d attire, that the greatest
part of them were quite bareheaded, and appeared with their hair
spread over their shoulders yellower than the finest gold; their robes
also were without sleeves; for all had been given to adorn the
knights; hoods, cloaks, kerchiefs, stomachers, and mantuas. But when
they beheld themselves in this woful plight, they were greatly
abashed, till, perceiving every one was in the same condition, they
joined in laughing at this adventure, and that they should have
engaged with such vehemence in stripping themselves of their clothes
from off their backs, as never to have perceived the loss of them."

A sleeve (more easily detached than we should fancy those of the
present day) was a very usual token.

Elayne, the faire mayden of Astolat gave Syr Launcelot "a reed sleeve
of scarlet wel embroudred with grete perlys," which he wore for a
token on his helmet; and in real life it is recorded that in a
serious, but not desperate battle, at the court of Burgundy, in 1445,
one of the knights received from his lady a sleeve of delicate dove
colour, elegantly embroidered; and he fastened this favour on his left
arm.

Chevalier Bayard being declared victor at the tournament of Carignan,
in Piedmont, he refused, from extreme delicacy, to receive the reward
assigned him, saying, "The honour he had gained was solely owing to
the sleeve, which a lady had given him, adorned with a ruby worth a
hundred ducats." The sleeve was brought back to the lady in the
presence of her husband; who knowing the admirable character of the
chevalier, conceived no jealousy on the occasion: "The ruby," said the
lady, "shall be given to the knight who was the next in feats of arms
to the chevalier; but since he does me so much honour as to ascribe
his victory to my sleeve, for the love of him I will keep it all my
life."

Another important adjunct to the equipment of a knight was the pennon;
an ensign or streamer formed of silk, linen, or stuff, and fixed to
the top of the lance. If the expedition of the soldier had for its
object the Holy Land, the sacred emblem of the cross was embroidered
on the pennon, otherwise it usually bore the owner's crest, or, like
the surcoat, an emblematic allusion to some circumstance in the
owner's life. Thus, Chaucer, in the "Knighte's Tale," describes that
of Duke Theseus:

"And by his banner borne is his _penon_
Of gold ful riche, in which ther was ybete
The Minotaure which that h