Neither Lord Menteith nor his attendants paid the same attention to
their horses, but, leaving them to the proffered care of the servants of
the place, walked forward into the house, where a sort of dark vaulted
vestibule displayed, among other miscellaneous articles, a huge barrel
of two-penny ale, beside which were ranged two or three wooden queichs,
or bickers, ready, it would appear, for the service of whoever thought
proper to employ them. Lord Menteith applied himself to the spigot,
drank without ceremony, and then handed the stoup to Anderson, who
followed his master's example, but not until he had flung out the drop
of ale which remained, and slightly rinsed the wooden cup.

"What the deil, man," said an old Highland servant belonging to the
family, "can she no drink after her ain master without washing the cup
and spilling the ale, and be tamned to her!"

"I was bred in France," answered Anderson, "where nobody drinks after
another out of the same cup, unless it be after a young lady."

"The teil's in their nicety!" said Donald; "and if the ale be gude, fat
the waur is't that another man's beard's been in the queich before ye?"

Anderson's companion drank without observing the ceremony which had
given Donald so much offence, and both of them followed their master
into the low-arched stone hall, which was the common rendezvous of a
Highland family. A large fire of peats in the huge chimney at the upper
end shed a dim light through the apartment, and was rendered necessary
by the damp, by which, even during the summer, the apartment was
rendered uncomfortable. Twenty or thirty targets, as many claymores,
with dirks, and plaids, and guns, both match-lock and fire-lock, and
long-bows, and cross-bows, and Lochaber axes, and coats of plate armour,