CHAPTER XXVIII.
What want these outlaws conquerors should have But history's purchased page to call them great, A wider space, an ornamented grave?
Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as brave.
BYRON.
The funeral obsequies being over, the same flotilla which had proceeded in solemn and sad array down the lake prepared to return with displayed banners, and every demonstration of mirth and joy; for there was but brief time to celebrate festivals when the awful conflict betwixt the Clan Quhele and their most formidable rivals so nearly approached.

It had been agreed, therefore, that the funeral feast should be blended with that usually given at the inauguration of the young chief.
Some objections were made to this arrangement, as containing an evil omen.

But, on the other hand, it had a species of recommendation, from the habits and feelings of the Highlanders, who, to this day, are wont to mingle a degree of solemn mirth with their mourning, and something resembling melancholy with their mirth.

The usual aversion to speak or think of those who have been beloved and lost is less known to this grave and enthusiastic race than it is to others.

You hear not only the young mention (as is everywhere usual) the merits and the character of parents, who have, in the course of nature, predeceased them; but the widowed partner speaks, in ordinary conversation, of the lost spouse, and, what is still stranger, the parents allude frequently to the beauty or valour of the child whom they have interred.