Here towered a host of stately pines; and there the lofty
beeches, birches, and mountain-oak, bending over the flood, interwove
their giant arms; forming an arch so impenetrable, that while the sun
brightened the tops of the mountains, all beneath lay in deepest
midnight.
The awful entrance to this sublime valley struck the whole party with a
feeling that made them pause. It seemed as it to these sacred
solitudes, hidden in the very bosom of Scotland, no hostile foot dared
intrude. Murray looked at Ker. "We go, my friend, to arouse the
genius of our country! Here are the native fastnesses of Scotland; and
from this pass the spirit will issue that is to bid her enslaved sons
and daughters be free."
They entered, and with beating hearts pursued their way along the
western border of Loch Lubnaig, till the royal heights of
Craignacoheilg showed their summits, covered with heath and many an
ivied turret. The forest, stretching far over the valley, lost its
high trees in the shadows of the surrounding mountains, and told them
they were now in the center of Glenfinlass.
Ker put his bugle to his lips, and sounded the pibroch of Ellerslie.
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