Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series - 1819.djvu/299

Rh importance, shewed the full disposition to exact from the rest the deference due to a separate and independent prince; while the stronger and more powerful, divided among themselves by recent contentions or ancient feuds, were constrained in policy, to use great deference to the feelings of their less powerful brethren, in order, in case of need, to attach as many as might be to their own interest and standard. Thus the meeting of Chiefs resembled not a little those ancient Diets of the Empire, where the smallest Frey-Graf, who possessed a castle perched upon a barren crag, with a few hundred acres around it, claimed the state and honours of a sovereign prince, and a seat according to his rank among the dignitaries of the empire.

The followers of the different leaders were separately arranged and accommodated, as room and circumstances best permitted, each retaining, however, his henchman, who waited, close as the shadow, upon his person, to execute whatever might be required by his patron.