The next wood-cut hardly does credit to the charming original. It represents the royal knight-errant himself sitting by a fountain, talking with his squire. The suit of armour is beautiful, and the face of the knight has much character, but very different from the modern conventional type of a mediæval knight-errant. His armour deserves particular examination. He wears a hauberk of banded mail; whether he wears a breastplate, or pair of plates, we are unable to see for the jupon, but we can see the hauberk which protects the throat above the jupon, and the skirt of it where the attitude of the wearer throws the skirt of the jupon open at the side. It will be seen that the sleeves of the hauberk are not continued, as in most examples, over the hands, or even down to the wrist; but the forearm is defended by studded armour, and the hands by gauntlets which are probably of plate. The leg defences are admirably exhibited; the hose of banded mail, the knee cap, and shin pieces of plate, and the boots of overlapping plates. The helmet also, with its royal crown and curious double crest, is worth notice. In the original drawing the whole suit of armour is brilliantly executed. The armour is all silvered to represent steel, the jupon is green, the military belt gold, the helmet silvered, with its drapery blue powdered with gold fleurs-de-lis, and its crown, and the fleur-de-lis which terminate its crest, gold. The whole dress and armour of a knight of the latter half of the fourteenth century are described for us by Chaucer in a few stanzas of his Rime of Sire Thopas:-- "He didde[371] next his white lere Of cloth of lake fine and clere A breche and eke a sherte; And next his shert an haketon, And over that an habergeon, For percing of his herte. And over that a fine hauberk, Was all ye wrought of Jewes werk, Full strong it was of plate; And over that his coat armoure, As white as is the lily floure, In which he could debate.[372] His jambeux were of cuirbouly,[373] His swerde's sheth of ivory, His helm of latoun[374] bright, His sadel was of rewel bone, His bridle as the sonne shone, Or as the mone-light[375] His sheld was all of gold so red, And therein was a bore's hed, A charboncle beside; And then he swore on ale and bred, How that the geaunt shuld be ded, Betide what so betide. His spere was of fine cypres, That bodeth warre and nothing pees, The hed ful sharpe yground. His stede was all of dapper gray. It goth an amble in the way, Ful softely in londe." [Illustration: _A Knight-Errant._]