eight-pointed Templar's cross which he wore throughout his career is said to have belonged to Richard Cœur-de-Lion. In early life, with consent of the Government, Smith distinguished himself with the Swedes in their war with Russia. He was frequently entrusted with the duty of alarming the French coast, and once was captured and imprisoned, in the Temple at Paris, for two years. His escape was effected by a daring stratagem on the part of the French Royalist party. He and his sailors helped the Turks to retain St. Jean d'Acre against Napoleon, till then the 'Invincible,' who retired baffled after a vain siege of sixty days (May, 1799). Had Acre been won, said Napoleon afterwards, 'I would have reached, Constantinople and the Indies—I would have changed the face of the world.' See Scott's 'Life of Napoleon,' chap. xiii.
1. 91. For metal'd see above, Introd. to I. 308.
1. 92. For warped = 'frozen,' cp. As You Like It, ii. 7. 187, where, addressing the bitter sky, the singer says:—
Thy sting is not so sharp,
As friends remember'd not.'
l. 94. The reference is to Sir Ralph Abercromby, who commanded the expedition to Egypt, 1800-1, and fell at the battle of Alex andria. Sir Sidney Smith was wounded in the same battle, and had to go home.
ll. 100-10. Scott pays compliment to his friend Joanna Baillie (1764-1851), with chivalrous courtesy asserting that she is the first worthy successor of Shakespeare. 'Count Basil' and 'De Montfort' are the two most remarkable of her 'Plays of the Passions,' of which she published three volumes. 'De Montfort' was played in London, Kemble enacting the hero. Several of Miss Baillie's Scottish songs are among standard national lyrics.
l. 100. Cp. opening of 'Lady of the Lake.'
ll. 115–28. Lockhart notes the resemblance between this passage and Pope's 'Essay on Man,' II. 133–148.
l. 134. Cp. Goldsmith's 'Traveller,' 293:—
Batavia is the capital of the Dutch East Indies, with canals, architecture, &c., after the home model.
l. 137. hind, from Early Eng. hyne, servant (A. S. hina) is quite distinct from hind, a female stag. Gavin Douglas, translating Tyrii
