Permit me, first, the task to guide The maid, with smile suppress'd and sly, His noble hand had grasp'd an oar: Yet with main strength his strokes he drew, XXV. The Stranger view'd the shore around; 'The Celtic chieftains, whose lives were continually exposed to peril, had usually, in the most retired spot of their domains, - some place of retreat for the hour of necessity, which, as circumstances would admit, was a tower, a cavern, or a rustic hut, in a strong and secluded situation. One of these last gave refuge to XXVI. It was a lodge of ample size, But strange of structure and device; Of such materials, as around The workman's hand had readiest found. To give the walls their destined height, The sturdy oak and ash unite; While moss and clay and leaves combined To fence each crevice from the wind. the unfortunate Charles Edward, in his perilous wanderings after the battle of Culloden. "It was situated in the face of a very rough, high, and rocky mountain, called Letternilichk, still a part of Benalder, full of great stones and crevices, and some scattered wood interspersed. The habitation called the Cage, in the face of that mountain, was within a small thick bush of wood. There were first some rows of trees laid down, in order to level the floor for a habitation; and as the place was steep, this raised the lower side to an equal height with the other: and these trees, in the way of joists or planks, were levelled with earth and gravel. There were betwixt the trees, growing naturally on their own roots, some stakes fixed in the earth, which, with the trees, were interwoven with ropes, made of heath and birch twigs, up to the top of the Cage, it being of a round or rather oval shape; and the whole thatched and covered over with fog. The whole fabric hung, as it were, by a large tree, which reclined from the one end, all along the roof, to the other, and which gave it the name of the Cage; and by chance there happened to be two stones at a small distance from one another, in the side next the precipice, resembling the pillars of a chimney, where the fire was placed. The smoke had its vent out here, all along the fall of the rock, which was so much of the same colour, that one could discover no difference in the clearest day."-HOME's History of the Rebellion, Lond. 1802, 4to, p. 381. The lighter pine-trees, over-head, Their slender length for rafters spread, Due westward, fronting to the green, Aloft on native pillars borne, Of mountain fir with bark unshorn, The clematis, the favour'd flower Which boasts the name of virgin-bower, XXVII. "My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, Of But soon for vain alarm he blush'd, A target there, a bugle here, A battle-axe, a hunting spear, And broadswords, bows, and arrows store, XXVIII. The wondering stranger round him gazed. She sigh'd, then smiled and took the word; "You see the guardian champion's sword: As light it trembles in his hand, As in my grasp a hazel wand; My sire's tall form might grace the part But in the absent giant's hold Are women now, and menials old." XXIX. The mistress of the mansion came, To whom, though more than kindred knew, Meet welcome to her guest she made, Though all unask'd his birth and name.' Which his brave sires, from age to age, And he, God wot, was forced to stand 'The Highlanders, who carried hospitality to a punctilious ex cess, are said to have considered it as churlish, to ask a stranger his name or lineage, before he had taken refreshment. Feuds were so frequent among them, that a contrary rule would in many cases have produced the discovery of some circumstance, which might have excluded the guest from the benefit of the assistance he stood in need of. |