In the meanwhile, these
distinguished personages bivouacked among the flowery heath, wrapped up
in their plaids; a mode of passing a summer's night which Waverley found
by no means unpleasant.
For many hours after sunrise, the mountain ridges and passes retained
their ordinary appearance of silence and solitude; and the Chiefs, with
their followers, amused themselves with various pastimes, in which the
joys of the shell, as Ossian has it, were not forgotten. 'Others apart
sat on a hill retired;' probably as deeply engaged in the discussion of
politics and news, as Milton's spirits in metaphysical disquisition.
At length signals of the approach of the game were descried and heard.
Distant shouts resounded from valley to valley, as the various parties
of Highlanders, climbing rocks, struggling through copses, wading
brooks, and traversing thickets, approached more and more near to each
other, and compelled the astonished deer, with the other wild animals
that fled before them, into a narrower circuit. Every now and then the
report of muskets was heard, repeated by a thousand echoes. The baying
of the dogs was soon added to the chorus, which grew ever louder and
more loud.
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