In concluding this chapter we must add that one of the first rules to be learnt in heraldry is that in arranging the tinctures of a coat of arms, metal can never be placed upon metal, nor colour upon colour. The field must therefore be gold or silver if it is to receive a coloured charge, or _vice versa_. This rule was probably made because, as we said above, the knights originally bore their arms embroidered upon their mantles, these garments being always either of cloth of gold or of silver, embroidered with silk, or they were of silken material, embroidered with gold or silver. CHAPTER III DIVISIONS OF THE SHIELD Although in many shields the field presents an unbroken surface, yet we often find it cut up into divisions of several kinds. These divisions come under the head of _simple charges_, and the old heralds explain their origin--viz.: "After battles were ended, the shields of soldiers were considered, and he was accounted most deserving whose shield was most or deepest cut. And to recompense the dangers wherein they were shown to have been by those cuts for the service of their King and country, the heralds did represent them upon their shields. The common cuts gave name to the common partitions, of which the others are made by various conjunctions." [Illustration: PLATE 3. MARQUIS OF HERTFORD. _Arms._--Quarterly 1st and 4th Or on a pile gu: between 6 fleurs de lys az: 3 lions passant guardant in pale or. 2nd and 3rd gu: 2 wings conjoined in lure or. Seymour. _Crest._--Out of a ducal coronet or, a ph[oe]nix ppr. _Supporters._--Two blackamoors. _Motto._--Fide et amore. ] The heraldic term given to these partition-lines of the field is _ordinaries_. There are nine of these, termed respectively, chief, fesse, bar, pale, cross, bend, saltire, chevron, and pile. [Illustration: FIG. 15.] [Illustration: FIG. 16.] The chief, occupying about the upper third of the field, is marked off by a horizontal line (Fig. 15); the fesse, derived from the Latin _fascia_, a band, is a broad band crossing the centre of the field horizontally, and extends over a third of its surface (Fig. 16). The bar is very like the fesse, but differs from it, (_a_) in being much narrower and only occupying a fifth portion of the field, (_b_) in being liable to be placed in any part of the field, whereas the fesse is an immovable charge, (_c_) in being used mostly in pairs and not singly. Two or three bars may be charged on the same field, and when an even number either of metal or fur alternating with a colour occur together, the field is then described as _barry_, the number of the bars being always stated, so that if there are six bars, it is said to be "barry of six," if eight, "barry of eight" (Fig. 17). The pale, probably derived from _palus_, a stake, is also a broad band like the fesse, but runs perpendicularly down the shield, instead of horizontally across it (Fig. 18). [Illustration: FIG. 17.]