* * * * * After the foregoing brief notices of the early companions of Wallace, the curious reader may not be displeased, if, before concluding this chapter, we present some account of the dress and armour in which our hero appeared at the battle of Beg. The following description is from the Minstrel, and is given with a minuteness which induces a belief that it is a literal translation from the work of Blair, so often mentioned;--it is at least of value, not only from its containing the ideas entertained on the subject by a man of no mean genius, upwards of three hundred years ago, but as it also agrees with the description elsewhere handed down of the kind of armour in use at the period:-- “A habergione vndyr his goune he war, A steylle capleyne in his bonet but mar; His glowis of plait in claith war couerit weill, In his doublet a closs coler of steyle; His face he kepit, for it was euir bar, With his twa handis, the quhilk full worthi war.” _Buke Thryd_, p. 31. The “_habergione_” was a piece of defensive armour early in use among the Scots, and even worn by some Highlanders and Isles-men so late as the 17th century. It was a sort of chain or ringed mail, extremely light and flexible, allowing the greatest freedom to the motions of the wearer, and was equally well adapted for combat on foot or on horseback. It was variously constructed according to the prevailing taste. The most approved were those brought from Asia by the crusaders, in the early part of the reign of Alexander III. They consisted of four rings joined to a fifth, and all rivetted;--they were sometimes double. Towards the end of the 13th century, this description seems to have been in general use, both in England and Scotland. They had the form of shirts, and were quite impervious to an arrow. The “_goune_” which the Minstrel alludes to, as covering the “habergione,” we conceive to mean the surcoat, or coat of arms,--a fashion introduced into Britain in the 13th century. It is thus described by Dr Meyrick:--“The surcoat, which had been adopted by the crusaders in the 13th century, to prevent their armour from being heated by the sun’s rays, a mode still continued by the Mamelukes in Egypt, was at first of merely variegated patterns, but soon became embellished with the same armorial bearings as the shield;--hence, the expression ‘coat of arms.’ It was a long loose dress, without sleeves, open before and behind, for the convenience of riding, and girted round the waist by the _cingulum militare_, or belt. It was put on over the hauberk, and reached to the neck; and when the hood was placed on the head, it was covered by it as far as the shoulders. The front and back were emblazoned alike.”