There were eight hundred of the Swiss, all wearing the black imperial
two-headed eagle on their padded and slashed buff jerkins. They marched
through the city, and were encamped outside the walls, on the north.
Fresh troops were continually arriving, and in three days afterwards the
main body, under the Duke of Orleans, the Prince of Orange, and the Lord
d’Albret, marched into the city. Ralph attended upon the Captain of the
Wight, who was sometimes called Lord Rivers by the Bretons, and enjoyed
the spectacle of all this fine body of men and so many well-known nobles
and knights defiling before him. There was the ducal ermine of
Brittany; the golden lilies of France, with the silver label of
Orleans--the lilies quartering the purple of Albret, the silver bend
sinister abating the regal lilies of Dunois; and the red cross, with its
silver escallops, blazing in a golden shield, with its azure eagles, for
Laval. Ducal, princely, noble banners passed in gay procession before
the eyes of the delighted page, while the splendidly armed cavaliers,
attended by their esquires and varlets, rode past at the head of their
squadrons. There were four hundred steel-clad men-at-arms, and eight
thousand foot, with a large train of artillery, the first that Ralph had
ever seen for use in the field, for the English still trusted to their
own peculiar weapon, the famed long bow of England, for winning
victories in the open field.
In addition to the great names of the feudal chiefs, there were other
Breton lords. The Marechal de Rieux, lately returned to his allegiance
to his lawful Duke; the Lords of Chateaubriand, Leon, Crenettes, Pont
l’Abbé, Plessis, Balines, and Montigny Montuet, and Ralph was astonished
at the gallant show and numbers of the Breton force.
He little knew what fatal jealousies were burning in the hearts of those
baronial figures as they proudly rode past to the great square before
the Parliament House of Rennes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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