word found on
these escutcheons--_Houmont_--is still more puzzling. We know that the
Black Prince was wont to sign himself _Houmont, Ich Diene_. Stanley
explains the combination gracefully, but not very convincingly. "If, as
seems most likely, they are German words, they exactly express what we
have seen so often in his life, the union of 'Hoch muth,' that is _high
spirit_, with 'Ich Dien,' _I serve_. They bring before us the very scene
itself after the battle of Poitiers, where, after having vanquished the
whole French nation, he stood behind the captive king, and served him like
an attendant."

[Illustration: THE BLACK PRINCE'S TOMB
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL NORMAN AND CO.).]

The tomb is surmounted by a canopy on which is painted an interesting
representation of the Trinity. The work is a good deal faded, but still
worthy of notice; the absence of the figure of the dove is curious, but is
not unparalleled in such designs. At the corners are symbols of the four
evangelists. The Holy Trinity--on whose feast-day he died--was held in
peculiar veneration by the Black Prince. The ordinance of the chantry
founded by him in the crypt contains the phrase, _Ad honorem Sancte
Trinitatis quam peculiari devocione semper colimus_. A curious metal
badge, preserved in the British Museum, is stamped with the figure of the
prince kneeling before the Almighty and our Saviour, whose representation
is almost identical with the design on the canopy over the tomb; here also
the figure of the dove is absent. Round the canopy and in the pillars we
can still see the hooks which upheld the black tapestry, bordered with
crimson and embroidered with _cygnes avec tetes de dames_, which was hung,
as ordained by his will, round the prince's tomb and Becket's shrine.

[Illustration: SHIELD, COAT, ETC., OF THE BLACK PRINCE.]

Lastly, above the canopy, on a cross-beam between two pillars, are
suspended the brazen gauntlets, the helmet, the wooden shield with its
moulded leather covering, the velvet coat emblazoned with the arms of
England and France, and the empty sheath. The gauntlets were once
embellished with little figures of lions on the knuckles; these have been
detached by "collectors," vandals almost as ruthless as Blue Dick and his
troopers, and without their excuse of mistaken religious zeal. The helmet
still has its original lining of leather, showing that it was actually
worn. The sword which fitted the now empty sheath is said to have