Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

18 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
conspire against the usurper, and to acknowledge the Chief of the
Macdougals as their Lord. In the confusion which took place on the
Norsemen being driven from the land towards their ships, the men
of the isles, accordingly, seized upon the imperfectly armed galleys,
attacked those refusing to bring down the black raven from their mast-
heads, left the remnants of Aco's force to perish on the shores, and sailed
for their island fastnesses exulting in their success. But the joy was
temporary, and gaU was added to bitterness, for the Chief of Dunkerlyne
now groaned under the supremacy of Lorn. After a long interval of
peace, Loin, in order to gratify his lust for revenge, resolved upon a de-
scent on the shores of Eathlin, and Francis and the other fiefs of the
island king were compelled to accompany the expedition. Persuasion
with threats had to be applied in order to induce Francis to go, as an
attack on his brother's castle was far from recommending itself to him.
But there was no resisting the will of his liege lord, who promised him
on return that the wish of his son, Brian, for the hand of Margery of
Lorn would be gratified, and the house of Dunkerlyne and Dunolly
would be more closely allied. Unhappily, Francis never returned. In
the darkness of the night, he fell by the hand of his own brother, and
mourning had hardly ceased when the marriage of Brian was celebrated.
This tie, however, did little to subdue the aspiring spirit of Brian, for
his whole ambition was for independence.
Lorn did not fail to discover the sentiments of his audacious relative,
who was little skilled in the art of dissimulation, and a strict watch was
kept over him,
A plot for the massacre of Lorn's household was soon matured. The
sentinels of Dunolly were bribed, and tlie attack was to take place at
midnight. Lorn anticipated the storm — how, it could not be discovered
— but that night with a force of arms he entered Dunkerlyne and accused
the chief of his meditated treachery.
Brian was instantly thrown into his own dungeon, and a more faithful
dependant installed in his place.
At length, through the entreaties of the beautiful Margery, her hus-
band was set free, on the condition that his garrison should be diminished
and the defences reduced.
This to some extent accounted for the extensive ruins. The castle
now consisted of a single tower perched on the utmost verge of the crag,
the other tower having been thrown down as related by old Jarlofi' in
the previous chapter. Most of the other defences were destroyed at the
command of John of Lorn, and little huts erected in then- stead for the
accommodation of a few followers.
Outwardly, however, the defences were still considerable. The land-
ing place was approached by a hidden creek only known to those ac-
quainted with tliat particular part of the island. Even if a footing could
have been obtamed by a stranger, rocks high and inaccessible, bleached by
the wind and whitened by the salt of the sea, flanked the opening which
led up a dark and intricate passage to a platform in front of a rude entrance
in the masonry of the outward battlements. At the extremity, the plat-
form was defended by a parapet bristling with barbicans, while the rock
descended perpendicularly for about fifty feet.
Brian returned from the dungeon to rule in the haU, but his character