Canto VI: The Guard-Room
The next morning, Ellen and Allan Bane enter the guard-room at Stirling Castle, hoping to visit Douglas in prison. Ellen is taken to a furnished room upstairs to wait; Allan Bane is shown to the cell of the gravely injured Roderick Dhu, who dies as Allan sings him one last song. Meanwhile, leaning out of the window, Ellen is startled and heartbroken to hear the voice of Malcolm Graeme, singing in one of the turrets. Soon afterwards Fitz-James arrives to tell her that it is time for her audience with the king.
Ellen enters the room and looks around for King James. To her surprise, every man has doffed his hat except for James Fitz-James, and it dawns on her that James Fitz-James is King James.
Terrified, Ellen collapses, but the king lifts her up and reassures her that her father has been pardoned, and asks whom else she would like released. Her generous first thought is of Roderick Dhu, but James tells her that he has died. Ellen is about to ask for Malcolm, but cannot speak; divining her wish, the king jokingly orders that Malcolm be put in fetters, and after putting a gold chain around the man's neck, gives the clasp to Ellen.
Read more about this topic: The Lady Of The Lake (poem), Narrative