Stanza xxv. line 468.  ’It is well known, that the religious, who broke their vows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty as the Roman vestals in a similar case.  A small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of the convent; a slender pittance of food and water was deposited in it, and the awful words, VADE in pace, were the signal for immuring the criminal.  It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishment was often resorted to; but among the ruins of the abbey of Coldingham, were some years ago discovered the remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and position of the figure, seemed to be that of an immured nun.’—­Scott.

Lockhart adds:—­’The Edinburgh Reviewer, on st. xxxii, post, suggests that the proper reading of the sentence is VADE in pacem—­ not part in peace, but go into peace, or eternal rest, a pretty intelligible mittimus to another world.’

Stanza xxvii. line 506. my = ‘of me,’ retains the old genitive force as in Elizabethan English.  Cp.  Julius Caesar, i.  I. 55:—­

’In his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood.’

line 516.  The very old fancy of a forsaken lover’s revenge has been powerfully utilized in D. G. Rossetti’s fascinating ballad, ’Sister Helen’:—­

’Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow,
Sister Helen,
‘Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago.’

’One morn for pride and three days for woe,
Little brother!’

Stanza xxviii. line 520. plight, woven, united, as in Spenser F. Q., II. vi. 7:—­

’Fresh flowerets dight
About her necke, or rings of rushes plight.’

lines 524-40.  The reference in these lines is to what was known as the appeal to the judgment of God.  On this subject, Scott at the close of the second head in his ‘Essay on Chivalry,’ says, ’In the appeal to this awful criterion, the combatants, whether personally concerned, or appearing as champions, were understood, in martial law, to take on themselves the full risk of all consequences.  And, as the defendant, or his champion, in case of being overcome, was subjected to the punishment proper to the crime of which he was accused, so the appellant, if vanquished, was, whether a principal or substitute, condemned to the same doom to which his success would have exposed the accused.  Whichever combatant was vanquished he was liable to the penalty of degradation; and, if he survived the combat, the disgrace to which he was subjected was worse than death.  His spurs were cut off close to his heels, with a cook’s cleaver; his arms were baffled and reversed by the common hangman; his belt was cut to pieces, and his sword broken.  Even his horse shared his disgrace, the animal’s tail being cut off, close by the rump, and thrown on a dunghill.  The death-bell