There were no raised voices, no contentious arguments; and Simon Glover had heard a hundred times more noise at a guild feast in Perth than was made on this occasion by two hundred wild mountaineers.
Even the liquor itself did not seem to raise the festive party above the same tone of decorous gravity.

It was of various kinds.

Wine appeared in very small quantities, and was served out only to the principal guests, among which honoured number Simon Glover was again included.

The wine and the two wheaten loaves were indeed the only marks of notice which he received during the feast; but Niel Booshalloch, jealous of his master's reputation for hospitality, failed not to enlarge on them as proofs of high distinction.

Distilled liquors, since so generally used in the Highlands, were then comparatively unknown.