And farther as the Hunter strayed,
Still broader sweep its channels made.
The shaggy mounds no longer stood,
Emerging from entangled wood,
But, wave-encircled, seemed to float,
Like castle girdled with its moat;
Yet broader floods extending still
Divide them from their parent hill,
Till each, retiring, claims to be
An islet in an inland sea.

245

250

XIV.

And now, to issue from the glen,
No pathway meets the wanderer's ken,
Unless he climb with footing nice

255

A far-projecting precipice.

The broom's tough roots his ladder made,

The hazel saplings lent their aid;

And thus an airy point he won,

260

Where, gleaming with the setting sun,
One burnished sheet of living gold,

Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled,

249. Moat. A ditch round a castle for defence.

256. Unless he climb, etc. Until the present road was made through the romantic pass which I have presumptuously attempted to describe in the preceding stanzas, there was no mode of issuing out of the defile called the Trosachs, excepting by a sort of ladder, composed of the branches and roots of trees. Scoтт. - 258. Broom. A large, bushy shrub having tough, leafless stems and flowers of a deep golden yellow. Brooms were so called because they were originally made from it. S. & M.

263. Loch Katrine. The scene of the poem is one of the most beautiful of the Scottish lakes, situated in Perthshire. It is about eight miles long and two miles wide, serpentine in shape, and surrounded by high mountains and deep ravines. A small steamer plies on the lake. Near its outlet is situated Ellen's Isle in the wild region of the Trosachs. It is supposed to have derived its name from "Catterins or Ketterins, a wild band of robbers, who prowled about its shores to the terror of all wayfarers."

In all her length far winding lay,
With promontory, creek, and bay,
And islands that, empurpled bright,
Floated amid the livelier light,
And mountains that like giants stand
To sentinel enchanted land.

265

High on the south, huge Benvenue
Down to the lake in masses threw

270

Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled,

The fragments of an earlier world;

A wildering forest feathered o'er

His ruined sides and summit hoar,

275

While on the north, through middle air,

Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare.

xv.

From the steep promontory gazed

The stranger, raptured and amazed,

And, "What a scene were here," he cried,

280

"For princely pomp or churchman's pride!
On this bold brow, a lordly tower;
In that soft vale, a lady's bower;
On yonder meadow far away
The turrets of a cloister gray;
How blithely might the bugle-horn
Chide on the lake the lingering morn!
How sweet at eve the lover's lute

Chime when the groves were still and mute!

285

269. Sentinel. To guard. - 274. Wildering. Bewildering. 277. Ben-an. “Little Mountain,” lying north of the Trosachs. 285. Cloister. A place of retirement from the world for religious duties; a convent. A cloister for women is called a nunnery; for men, a monastery.

2 chur

appli

31

And when the midnight moon should lave

290

Her forehead in the silver wave,

How solemn on the ear would come

The holy matins' distant hum,
While the deep peal's commanding tone
Should wake, in yonder islet lone,

295

A sainted hermit from his cell,

To drop a bead with every knell!
And bugle, lute, and bell, and all,
Should each bewildered stranger call
To friendly feast and lighted hall.

XVI.

"Blithe were it then to wander here!
But now - beshrew yon nimble deer! -
Like that same hermit's, thin and spare,
The copse must give my evening fare;
Some mossy bank my couch must be,
Some rustling oak my canopy.
Yet pass we that; the war and chase
Give little choice of resting-place; -
A summer night in greenwood spent
Were but to-morrow's merriment:
But hosts may in these wilds abound,
Such as are better missed than found;
To meet with Highland plunderers here

Were worse thar loss of steed or deer. —

300

305

310

290. Lave. Bathe. - 293. Matins. Early morning prayers in Catholic churches. - 297. Bead. Formerly meant a prayer, and hence came to be applied to the small perforated balls used in keeping an account of the number of prayers recited. - 302. Beshrew. "May ill betide"; a slight curse.

313. Highland plunderers. The class who inhabited the romantic regions in the neighborhood of Loch Katrine, were, even until a late period, much addicted to predatory excursions upon their Lowland neighbors. Scott

THE LADY OF THE LAKE.

I am alone; - my bugle-strain
May call some straggler of the train;
Or, fall the worst that may betide,
Ere now this falchion has been tried."

XVII.

CANTO I,

315

But scarce again his horn he wound,
When lo! forth starting at the sound,
From underneath an aged oak
That slanted from the islet rock,
A damsel guider of its way,
A little skiff shot to the bay,
That round the promontory steep
Led its deep line in graceful sweep,
Eddying, in almost viewless wave,
The weeping willow twig to lave,
And kiss, with whispering sound and slow,
The beach of pebbles bright as snow.
The boat had touched this silver strand

320

325

330

Just as the Hunter left his stand,
And stood concealed amid the brake,
To view this Lady of the Lake.
The maiden paused, as if again
She thought to catch the distant strain.
With head upraised, and look intent,
And eye and ear attentive bent,
And locks flung back, and lips apart,
Like monument of Grecian art,

In listening mood, she seemed to stand,
The guardian Naiad of the strand.

335

340

318. Falchion [fawl'chun]. A broadsword with slightly curved point. 340. Monument of Grecian art. A statue. - 342. Naiad [Na'yad]. A water-nymph or goddess presiding over rivers and springs.

XVIII.

And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace
A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace,
Of finer form or lovelier face!

345

What though the sun, with ardent frown,

350

Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown,
The sportive toil, which, short and light,
Had dyed her glowing hue so bright,
Served too in hastier swell to show
Short glimpses of a breast of snow:
What though no rule of courtly grace
To measured mood had trained her pace, —
A foot more light, a step more true,
Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew; 355
E'en the slight harebell raised its head,
Elastic from her airy tread:
What though upon her speech there hung
The accents of the mountain tongue,
Those silver sounds, so soft, so dear,
The listener held his breath to hear!

XIX.

A chieftain's daughter seemed the maid;
Her satin snood, her silken plaid,

Her golden brooch, such birth betrayed.

360

344. Graces. Beautiful females represented by ancient writers as attendants of Venus. - 353. Measured mood. Studied behavior.

363. Snood. A head-band worn by Scottish maidens. - Plaid. Pronounced played by the Scotch. It consisted of about a dozen yards of woollen cloth, checked with threads of various bright colors. It was wrapped around the middle of the body, fastened with a belt, and extended down to the knee. It was much worn as an over-garment by the Highlanders of both sexes, and each clan was distinguished by its own peculiar plaid. Plaid is the garment; tartan is the pattern.