From this depended a row of tags of soft leather.
Close chain-mail covered his legs, to which at the knees were added caps of triple plate.

A sheaf of arrows in a blue and gold quiver on his right side, a sword of metal on his left, and a short Scottish bow in his hand completed the attire of a fully equipped and efficient archer of the Earl's guard.
The lads were soon at the fords of Lochar, where in the dry summers the stones show all the way across--one in the midst being named the Black Douglas, noted as the place where, as tradition affirms, Archibald the Grim used to pause in crossing the ford to look at his new fortress of Thrieve, rising on its impregnable island above the rich water meadows.
Now neither Sholto nor Laurence wished to wet their leg array before the work and pageant of the day began.

This was the desire of Laurence, because of the maids who would assemble on the Boreland Braes, and of Sholto inasmuch as he hoped to win the prize for the best accoutrement and the most point-device attiring among all the archers of the Earl's guard.

The young men had asked crusty Simon Conchie, the boatman at the Ferry Croft, to set them over, offering him a groat for his pains.

But he was far too busy to pay any attention to mere silver coin on such an occasion, only pausing long enough to cry to them that they must e'en cross at the fords, as many of their betters would do that day.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but either to strip to the waist or to wait the chances of the traffic.