It is far more probable that this ordinary originated in the insertion of a perpendicular stripe of a different colour from the mantle itself, an idea which is supported by the fact that the pale occupies in breadth a third of the escocheon. Two breadths of blue cloth divided by one of yellow, would produce a blazonable coat, '_Azure, a pale or_.' When a shield is divided into several horizontal stripes of alternate colours it is called _barry_; when the stripes run perpendicularly it is said to be _paly_; and when they take a diagonal direction it is styled _bendy_. The love of a striking contrast of colours in costume is characteristic of a semi-barbarous state of society, and the shawls and robes of the orientals of the present day afford a good illustration of the origin of these striped bearings.[90] Such vestments were not peculiar to the military, with whom we must always associate the heraldry of the earliest times; for, so lately as the time of Chaucer, they were the favourite fashion of civilians. This author, in his 'Parson's Tale,' makes that worthy ecclesiastic complain of the "sinful costly array of clothing in the embrouding, the disguising, indenting or _barring_, ounding, _paling_, winding or _bending_, and semblable waste of cloth in vanity."[91] Arms divided into two compartments by a horizontal line are said to be _parted per fesse_; when the line is perpendicular, _parted per pale_; and so of the others. Ridiculous as it may seem, our ancestors, from the reign of Edward II to that of Richard II, affected this kind of dress. In a contemporary illumination, John of Gaunt is represented in a long robe divided exactly in half, one side being blue, the other white, the colours of the House of Lancaster. Chaucer's Parson, just now quoted, inveighs against the "wrappings of their hose which are departed of two colours, white and red, white and blue, or black and red," making the wearers seem as though "the fire of St. Anthony or other such mischance had consumed one half of their bodies." "These party-coloured hose," humorously remarks Mr. Planché, "render uncertain the fellowship of the legs, and the common term _a pair_ perfectly inadmissible." But to return to the honourable ordinaries. The =cross=. It would not be difficult to fill a volume with disquisitions upon this bearing, forming, as it does, a prominent feature in the heraldry of all Christendom; but I must content myself with a general view, without entering much into detail. The cross, as the symbol of Christianity, naturally engaged the reverent and affectionate regard of the early Christians, a feeling which lapsed first into superstition, and eventually into idolatry. In those chivalrous but ill-directed efforts of the princes and armies of Christian Europe to gain possession of the Holy Land, the cross was adopted as the sign or mark of the common cause; it floated upon the standard, was embroidered upon the robes, and depicted on