[2] The word which we have written “Postillion,” in the ancient MSS. indicates a Courier, a Messenger; “one who carries letters from place to place.” This personage, whom we here designated, “Francisco the Courier,” is not unfrequently styled “Cisco the vagabond,” in the original manuscripts.
[3] With his own peculiar abruptness, (to which the reader is by this time accustomed) the Chronicler of the Ancient MSS. changes the scene to the Valley of the Bowl, noticed in Chap. 3. Book. 3.
[4] The story changes to Albarone again.
[5] It will be seen that the Chronicler of the ancient MSS. goes on to picture the events of the previous night, in the succeeding chapter.
[6] It is observable that the chronicler of the ancient MSS. applies the word Alembic to an open vessel resembling a crucible in shape.
[7] Ibrahim Ben-Malakim (Arabic) “the Son of the Kings.”
[8] This song is taken from an old Monkish Chaunt, and makes no pretensions to poetic beauty.
[9] The Chronicler of the Ancient MSS uses the phrase as a general and comprehensive term, to designate the ‘man of the feudal times.’