The eighth order requiring “That the lord high sheriff as
commander-in-chief, and the lord custos rotulorum as muster-master of
the tribe (or the orator for the first muster), upon reception of the
lists of their hundreds, returned to them by the high constables of the
same, presently cause them to be cast up, dividing the horse from
the foot, and listing the horse by their names in troops, each troop
containing about 100 in number, to be inscribed First, Second, or Third
troop, etc., according to the order agreed upon by the said magistrates;
which done, they shall list the foot in like manner, and inscribe the
companies in like order. These lists upon the eve of the muster shall
be delivered to certain trumpeters and drummers, whereof there shall
be fifteen of each sort (as well for the present as otherwise to be
hereafter mentioned) stipendiated by the tribe. And the trumpeters and
drummers shall be in the field before the pavilion, upon the day of the
muster, so soon as it is light, where they shall stand every one with
his list in his hand, at a due distance, placed according to the order
of the list, the trumpeters with the lists of the horse on the right
hand, and the drummers with the lists of the foot on the left hand;
where having sounded awhile, each of them shall begin to call and
continue calling the names of the deputies, as they come into the field,
till both the horse and foot be gathered by that means into their due
order. The horse and foot being in order, the lord lieutenant of the
tribe shall cast so many gold balls marked with the figures 1, 2, 3, 4,
etc., as there be troops of horse in the field, together with so many
silver balls as there be companies, marked in the same manner, into
a little urn, to which he shall call the captains; and the captains
drawing the gold balls shall command the horse, and those that draw the
silver the foot, each in the order of his lot. The like shall be done by
the conductor at the same time for the ensigns at another urn; and they
that draw the gold balls shall be cornets, the left ensigns.”
This order may puzzle the reader, but tends to a wonderful speed of the
muster, to which it would be a great matter to lose a day in ranging
and marshalling, whereas by virtue of this the tribe is no sooner in the
field than in battalia, nor sooner in battalia than called to the urns
or the ballot by virtue of--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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