NOTES.
61
Constantinople had been fixed upon as the time for conveying the imperial bride to that city.
Note 11.
Those men are strangers here.
Many of the adherents of Constantine, in his last noble stand for the liberties, or rather the honour, of a falling empire, were foreigners and chiefly Italians.
Note 12.
Know'st thou the land, &c.
This and the next line are an almost literal translation from a beautiful song of Goethe's:
Kennst du das land, wo die zitronen blühn,
Mit dunkeln laub die gold orangen glühn? &c.
Note 13.
The idea expressed in this stanza is beautifully amplified in Schiller's poem "Das Lied der Glocke."
Note 14.
Hath the fierce phantom, &c.
It is said to be a Greek superstition that the plague is announced by the heavy rolling of an invisible chariot, heard
