Most had steel-caps on their heads, and some had body
armour, generally a "jack," or coat into which pieces of iron or horn
were quilted; some had also steel or steel-and-leather arm or thigh
pieces. There were a few mounted men among them, their horses being
big-boned hammer-headed beasts, that looked as if they had been taken
from plough or waggon, but their riders were well armed with steel
armour on their heads, legs, and arms. Amongst the horsemen I noted
the man that had ridden past me when I first awoke; but he seemed to
be a prisoner, as he had a woollen hood on his head instead of his
helmet, and carried neither bill, sword, nor dagger. He seemed by no
means ill-at-ease, however, but was laughing and talking with the men
who stood near him.
Above the heads of the crowd, and now slowly working towards the
cross, was a banner on a high-raised cross-pole, a picture of a man
and woman half-clad in skins of beasts seen against a background of
green trees, the man holding a spade and the woman a distaff and
spindle rudely done enough, but yet with a certain spirit and much
meaning; and underneath this symbol of the early world and man's first
contest with nature were the written words:
When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then the gentleman?
The banner came on and through the crowd, which at last opened where
we stood for its passage, and the banner-bearer turned and faced the
throng and stood on the first step of the cross beside me.
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