Tangled and steep, he journeyed on;
Till, as a rock’s huge point he turned,
A watch-fire close before him burned.
The Fight
Beside it is a huge Highlander, who is at first churlish and inclined to resent the intrusion; but the inbred virtue of hospitality conquers, and he allows the stranger to share his camp, promising to see him safe as far as Coilantogle Ford next morning. However, in the morning the two quarrel, and the great Highlander is revealed as Roderick Dhu himself. Roderick is furious at hearing of the death of Murdoch, but would have kept his word and given his guest safe-conduct had not Fitz-James, burning to be at him, absolved him from it, and they fight close by the ford. Just as Roderick is about to stab his foe mortally he himself sinks down, overcome with loss of blood, and some men-at-arms from Stirling ride up, greeting Fitz-James as the King. They carry the senseless body of Roderick back with them to Stirling.
When the King is once again in his own fortress games and sports take place, and Ellen’s father, who has dared to attend them incognito, reveals himself in a burst of temper and is captured.
Ellen now makes her way to Stirling, carrying the ring, which proves an Open Sesame, and discovers to her astonishment the “knight in Lincoln green” who wooed her in the forest is no other than the monarch himself. James keeps his word, forgives her father, and pledges her to young Malcolm. Roderick, whose crimes would have made him difficult to pardon, conveniently dies, and the story finishes happily.
Scott in the Trossachs
Scott was very particular that the scenery of his plot should be correct, and visited the Trossachs carefully, and even rode from Loch Vennachar to Stirling, to make sure of the possibility of the feat he attributed to Fitz-James. In view of the warlike nature of the poem, Lockhart remarks it was rather an odd coincidence that the first time Scott entered the Trossachs he did so “riding in all the dignity of danger, with a front and rear guard and loaded arms, to enforce the execution of a legal instrument against some Maclarens, refractory tenants of Stewart of Appin.”