So shall he strive, in changeful hue, MARMION. CANTO FIFTH. THE COURT. I. THE train has left the hills of Braid; That closed the tented ground; Their men the warders backward drew, Fast ran the Scottish warriors there, Such length of shafts, such mighty bows,1 "The barrier guard the Lion knew, Advanced their pikes, and soon withdrew That closed the tented ground; And Marmion with his train rode through, "So long their shafts, so large their bows." So huge, that many simply thought, But for a vaunt such weapons wrought; The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail1 II. Nor less did Marmion's skilful view Heavily sheathed in mail and plate, Young knights and squires, a lighter train, Each warlike feat to show, 1 This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this extraordinary length were actually used. Thus, at the battle of Blackheath, between the troops of Henry VII., and the Cornish insurgents, in 1496, the bridge of Dartford was defended by a picked band of archers from the rebel army, "whose arrows," says Holinshed, "were in length a full cloth yard." The Scottish, according to Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts. 2 MS." There urged their chargers on the plain." To pass, to wheel, the croupe to gain, Nor waving plume, nor crest of knight; Long pikes they had for standing fight, Two-handed swords they wore, 1The most useful air, as the Frenchmen term it, is territerr; the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un sault, being fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too high, may be useful in a fight or meslee; for, as Labroue hath it, in his Book of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword, strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where divers of the prime gallants of France did meet ; for, taking his time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force upon the two cavaliers, one after another, that he struck them from their horses to the ground. - Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p. 48. 2 The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good axe instead of a bow, if worth £100: their armour to be of white or bright harness. They wore white hats, i.e. bright steel caps, without crest or visor. By an act of James IV., their weapon-schawings are appointed to be held four times a year, under the aldermen or bailiffs. And many wielded mace of weight,1 III. On foot the yeoman too, but dress'd Each at his back (a slender store) His arms were halbert, axe, or spear,2 2 Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. Their defensive armour was the plate-jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons, crossbows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for cold, but for cutting." The mace also was much used in the Scottish army. The old poem on the battle of Flodden mentions a band "Who manfully did meet their foes, With leaden mauls, and lances long." When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light cavalry, acted upon foot. |