ht and vanquished. God be thanked! I feared
that it had gone ill with you, for I found your cloak lying upon the
heath. Where is the villain Roderic?"

"Roderic is no more!" answered Kenric, taking his cloak from her hands.
"And now I go within the chapel to give thanks to God, in that He hath
deigned to make me the instrument of His vengeance."

"Stay. Ere you enter, tell me, my lord, have you news of my dear Aasta?
She has not yet been seen: nor has our watch-wolf Lufa been found. Alas!
I fear me the wild maid has gone off to Gigha."

"Not so," said Kenric. "But come with me within the chapel, good
Elspeth, and when the service is over I will tell you all."

He gently pushed open the door and drew Elspeth with him. They stood
there, looking in at the many rough islanders with their heads bent in
devotion. The sonorous voice of the venerable abbot resounded in the
vaulted aisle. The cruse lamps hanging from the high rafters shed their
dim light upon the bare stone walls, where branches of red-berried holly
were entwined with tufts of larch and spruce and sprays of mistletoe.
The flickering light of many tapers shone upon the embroidered vestments
of the abbot and the gorgeous altar cloth.

Presently the prayer ended; the people rose with shuffling feet. Sir
Allan Redmain from his seat in front of the altar looked anxiously round
towards the door, as he had done many times during that service, in
search of Kenric. He now saw the bent figure of Elspeth Blackfell, and
behind her the young king.

As Kenric, leading Elspeth forward, walked slowly up the aisle, Allan
did not fail to notice that his sword was not in its accustomed place.
The abbot paused until Earl Kenric had taken his seat between Sir Allan
Redmain and Ailsa.

Kenric caught. Ailsa's hand and drew it gently to him. He looked down
into her eyes as she turned to smile upon him. Then from the choir of
white-robed friars there rose the chant of the /Gloria in Excelsis/,
swelling full and strong. To Kenric, as he stood by Ailsa's side, the
words came with a deep prophetic meaning -- "Gloria in excelsis Deo, et
in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis."

And on that first early dawn of the new year, as he left the holy place
to return to his ancestral home, he repeated them again, looking round
him on the land for which his sword had won tranquillity:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace towards men of goodwill."

End of the Project