by Walter Scott
'And what,' said Brown to the boatman, 'is the name of that fine capethat stretches into the sea with its sloping banks and hillocks of wood,and forms the right side of the bay?'
'Warroch Point,' answered the lad.
'And that old castle, my friend, with the modern house situated justbeneath it? It seems at this distance a very large building.'
'That's the Auld Place, sir; and that's the New Place below it. We'llland you there if you like.'
'I should like it of all things. I must visit that ruin before I continuemy journey.'
'Ay, it's a queer auld bit,' said the fisherman; 'and that highest toweris a gude landmark as far as Ramsay in Man and the Point of Ayr; therewas muckle fighting about the place lang syne.'
Brown would have inquired into farther particulars, but a fisherman isseldom an antiquary. His boatman's local knowledge was summed up in theinformation already given, 'that it was a grand landmark, and that therehad been muckle fighting about the bit lang syne.'
'I shall learn more of it,' said Brown to himself, 'when I get ashore.'
The boat continued its course close under the point upon which the castlewas situated, which frowned from the summit of its rocky site upon thestill agitated waves of the bay beneath. 'I believe,' said the steersman,'ye'll get ashore here as dry as ony gate. There's a place where theirberlins and galleys, as they ca'd them, used to lie in lang syne, butit's no used now, because it's ill carrying gudes up the narrow stairs orower the rocks. Whiles of a moonlight night I have landed articles there,though.'
While he thus spoke they pulled round a point of rock, and found a verysmall harbour, partly formed by nature, partly by the indefatigablelabour of the ancient inhabitants of the castle, who, as the fishermanobserved, had found it essential for the protection of their boats andsmall craft, though it could not receive vessels of any burden. The twopoints of rock which formed the access approached each other so nearlythat only one boat could enter at a time. On each side were stillremaining two immense iron rings, deeply morticed into the solid rock.Through these, according to tradition, there was nightly drawn a hugechain, secured by an immense padlock, for the protection of the haven andthe armada which it contained. A ledge of rock had, by the assistance ofthe chisel and pickaxe, been formed into a sort of quay. The rock was ofextremely hard consistence, and the task so difficult that, according tothe fisherman, a labourer who wrought at the work might in the eveninghave carried home in his bonnet all the shivers which he had struck fromthe mass in the course of the day. This little quay communicated with arude staircase, already repeatedly mentioned, which descended from theold castle. There was also a communication between the beach and thequay, by scrambling over the rocks.
'Ye had better land here,' said the lad, 'for the surf's running high atthe Shellicoat Stane, and there will no be a dry thread amang us or weget the cargo out. Na! na! (in answer to an offer of money) ye havewrought for your passage, and wrought far better than ony o' us. Gude dayto ye; I wuss ye weel.'
So saying, he pushed oil in order to land his cargo on the opposite sideof the bay; and Brown, with a small bundle in his hand, containing thetrifling stock of necessaries which he had been obliged to purchase atAllonby, was left on the rocks beneath the ruin.
And thus, unconscious as the most absolute stranger, and in circumstanceswhich, if not destitute, were for the present highly embarrassing,without the countenance of a friend within the circle of several hundredmiles, accused of a heavy crime, and, what was as bad as all the rest,being nearly penniless, did the harassed wanderer for the first timeafter the interval of so many years approach the remains of the castlewhere his ancestors had exercised all but regal dominion.
