The Lady of Loch Awe
Now Black Colin’s wife was greatly grieved, and wept sorely, for she was but young, and had been wedded no more than a year, and it seemed to her hard that she must be left alone. She asked her husband: “How far will you go on this errand?” “I will go as far as Jerusalem, if the Pope bids me, when I have come to Rome,” said he. “Alas! and how long will you be away from me?” “That I know not, but it may be for years if the heathen Saracens will not surrender the Holy Land to the warriors of the Cross.” “What shall I do during those long, weary years?” asked she. “Dear love, you shall dwell here on the Islet and be Lady of Glenurchy till I return again. The vassals and clansmen shall obey you in my stead, and the tenants shall pay you their rents and their dues, and in all things you shall hold my land for me.”