tide
baiting-place.

We had spent the greater part of the morning at the delightful village
of Dalmally, and had gone upon the lake under the guidance of the
excellent clergyman who was then incumbent at Glenorquhy, [This
venerable and hospitable gentleman's name was MacIntyre.] and had heard
a hundred legends of the stern chiefs of Loch Awe, Duncan with the thrum
bonnet, and the other lords of the now mouldering towers of Kilchurn.
[See Note 7.--Loch Awe.] Thus it was later than usual when we set out
on our journey, after a hint or two from Donald concerning the length
of the way to the next stage, as there was no good halting-place between
Dalmally and Oban.

Having bid adieu to our venerable and kind cicerone, we proceeded on our
tour, winding round the tremendous mountain called Cruachan Ben, which
rushes down in all its majesty of rocks and wilderness on the lake,
leaving only a pass, in which, notwithstanding its extreme strength, the
warlike clan of MacDougal of Lorn were almost destroyed by the sagacious
Robert Bruce. That King, the Wellington of his day, had accomplished,
by a forced march, the unexpected manoeuvre of forcing a body of troops
round the other side of the mountain, and thus placed them in the flank
and in the rear of the men of Lorn, whom at the same time, he attacked
in front. The great number of cairns yet visible as you descend the
pass on the westward side shows the extent of the vengeance which Bruce
exhausted on his inveterate and personal enemies. I am, you know,
the sister of soldiers, and it has since struck me forcibly that the
manoeuvre which Donald described, resembled those of Wellington or of
Bonaparte. He was a great man Robert Bruce, even a Baliol must admit
that; although it begins now to be allowed that his title to the crown
was scarce so good as that of the unfortunate family with whom he
contended. But let that pass. The slaughter had been the greater, as the
deep and rapid river Awe is disgorged from the lake just in the rear
of the fugitives, and encircles the base of the tremendous mountain; so
that the retreat of the unfortunate fleers was intercepted on all
sides by the inaccessible character of the country, which had seemed to
promise them defence and protection. [See Note 8.--Battle betwixt the
armies of the Bruce and MacDougal of Lorn.]

Musing, like the Irish lady in the song, "upon things which are long
enough a-gone," [This is a line from a very pathetic ballad