roy or put down such gangs as
that of Donald Bean Lean.'

'Yes, doubtless; and my reward would be a summons to deliver up to
General Blakeney, at Stirling, the few broadswords they have left us;
there were little policy in that, methinks. But come, captain, the sound
of the pipes informs me that dinner is prepared. Let me have the honour
to show you into my rude mansion.'

CHAPTER XX

A HIGHLAND FEAST

Ere Waverley entered the banqueting hall, he was offered the patriarchal
refreshment of a bath for the feet, which the sultry weather, and the
morasses he had traversed, rendered highly acceptable. He was not,
indeed, so luxuriously attended upon this occasion as the heroic
travellers in the Odyssey; the task of ablution and abstersion being
performed, not by a beautiful damsel, trained

To chafe the limb, and pour the fragrant oil,

but by a smoke-dried skinny old Highland woman, who did not seem to think
herself much honoured by the duty imposed upon her, but muttered between
her teeth, 'Our fathers' herds did not feed so near together that I
should do you this service.' A small donation, however, amply reconciled
this ancient handmaiden to the supposed degradation; and, as Edward
proceeded to the hall, she gave him her blessing in the Gaelic proverb,
'May the open hand be filled the fullest.'

The hall, in which the feast was prepared, occupied all the first story
of lan nan Chaistel's original erection, and a huge oaken table extended
through its whole length. The apparatus for dinner was simple, even to
rudeness, and the company numerous, even to crowding. At the head of the
table was the Chief himself, with Edward, and two or three Highland
visitors of neighbouring clans; the elders of his own tribe, wadsetters
and tacksmen, as they were called, who occupied portions of his estate as
mortgagers or lessees, sat next in rank; beneath them, their sons and
nephews and foster-brethren; then the officers of the Chief's household,
according to their order; and lowest of all, the tenants who actually
cultivated the ground. Even beyond this long perspective, Edward might
see upon the green, to which a huge pair of folding doors opened, a
multitude of Highlanders of a yet inferior description, who,
nevertheless, were considered as guests, and had their share both of the
countenance of the entertainer and of the cheer of the day. In the
distance, and fluctuating round this extreme verge of the banquet, was a
c