the apprentices, however, followed
their quondam colleague, and elbowed their way into the crowd gathered
around the competitors at the butt; and it was at this spot, commanding
a view of the whole space, that the spectator might well have formed
some notion of the vast following of the House of Nevile. For everywhere
along the front lines, everywhere in the scattered groups, might be
seen, glistening in the sunlight, the armourial badges of that mighty
family. The Pied Bull, which was the proper cognizance [Pied Bull
the cognizance, the Dun Bull's head the crest] of the Neviles, was
principally borne by the numerous kinsmen of Earl Warwick, who rejoiced
in the Nevile name. The Lord Montagu, Warwick's brother, to whom
the king had granted the forfeit title and estates of the earls of
Northumberland, distinguished his own retainers, however, by the special
request of the ancient Montagus.--a Gryphon issuant from a ducal crown.
But far more numerous than Bull or Gryphon (numerous as either seemed)
were the badges worn by those who ranked themselves among the peculiar
followers of the great Earl of Warwick. The cognizance of the Bear
and Ragged Staff, which he assumed in right of the Beauchamps, whom he
represented through his wife, the heiress of the lords of Warwick,
was worn in the hats of the more gentle and well-born clansmen and
followers, while the Ragged Staff alone was worked front and back on
the scarlet jackets of his more humble and personal retainers. It was
a matter of popular notice and admiration that in those who wore these
badges, as in the wearers of the hat and staff of the ancient Spartans,
might be traced a grave loftiness of bearing, as if they belonged to
another caste, another race, than the herd of men. Near the place where
the rivals for the silver arrow were collected, a lordly party had
reined in their palfreys, and conversed with each other, as the judges
of the field were marshalling the competitors.

"Who," said one of these gallants, "who is that comely young fellow just
below us, with the Nevile cognizance of the Bull on his hat? He has the
air of one I should know."

"I never saw him before, my Lord of Northumberland," answered one of the
gentlemen thus addressed; "but, pardieu, he who knows all the Neviles by
eye must know half England." The Lord Montagu--for though at that moment
invested with the titles of the Percy, by that name Earl Warwick's
brother is known to history, and by tha