sufficient size to cross
the strait of Brandir; and it is probable that the currach was not
introduced till the want of timber had disenabled the inhabitants of the
country from maintaining a bridge. It only further remains to be noticed
that at some distance below the Rocks of Brandir there was formerly a
ford, which was used for cattle in the memory of people living; from the
narrowness of the passage, the force of the stream, and the broken
bed of the river, it was, however, a dangerous pass, and could only
be attempted with safety at leisure and by experience."--NOTES TO THE
BRIDAL OF CAOLCHAIRN.

Note 8.--BATTLE BETWIXT THE ARMIES OF THE BRUCE AND MACDOUGAL OF LORN.

"But the King, whose dear-bought experience in war had taught him
extreme caution, remained in the Braes of Balquhidder till he had
acquired by his spies and outskirries a perfect knowledge of the
disposition of the army of Lorn, and the intention of its leader. He
then divided his force into two columns, entrusting the command of the
first, in which he placed his archers and lightest armed troops, to Sir
James Douglas, whilst he himself took the leading of the other, which
consisted principally of his knights and barons. On approaching the
defile, Bruce dispatched Sir James Douglas by a pathway which the enemy
had neglected to occupy, with directions to advance silently, and gain
the heights above and in front of the hilly ground where the men of
Lorn were concealed; and having ascertained that this movement had been
executed with success, he put himself at the head of his own division,
and fearlessly led his men into the defile. Here, prepared as he was for
what was to take place, it was difficult to prevent a temporary panic
when the yell which, to this day, invariably precedes the assault of the
mountaineer, burst from the rugged bosom of Ben Cruachan; and the woods
which, the moment before, had waved in silence and solitude, gave forth
their birth of steel-clad warriors, and, in an instant, became instinct
with the dreadful vitality of war. But although appalled and checked for
a brief space by the suddenness of the assault, and the masses of rock
which the enemy rolled down from the precipices, Bruce, at the head of
his division, pressed up the side of the mountain. Whilst this party
assaulted the men of Lorn with the utmost fury, Sir James Douglas and
his party shouted suddenly upon the heights in their front, showering
down their arrows upo