Ivanhoe

CHAPTER XXVII

1 (p. 254) epigraph: The lines are from George Crabbe’s “The Hall of Justice” (1807; lines 5-8, 27-32) .

2 (p. 269) touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets nought of evil: See the Bible, 1 Chronicles 16:22.

3 (p. 269) “They bring forward mantelets and pavisses”: [Author’s note] Mantelets and Pavisses. Mantelets were temporary and movable defences formed of planks, under cover of which the assailants advanced to the attack of fortified places of old. Pavisses were a species of large shields covering the whole person, employed on the same occasions.

4 (p. 270) “Look that the crossbowmen lack not bolts”: [Author’s note] Bolts and Shafts. The bolt was the arrow peculiarly fitted to the cross-bow, as that of the long-bow was called a shaft. Hence the English proverb—“I will either make a shaft or bolt of it,” signifying a determination to make one use or other of the thing spoken of.