by Don Jacobson
[xxxiv] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Vienna accessed 10/18/2016.
[xxxv] The 100 Years War (Actually 107 years in duration—1347-1454) was a struggle fought over three points—control of large sections of French territory in Gascony, the succession to the French throne and the cloth trade in Flanders.
[xxxvi] In Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe novels, Lt. Colonel Michael Hogan was Wellington’s Chief of Intelligence in Spain and Portugal from 1809-1814.
[xxxvii] Characters from the Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series. Hagman was a poacher who, having been given the choice between the noose and the Army, was a deadly sniper at near 200 yards. Harper was Sharpe’s subaltern right hand.
[xxxviii] Rory Williams in the 7th Series of Dr. Who as the Last Centurion stood guard over an injured Amy Pond secreted in the Pandorica. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Williams accessed 10/22/16.
[xxxix] An early ancestor of “Q,” the mad gadgeteer in Ian Fleming’s James Bond books.
[xl] Average weight of 1 bushel of barley is 48 pounds. Average weight of seven-year old girl is 49 pounds. See https://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/bushels.html and http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/height-weight-teens.shtml both accessed on 10/25/16.
[xli] 1 stone = 14 pounds
[xlii] This is the origin of the word “plebiscite” as in “plebe-cite”…literally voting with their feet.
[xliii] See “Of Fortune’s Reversal,” Ch. X. Leading French Revolution figure George Danton’s quote is often misattributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. From https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Danton
[xliv] Literally “Black Forester”
[xlv] As Mary Bennet described Fitzwilliam’s great sword later buried with him at Thornhill, “I have seen his working sword. It is not shiny and bright like that little toad-sticker you wear. His is a man’s weapon, heavy to cut through bone and gristle, hued like pewter and with a blade longer than your arm. It is nicked and scarred and so worn from constant sharpening that it is more rapier than saber.” The Exile: The Extraordinary Journey of Mary Bennet, Ch. XXXIII.
[xlvi] “The trooper's sword, and the officer's undress sword, was a dedicated cutting weapon with a broad heavy blade and was renowned as being completely unfit for delicate swordsmanship.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1796_Heavy_Cavalry_Sword accessed 11/1/16.
[xlvii] This is a nod to John LeCarre where infant spies are trained to serve in George Smiley’s Circus.
[xlviii] See “Of Fortune’s Reversal,” Ch. XVII-XVIII.
[xlix] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian_hair accessed 11/4/16.
[l] To listen to a piano version, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1jf_aZqxZ4 accessed 11/5/16.
[li] John Wall Callcott set Ben Jonson’s “To Celia” to music around 1790. See http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/e/e1/Calc-dri.pdf accessed on 11/6/16.
[lii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drink_to_Me_Only_with_Thine_Eyes accessed 11/6/16.
[liii] Significant events and anniversaries whether royal, national or Abbey related are marked by the ringing of a full peal [at Westminster Abbey]. This comprises a minimum of 5000 different changes (or sequences) and is performed without a break. A peal takes over three hours to complete… from http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/abbey-bells accessed on 11/12/16.
[liv] Arthur Conan Doyle, The Problem of Thor Bridge, first published in 1922 in the Strand Magazine. Conan Doyle uses his amanuensis Watson to suggest that untold Holmes tales are to be found in “a travel-worn and battered dispatch box…”.
[lv] Margaret thus becomes an ancestor of Mathew Crawley who becomes the successor to the Seventh Earl, Robert Crawley, and the husband to his eldest daughter, Lady Mary Crawley. See http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Earl_of_Grantham accessed on 11/13/16.
[lvi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest accessed 11/10/16.
[lvii] Silesian aristocratic family. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostitz_family accessed 10/16/16.
[lviii] Literally “the old steward”
[lix] Klemens von Metternich, Chancellor of the Austrian Empire, Foreign Minister 1809-1848. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Klemens-Furst-von-Metternich accessed 10/16/16.
[lx] “God and my Right Hand”…this is the motto of Great Britain earlier translated to affirm the Divine Right of the King of England. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that established the supremacy of Parliament, this more appropriate meaning was established. Kearsley's Complete Peerage, of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 1799. p. xxiii. Retrieved 25 April 2009. Accessed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieu_et_mon_droit#cite_note-9 on 10/16/2016.
[lxi] Fitzwilliam family crest http://www.myfamilysilver.com/crestfinder-search/fitzwilliam-family-crest accessed 10/16/2016.
[lxii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Number_of_the_Beast_(novel) accessed 7/26/16.
[lxiii] Current use, obsolete use, and sub-meanings could bring the total number of words to nearly 750,000. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language accessed 11/21/16.