The King himself was staying at Castle Malwood, but several of his suite had been compelled to seek such quarters as they might find in the wooden or wattle-and-daub cottages of the village.

Here and there a small escutcheon, peeping from a glassless window, marked the night's lodging of knight or baron.

These coats-of-arms could be read, where a scroll would be meaningless, and the bowman, like most men of his age, was well versed in the common symbols of heraldry.
"There is the Saracen's head of Sir Bernard Brocas," quoth he.

"I saw him last at the ruffle at Poictiers some ten years back, when he bore himself like a man.

He is the master of the King's horse, and can sing a right jovial stave, though in that he cannot come nigh to Sir John Chandos, who is first at the board or in the saddle.