The Bend-sinister is a bend reversed; that is to say, descending from the sinister chief to the opposite base; indeed, it sometimes occurs in wood-carving merely by reason of the carver having inadvertently turned his tracing over. The bend-sinister is sometimes used as a mark of illegitimacy. One of its diminutives, the Baton (a small bend-sinister, whose ends stop considerably short of the edges of the shield), is especially used with this intention. A bend-sinister is not necessarily a mark of illegitimacy. The old heralds indeed do not seem to have marked a coat in this way in order to hold up its bearer to obloquy, but simply employed the ordinary as a difference. A diminutive of the bend called a Ribbon occurs in the Arms of Abernethy--Or a lion rampant gules, debruised, i.e. passed over by a ribbon sable. The Chief occupies the top of the shield from side to side and has no diminutive (Fig. 58). The Pale is drawn perpendicularly down the centre of the coat (Fig. 59), and when one of a number is called a Pallet, which again is sometimes called an Endorse when it accompanies the pale as the cotise does the bend. The Chevron (Fig. 60), usually drawn as a right angle, may be varied to a very large extent as conditions of space require; it becomes unpleasant, however, when more obtuse than a right angle. In later French and Italian heraldry it is frequently drawn remarkably acute, its point often extending to the top of the shield, and this form is usually found associated with very small and weakly drawn charges. When more chevrons than one are used together they are called Chevronels. [Illustration: FIG. 60.] [Illustration: FIG. 61.] [Illustration: FIG. 62.] The Cross (Fig. 61) and its diagonal variety the Saltire (Fig. 62) are sometimes _voided_, as in Fig. 63, so that the field shows through, and may also be interlaced, as arg. a cross voided and interlaced sa (Fig. 64). _Parted and fretty_ is an equivalent term. Its proportion, even in shields of which it was the only bearing, was much narrower in mediaeval times than later. [Illustration: FIG. 63.] [Illustration: FIG. 64.] The great variety of its form as a charge is referred to under that head, and some of its less usual forms as an ordinary are: Fig. 65, a cross quarter pierced; Fig. 66, a cross quadrate; Fig. 67, a cross nowy; and Fig. 68, a cross couped. [Illustration: FIG. 65.] [Illustration: FIG. 66.] [Illustration: FIG. 67.] [Illustration: FIG. 68.] The Pile is represented in Fig. 69. When more than one occur they point towards the base, unless their position is otherwise specified, and their points may either be in a line perpendicular to their widest part or they may converge towards the centre; in the latter position they are blazoned “piles in point.” Sometimes three piles are alternated so that there are “two in chief and one in base,” the latter, of course, being point upwards between the other two. [Illustration: FIG. 69.]