THE DENSCHMAN'S HAD. 135 



from the uses to which the sea-rovers turned the 

 sheltered voes and secluded islets. It was only when 

 Scottish rule came in that the vikinger of Norway and 

 Denmark turned their weapons against their brother- 

 Norsemen of the Shetland Isles. During the times of 

 the Stuarts, Scotland had enough to do to look after 

 itself, far less to extend protection to an outlying 

 dependency that was more plague than profit. Indeed, 

 the Scottish kings and nobles seemed to have regarded 

 Hialtland as fair game, and robbed and oppressed the 

 people after as cruel a method as that of the northern 

 pirates. Between the two, those islands had a hot 

 time of it; and the islanders, once a prosperous 

 community, sank into poverty and hopeless serfdom. 



About the time of Mary Stuart, the isle of Unst was 

 harassed by a noted viking whose name and lineage 

 were unknown. He and his daring crew were believed 

 to be Danes, and his swift barque — appropriately 

 named the Erne — and his stalwart person were familiar 

 to the affrighted eyes of the islanders. When the 

 Denschman swooped upon the isle, its inhabitants fled 

 to the hills and rocks, leaving their homes as spoil for 

 the lawless rover. What else could they do ? The 

 enemy were strong, reckless, brave, well armed and 

 well disciplined. The islanders, groaning and dis- 

 heartened under the yoke of an alien power, were at 

 the mercy of might, and could neither resist nor make 

 treaty; so the Denschman came and went like the 

 fierce bird of prey whose name his vessel bore, and no 

 man dared oppose him. 



