829.  On the morn.  Modifying should circle, not the nearer verb had sworn.

831.  The Fiery Cross.  See on iii. 18 below.

846.  Point.  Point out, appoint.  Cf.  Shakespeare, Sonn. 14. 6: 

    “Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
     Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind.”

The word in this and similar passages is generally printed “’point” by modern editors, but it is not a contraction of appoint.

860.  Then plunged, etc.  The Ms. has “He spoke, and plunged into the tide.”

862.  Steered him.  See on i. 142 above.

865, 866.  Darkening ... gave.  In the 1st ed. these lines are joined to what precedes, as they evidently should be; in all the more recent eds. they are joined to what follows.

Canto Third.

3.  Store.  See on i. 548 above.

5.  That be. in old English, besides the present tense am, etc., there was also this form be, from the Anglo-Saxon beon.  The 2d person singular was beest.  The 1st and 3d person plural be is often found in Shakespeare and the Bible.

10.  Yet live there still, etc.  See on ii. 692 above.

15.  What time.  Cf. ii. 307 above.

17.  The gathering sound.  The sound, or signal, for the gathering.  The phrase illustrates the difference between the participle and the verbal noun (or whatever it may be called) in -ing.  Cf. “a laboring man” and “a laboring day” (Julius Caesar, i. 1. 4); and see our ed. of J. C. p. 126.

18.  The Fiery Cross.  Scott says here:  “When a chieftain designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or important emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal.  This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean Tarigh, or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the symbol implied, inferred infamy.  It was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous.  He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal despatch, to the next village; and thus it passed with incredible celerity through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among his allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to them.  At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous.  He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were emblematically denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal.  During the civil war of 1745-6, the Fiery Cross often made its circuit; and upon one occasion it passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles,