High cliffs of gray and brown rock, orange
and green with lichens here and there, and in summer crowned with
golden furze, rose behind--untouched by the ordinary tide, but at
high water lashed by the waves of a storm.
Beyond the headland which they were fast nearing, the cliffs and
the sea met at half tide.
The moment they rounded it--
"Luik there, my lord," cried Malcolm, "--there's Colonsay Castel,
'at yer lordship gets yer name, I'm thinkin', an', ony gait, ane o'
yer teetles frae. It maun be mony a hunner year sin' ever Colonsay
baid intill 't!"
Well might he say so! for they looked but saw nothing--only cliff
beyond cliff rising from a white fringed shore. Not a broken tower,
not a ragged battlement invaded the horizon!
"There's nothing of the sort there!" said Lady Florimel.
"Ye maunna luik for tooer or pinnacle, my leddy, for nane will
ye see: their time's lang ower. But jist taik the sea face o' the
scaur (cliff) i' yer ee, an' traivel alang 't oontil ye come till
a bit 'at luiks like mason wark. It scarce rises abune the scaur
in ony but ae pairt, an' there it 's but a feow feet o' a wa'."
Following his direction, Lady Florimel soon found the ruin. The
front of a projecting portion of the cliff was faced, from the
very water's edge as it seemed, with mason work; while on its side,
the masonry rested here and there upon jutting masses of the rock,
serving as corbels or brackets, the surface of the rock itself
completing the wall front.
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