ut partaking chiefly of the Eastern
fashion. They wore, indeed, short hauberks, but had over them
party-coloured tunics of rich stuffs, with large wide pantaloons and
half-boots. On their heads were straight upright caps, similar to those
of the Greeks; and they carried small round targets, bows and arrows,
scimitars, and poniards. They were mounted on horses carefully selected,
and well maintained at the expense of the State of Venice; their saddles
and appointments resembled those of the Turks, and they rode in the same
manner, with short stirrups and upon a high seat. These troops were
of great use in skirmishing with the Arabs, though unable to engage in
close combat, like the iron-sheathed men-at-arms of Western and Northern
Europe.

Before this goodly band came Conrade, in the same garb with the
Stradiots, but of such rich stuff that he seemed to blaze with gold
and silver, and the milk-white plume fastened in his cap by a clasp of
diamonds seemed tall enough to sweep the clouds. The noble steed which
he reined bounded and caracoled, and displayed his spirit and agility
in a manner which might have troubled a less admirable horseman than
the Marquis, who gracefully ruled him with the one hand, while the other
displayed the baton, whose predominancy over the ranks which he led
seemed equally absolute. Yet his authority over the Stradiots was more
in show than in substance; for there paced beside him, on an ambling
palfrey of soberest mood, a little old man, dressed entirely in black,
without beard or moustaches, and having an appearance altogether mean
and insignificant when compared with the blaze of splendour around
him. But this mean-looking old man was one of those deputies whom the
Venetian government sent into camps to overlook the conduct of the
generals to whom the leading was consigned, and to maintain that jealous
system of espial and control which had long distinguished the policy of
the republic.

Conrade, who, by cultivating Richard's humour, had attained a certain
degree of favour with him, no sooner was come within his ken than the
King of England descended a step or two to meet him, exclaiming, at the
same time, "Ha, Lord Marquis, thou at the head of the fleet Stradiots,
and thy black shadow attending thee as usual, whether the sun shines or
not! May not one ask thee whether the rule of the troops remains with
the shadow or the substance?"

Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Rosw