So through the Plymouth woods passed onward the bridal procession.
NOTES.
3. Cordovan. From the city of Cordoba, Spain, noted for the leather prepared there.
8. Corselet. A breastplate and backpiece forming a protection for the upper part of the body.
Sword of Damascus. Damascus in Syria is one of the oldest cities in the world. The swords made here were once famous not only for their remarkably fine temper, but for the artistic figures and mystic characters wrought in the blade. The secret of their make is now largely a lost art.
1-20. Miles Standish was at this time about thirty-six years of age, though the description seems to make him older. He had evidently left England for the Netherlands to fight with the Dutch against Spain. In Holland he had met his compatriots, the Puritans, cast his fortunes with them, and embarked as one of their number for the New World. John Alden, at this time about twenty-one, had joined the Pilgrims when their vessel touched at the port of Southampton.
19. “While yet an abbot, Gregory’s interest had been awakened by the fair faces and flaxen hair of a group of Saxon youths exposed for sale in the slave-market at Rome. ‘Who are they?’ he asked. ‘Angles,’ was the reply. ‘It suits them well,’ he said; ‘with faces so angel-like.’” (Painter, History of English Literature.)
20. The Mayflower. The name of the vessel that carried the Pilgrims to America.