Poetry > Lady of the lake

108
THE LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto II
Then mayest thou to James Stewart tell,
Roderick will keep the lake and fell,
Nor lackey, with his freehom clan,
The pageant pomp of earthly man.
More would he of Clan-Alpine know,
Thou canst our strength and passes show.—
Malise, what ho !”—his henchman came ;l
“ Give our safe-conduct to the Grseme.”
cold dry windy weather, they sometimes soak the plaid in some
river or burn (i. e. brook), and then, holding up a corner of it a
little above their heads, they turn themselves round and round,
till they are enveloped by the whole mantle. They then lay
themselves down on the heath, upon the leeward side of some
hill, where the wet and the warmth of their bodies make a steam,
like that of a boiling kettle. The wet, they say, keeps them
warm by thickening the stuff, and keeping the wind from pene¬
trating. I must confess I should have been apt to question this
fact, had I not frequently seen them wet from morning to night,
and, even at the beginning of the rain, not so much as stir a few
yards to shelter, but continue in it without necessity, till they
were, as we say, wet through and through. And that is soon
effected by the looseness and spunginess of the plaiding; but the
bonnet is frequently taken off and wrung like a dishclout, and
then put on again. They have been accustomed from their in¬
fancy to be often wet, and to take the water like spaniels, and
this is become a second nature, and can scarcely be called a hard¬
ship to them, insomuch that I used to say, they seemed to be of
the duck kind, and to love water as well. Though I never saw
this preparation for sleep in windy weather, yet, setting out early
in a morning from one of the huts, I have seen the marks of
their lodging, where the ground has been free from rime or snow,
which remained all round the spot where they had lain.”—Letters
from Scotland, Lend. 1754, 8vo, ii. p. 108.
i “ This officer is a sort of secretary, and is to be ready, upon
all occasions, to venture his life in defence of his master; and at