Isle. "It is rather
high, and irregularly pyramidal. It is mostly composed of dark-gray
rocks, mottled with pale and gray lichens, peeping out here and
there amid trees that mantle them,--chiefly light, graceful birches,
intermingled with red-berried mountain ashes and a few dark-green, spiry
pines. The landing is beneath an aged oak; and, as did the Lady and the
Knight, the traveller now ascends 'a clambering unsuspected road,' by
rude steps, to the small irregular summit of the island. A more
poetic, romantic retreat could hardly be imagined: it is unique. It is
completely hidden, not only by the trees, but also by an undergrowth of
beautiful and abundant ferns and the loveliest of heather" (Hunnewell's
Lands of Scott).

500. Winded. Wound; used for the sake of the measure, as in v. 22 below.
We find the participle winded in Much Ado, i. 1. 243; but it is = blown.
The verb in that sense is derived from the noun wind (air in motion),
and has no connection with wind, to turn. Cf. Wb.

504. Here for retreat, etc. Scott has the following note here: "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 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,