XXIII.

     'I well believe,' the maid replied,
     As her light skiff approached 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-haired sire, whose eye intent
     Was on the visioned 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,
     That tasselled 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;
     But light I held his prophecy,
     And deemed 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-knight I come,
     Announced by prophet sooth and old,
     Doomed, doubtless, for achievement bold,
     I 'll lightly front each high emprise
     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 suppressed and sly,
     The toil unwonted saw him try;
     For seldom, sure, if e'er before,
     His noble hand had grasped 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 darkening mirror of the lake,
     Until the rocky isle they reach,
     And moor their shallop on the beach.

     XXV.

     The stranger viewed the shore around;
     'T was all so close with copsewood bound,
     Nor track nor pathway might declare
     That human foot frequented there,
     Until the mountain maiden showed
     A clambering unsuspected road,
     That winded through the tangled screen,
     And opened on a narrow green,
     Where weeping birch and willow round
     With their long fibres 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.
     Lopped of their boughs,