Here the walls were pierced only by narrow loopholes for arrows or musketry.

On the other sides the windows were large, for here the steepness of the rock protected the castle from attack.
The kitchen in which he cooked and slept had no other entrance save that into the hall, the doorway into the courtyard being closed by a heap of fallen stones from above.

Two or three narrow slits in the wall allowed light and air to enter.

Malcolm saw that escape at night, after he had once been shut in, was impossible, and that in the daytime he could not pass out by the gate; for even if by a sudden surprise he overpowered the sentry there, he would be met at the bottom of the path by the two men who were always stationed as guards to the horses, and to give notice of the approach of strangers.
The only chance of escape, therefore, was by lowering himself from one of the windows behind, down the steep rock.

To do this a rope of some seventy feet long was necessary, and after a careful search through the ruins he failed to discover even the shortest piece of rope.
That afternoon some of the band on their return from foraging drove in half a dozen cattle, and one of these was with much difficulty compelled to climb up the path to the castle, and was slaughtered in the yard.
"There, Scot, are victuals for the next week; cut it up, and throw the head and offal down the rock behind." As Malcolm commenced his unpleasant task a thought suddenly struck him, and he laboured away cheerfully and hopefully.