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-Pent in this isle we may not lie,
Nor would it long our wants supply.
Right opposite, the mainland towers

Of my own Turnberry court our powers-
-Might not my father's beadsman hoar,
Cuthbert, who dwells upon the shore,
Kindle a signal-flame, to show

The time propitious for the blow?—
It shall be so-some friend shall bear
Our mandate with dispatch and care ;
-Edward shall find the messenger.
That fortress ours, the island fleet
May on the coast of Carrick meet.--
O Scotland! shall it e'er be mine
To wreak thy wrongs in battle-line,
To raise my victor head, and see
Thy hills, thy dales, thy people free,-
That glance of bliss is all I crave,

Betwixt my labours and my grave!”—

Then down the hill he slowly went,

Oft pausing on the steep descent,

And reach'd the spot where his bold train Held rustic camp upon the plain.

END OF CANTO FOURTH.

NOTES.

NOTES TO CANTO FIRST.

Note I.

Thy rugged halls, Artornish, rung.-P. 10.

THE ruins of the castle of Artornish are situated upon a promontory, on the Morven, or mainland side of the Sound of Mull, a name given to the deep arm of the sea which divides that island from the continent. The situation is wild and romantic in the highest degree, having on the one hand a high and precipitous chain of rocks overhanging the sea, and on the other the narrow entrance to the beautiful salt-water lake, called Loch-Alline, which is in many places finely fringed with copse-wood. The ruins of Artornish are not now very considerable, and consist chiefly of the remains of an old keep, or tower, with fragments of outward defences. But, in former days, it was a place of great consequence, being one of the principal strong-holds which the Lords of the Isles, during the

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