealing
the water into transparent ice. And then he thought that his ears had
deceived him.