Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 4 - 1819.djvu/39

 into the battery at the foot of the tower. This last stair also was narrow and steep, and, not to mention the fire which might be directed on it from above, one or two resolute men, with pikes and battle-axes, could have made the pass good against hundreds, for the stair-case would not admit two persons abreast, and was not secured by any sort of balustrade or railing from the sheer and abrupt precipice, on the foot of which the tide now rolled with a voice of thunder. So that, under the jealous precautions used to secure this ancient Celtic fortress, a person of weak nerves, and a brain liable to become dizzy, might have found it something difficult to have achieved the entrance to the castle, even supposing no resistance had been offered.

Captain Dalgetty, too old a soldier to feel such tremors, was no sooner arrived in the court-yard, than he protested to God, the defences of Sir Duncans castle reminded him more of the notable fortress of Spandau, situated in the March of Branden-