Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 28

13. What is "Scotland's heart"? (The heart of Robert Bruce, so called because of the reverence in which he is held by the Scotch.) Where can you read about the great angel that calls the dead to rise?

14. What is meant by "mark my rede"? (Listen to my advice or counsel.)

15. What was the prediction the Pilgrim seemed to make to Lord Douglas?

What did Lord Douglas ask of Sir Simon of the Lee?

16. Why should Scotland's earth be called "kindly"?

17. What does "betide" mean? Tell in your own words what Sir Simon replied. ("Whatever happens to me, I'll do as you command.")

18. What does Sir Simon promise?

19. What does "aye" mean? (In this place it means "for a long time.") What is meant by on our "lee"? (The wind blew toward Spain, and across the course of the s.h.i.+p; hence the coast appeared on the lee side of the vessel.) Why should the poet say the coast rose "grimly"?

20. What are "atabals"? (Tabors or kettledrums used by the Moors.)

21. Who asks the question about the Eastern music and the crowd of armed men?

22. What was Castile? (A province of Spain.) Who answers the question asked in the twenty-first stanza?

23. What is meant by the "Cross in jeopardie"? (The Spaniards were a Christian nation fighting under the symbol of the Cross. The Moors were the infidels or Moslems whose success would destroy the Christian religion in Spain. Their symbol was the crescent.)

24. What does "Have down" mean? (It means "Let us land.")

25. Who speaks in the twenty-fifth stanza?

26. Explain what is said in the twenty-sixth stanza. (Do you come because you have promised to fight the pagans or do you come to fight for money? Are you French or Burgundians?)

27. What is a "belted peer"?

28. What is the meaning of "died upon the tree"?

29. What is a "weltering wave"? (To "welter" is to tumble over. The "weltering wave" is the sea.)

30. Does the word "pilgrim" mean the same here as in the ninth stanza?

31. What King is this who speaks in the thirty-first stanza?

32. What do the words "full well" express?

33. Is the word "amain" in use nowadays? What does it mean?

34. What is a high glance?

35. What does this speech by Douglas show us of his character?

36. What were "cross-bolts"? (Short, blunt arrows fired from the cross-bows.)

37. What is a Saracen? (Here the word means merely a Mohammedan hostile to the Christians.) What does "rode like corn" mean? (We rode through their ranks as we would ride through corn.)

38. What is the meaning of "fain"? (Willing.)

39. What does "fell" mean? (Deadly.)

40. What is meant by "Make in"? (Here it means, "Gather together.")

41. What was the "rain"? What was the "swarm"?

42. What had happened to Saint Claire?

43. What was James's purpose in holding aloft the heart of Bruce?

44. Why did he throw the sacred relic before him? What does "wert wont of yore" mean? ("As you used to do.")

45. What is the meaning of "stour"? (Battle or combat.) Why are the spears said to come in "s.h.i.+vering"?

46. Who speaks in the forty-sixth stanza?

47. Who replies in the forty-seventh stanza? What does "dree" mean?

(Suffer, endure.)

48. What does "stark" mean?

49. What is the meaning of "lyart"? (Gray. The word was usually applied to a horse.)

50. What is this "heaviest cloud" that is bound for the banks of Bothwell?

51. What is this "sorest stroke" that has fallen upon Scotland?

52. What was to be carried back to the s.h.i.+p and laid in hallowed ground in Scotland?

53. Who is the "Lord King" referred to in the fifty-third stanza?

54. Does the line "so stately as he lay" seem a natural way of expressing the fact?

55. What does the speech of the Spanish King show of his character?

56. Why does the poet say that we steered the s.h.i.+p "heavily"?

57. Does "no welcome greeted our return" mean that none of the Scotch met the returning soldiers?

58. What were "Douglas Kirk" and "fair Melrose"? (The church of the Douglas clan and the stately abbey of Melrose. The latter may still be seen in beautiful ruins in southern Scotland.)

_Annie Laurie_

(Volume VI, page 119)

The Scotch dialect in this old favorite is one of its charms, but some readers may require explanation of a few of the terms.