’In one of the defiles of this by-road the men of the country at that time hung upon the rear of the invading enemy, and shot one of Cromwell’s men, whose grave marks the scene of action, and gives name to that pass. [FN#14] In revenge of this insult, the soldiers resolved to plunder the island, to violate the women, and put the children to death.  With this brutal intention, one of the party, more expert than the rest, swam towards the island, to fetch the boat to his comrades, which had carried the women to their asylum, and lay moored in one of the creeks.  His companions stood on the shore of the mainland, in full view of all that was to pass, waiting anxiously for his return with the boat.  But just as the swimmer had got to the nearest point of the island, and was laying hold of a black rock to get on shore, a heroine, who stood on the very point where he meant to land, hastily snatching a dagger from below her apron, with one stroke severed his head from the body.  His party seeing this disaster, and relinquishing all future hope of revenge or conquest, made the best of their way out of their perilous situation.  This amazon’s great grandson lives at Bridge of Turk, who, besides others, attests the anecdote’ (Sketch of the Scenery near Callander, Stirling, 1806, p. 20).  I have only to add to this account that the heroine’s name was Helen Stuart.”

376.  No ripple on the lake.  “The liveliness of this description of the battle is due to the greater variety of the metre, which resembles that of Marmion.  The three-accent lines introduced at intervals give it lightness, and the repetition of the same rhyme enables the poet to throw together without break all that forms part of one picture” (Taylor).

377.  Erne.  Eagle.  See Wb.

392.  I see, etc.  Cf. iv. 152 above.

396.  Boune.  See on iv. 36 above.  Most eds. misprint “bound.”

404.  Barded.  The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; “corrected” in all the recent ones into “barbed.”  Scott doubtless wrote barded (= armored, or wearing defensive armor; but applied only to horses), a word found in many old writers.  Cf.  Holinshed (quoted by Nares):  “with barded horses, all covered with iron,” etc.  See also Wb.  Scott has the word again in the Lay, i. 311: 

    “Above the foaming tide, I ween,
     Scarce half the charger’s neck was seen;
     For he was barded from counter to tail,
     And the rider was armed complete in mail.”

405.  Battalia.  Battalion, army.  The word is not a plural of battalion, as some have seemed to think.  See Wb.

414.  Vaward.  In the vanward, or vanguard; misprinted “vanward” in some editions.  Shakespeare has the noun several times; as in Hen.  V. iv. 3. 130:  “The leading of the vaward;” Cor. i. 6. 53:  “Their bands i’ the vaward;” and figuratively in M. N. D. iv. 1. 110:  “the vaward of the day,” etc.