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. l.506.. my = 'of me,' retains the old genitive force as in Elizabethan English. Cp. Julius Caesar, i, I. 55:—
l. 516. The very old fancy of a forsaken lover's revenge has been powerfully utilized in D. G. Rossetti's fascinating ballad, 'Sister Helen':—
Sister Helen,
'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago.'
'One morn for pride and three days for woe,
Little brother!'
Stanza XXVIII. l. 520. plight, woven, united, as in Spenser F. Q., II. vi. 7:
About her necke, or rings of rushes plight.'
l. 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
