They ascended a
mountain, whose enormous piles of granite, torn by many a winter
tempest, projected their barren summits from a surface of moorland, on
which lay a deep incrustation of snow. The blast now blew a tempest,
and the rain and sleet beat so hard, that Bruce, laughing, declared he
believed the witches of his country were in league with Edward, and,
hid in shrouds of mist, were all assembled here to drive their lawful
prince into the roaring cataracts beneath.
Thus enveloped in a sea of vapors, with torrents of water pouring down
the sides of their armor, did the friends descend the western brow of
this part of the Grampians until they approached Loch Earn. They had
hardly arrived there before the rain ceased, and the clouds, rolling
away from the sides of the mountains, discovered the vast and
precipitous Ben Vorlich. Its base was covered with huge masses of
cliffs, scattered in fragments, like the wreck of some rocky world, and
spread abroad in wide and horrid desolation. The mountain itself, the
highest in this chain of the Grampians, was in every part marked by
deep and black ravines, made by the rushing waters in the time of
floods; but where its blue head mingled with the clouds, a stream of
brightness issued that seemed to promise the dispersion of its vapors;
and consequently a more secure path for Wallace, to lead his friend
over its perilous heights.
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