The Lady of The Lake (poem) - Narrative - Canto I: The Chase

Canto I: The Chase

The poem begins with a rapid-moving hunt, chasing a stag in the forests of the Trossachs. The stag outruns the hunt, exhausting all its members until only one huntsman –- who, we later learn, is James Fitz-James –- follows it until his horse falls down dead of exhaustion. The huntsman blows his horn to try to contact someone, wanders to the shore of Loch Katrine, where a young woman, Ellen Douglas, rows across and picks him up in a skiff. He is then taken to a house, which he suspects is a concealed hide-out of a Highland chief. There he is given dinner by Ellen, the bard Allan Bane, and Lady Margaret, and a bed for the night. That night he dreams of Ellen, only to see her face suddenly change to that of his exiled enemy, James Douglas – leading him to suspect that Ellen and James Douglas are related.