Scott's Lady of the Lake

And, reassured, at length replied,
That Highland halls were open still
To wilder’d[53 - Bewildered.] wanderers of the hill.
“Nor think you unexpected come
To yon lone isle, our desert home;
Before the heath had lost the dew,
This morn, a couch[54 - Heather, of which the Highlanders’ rude couches were made.] was pull’d for you;
On yonder mountain’s purple head
Have ptarmigan[55 - (Tär´mĭ-gan.) The white grouse.] and heath cock bled,
And our broad nets have swept the mere,[56 - Lake.]
To furnish forth your evening cheer.” —
“Now, by the rood,[57 - Crucifix or cross of Christ.] my lovely maid,
Your courtesy has err’d,” he said;
“No right have I to claim, misplaced,
The welcome of expected guest.
A wanderer, here by fortune tost,
My way, my friends, my courser lost,
I ne’er before, believe me, fair,
Have ever drawn your mountain air,
Till on this lake’s romantic strand
I found a fay in fairyland!”

XXIII

“I well believe,” the maid replied,
As her light skiff approach’d the side, —
“I well believe, that ne’er before
Your foot has trod Loch Katrine’s shore;
But yet, as far as yesternight,
Old Allan-Bane foretold your plight, —
A gray-hair’d sire, whose eye intent
Was on the vision’d future[58 - “Vision’d future,” i.e., visions of the future.] bent.
He saw your steed, a dappled gray,
Lie dead beneath the birchen way;
Painted exact your form and mien,
Your hunting suit of Lincoln green,[59 - Lincoln green is a kind of cloth made in Lincoln.]
That tassel’d horn so gayly gilt,
That falchion’s crooked blade and hilt,
That cap with heron plumage trim,
And yon two hounds so dark and grim.
He bade that all should ready be
To grace a guest of fair degree;[60 - “Fair degree,” i.e., high rank.]
But light I held his prophecy,
And deem’d it was my father’s horn
Whose echoes o’er the lake were borne.”

XXIV

The stranger smiled: – “Since to your home
A destined errant[61 - Wandering.] knight I come,
Announced by prophet sooth[62 - True.] and old,
Doom’d, doubtless, for achievement bold,
I’ll lightly front each high emprise[63 - “High emprise,” i.e., dangerous adventures.]
For one kind glance of those bright eyes.
Permit me, first, the task to guide
Your fairy frigate o’er the tide.”
The maid, with smile suppress’d and sly,
The toil unwonted saw him try;
For seldom sure, if e’er before,
His noble hand had grasp’d an oar:
Yet with main strength his strokes he drew,
And o’er the lake the shallop flew;
With heads erect, and whimpering cry,
The hounds behind their passage ply.
Nor frequent does the bright oar break
The dark’ning mirror of the lake,
Until the rocky isle they reach,
And moor their shallop on the beach.

XXV

The stranger view’d the shore around;
’Twas all so close with copsewood bound,
Nor track nor pathway might declare
That human foot frequented there,
Until the mountain maiden show’d
A clambering unsuspected road
That winded through the tangled screen,
And open’d on a narrow green,
Where weeping birch and willow round
With their long fibers swept the ground.
Here, for retreat in dangerous hour,
Some chief had framed a rustic bower.

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;
Lopp’d off their boughs, their hoar trunks bared,
And by the hatchet rudely squared.
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 lighter pine trees, overhead,
Their slender length for rafters spread,
And wither’d heath and rushes dry
Supplied a russet canopy.