And now, to issue from the glen, No pathway meets the wanderer's ken, Unless he climb, with footing nice,[38] A far projecting precipice. The broom's[39] tough roots his ladder made, The hazel saplings lent their aid; And thus an airy point he won, Where, gleaming with the setting sun, One burnish'd sheet of living gold, Loch Katrine lay beneath him roll'd, In all her length far winding lay, With promontory, creek, and bay, And islands that, empurpled bright,[40] Floated amid the livelier light, And mountains, that like giants stand, To sentinel enchanted land. High on the south, huge Benvenue Down on the lake in masses threw Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurl'd, The fragments of an earlier world; A wildering forest feather'd o'er His ruin'd sides and summit hoar, While on the north, through middle air, Ben-an[41] heaved high his forehead bare. [38] Careful. [39] A bushy shrub common in western Europe. [40] Used adverbially. [41] "Little Mountain," east of Loch Katrine. XV. From the steep promontory gazed The stranger, raptured and amazed, And, "What a scene were here," he cried, "For princely pomp, or churchman's pride! On this bold brow, a lordly tower; In that soft vale, a lady's bower; On yonder meadow, far away, The turrets of a cloister gray; How blithely might the bugle horn Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn! How sweet, at eve, the lover's lute Chime, when the groves were still and mute! And, when the midnight moon should lave Her forehead in the silver wave, How solemn on the ear would come The holy matins'[42] distant hum, While the deep peal's commanding tone Should wake, in yonder islet lone, A sainted hermit from his cell, To drop a bead[43] with every knell-- And bugle, lute, and bell, and all, Should each bewilder'd stranger call To friendly feast, and lighted hall. [42] The first canonical hour of the day in the Catholic Church, beginning properly at midnight. Here referring to the striking of the hour by the "cloister" bell. [43] "Drop a bead," i.e., say a prayer. The rosary used by Catholics is a string of beads by which count may be kept of the prayers recited. XVI.