ner than he apprehended;
for the place of festivity was not four miles distant from the
sepulchral island, being chosen to suit the chieftain's course, which
lay to the southeast, so soon as the banquet should be concluded. A
bay on the southern side of Loch Tay presented a beautiful beach of
sparkling sand, on which the boats might land with ease, and a dry
meadow, covered with turf, verdant considering the season, behind and
around which rose high banks, fringed with copsewood, and displaying the
lavish preparations which had been made for the entertainment.

The Highlanders, well known for ready hatchet men, had constructed a
long arbour or silvan banqueting room, capable of receiving two hundred
men, while a number of smaller huts around seemed intended for sleeping
apartments. The uprights, the couples, and roof tree of the temporary
hall were composed of mountain pine, still covered with its bark. The
framework of the sides was of planks or spars of the same material,
closely interwoven with the leafy boughs of the fir and other
evergreens, which the neighbouring woods afforded, while the hills had
furnished plenty of heath to form the roof. Within this silvan palace
the most important personages present were invited to hold high
festival. Others of less note were to feast in various long sheds
constructed with less care; and tables of sod, or rough planks, placed
in the open air, were allotted to the numberless multitude. At a
distance were to be seen piles of glowing charcoal or blazing wood,
around which countless cooks toiled, bustled, and fretted, like so many
demons working in their native element. Pits, wrought in the hillside,
and lined with heated stones, served as ovens for stewing immense
quantities of beef, mutton, and venison; wooden spits supported sheep
and goats, which were roasted entire; others were cut into joints,
and seethed in caldrons made of the animal's own skins, sewed hastily
together and filled with water; while huge quantities of pike, trout,
salmon, and char were broiled with more ceremony on glowing embers. The
glover had seen many a Highland banquet, but never one the preparations
for which were on such a scale of barbarous profusion.

He had little time, however, to admire the scene around him for, as
soon as they landed on the beach, the Booshalloch observed with some
embarrassment, that, as they had not been bidden to the table of the
dais, to which he seemed to have expected an