Like the points of Labels, the Charges blazoned on those points had no fixed or determinate numbers. That both the Labels and their Charges should be distinct and conspicuous, was the special object with which they were blazoned. Accordingly, in different examples of the same Label the number of the repetitions of the Charges sometimes is found to differ. At the same time, in the earliest examples of charged Labels, the repetitions of the Charges, while devoid of any special differencing aim or meaning, may be considered to have been suggested by the sources from which the Charges themselves were derived. For example: the Label of Lancaster, No. 338, of Earl EDMOND, derived directly from the Shield of _France ancient_, No. 247, with its field _semée de lys_, has three fleurs de lys upon each point, so that this Label has the appearance of being also _semée de lys_. Had it been derived from the Shield of _France modern_, No. 248, charged with three fleurs de lys only, a single fleur de lys in all probability would have been blazoned on each of the three points of this same Label. Upon this principle the Label of Prince LIONEL, DUKE of CLARENCE, second son of EDWARD III., which is differenced with _cantons gules_, has a single canton on each point, as in No. 341, evidently because only a single canton can be blazoned on a Shield. The figures and devices that are charged for secondary difference upon Labels vary widely in their character; but, however difficult it now may be in very many instances to trace these differencing charges to their sources, and so to determine the motive which led to their adoption, there can be no doubt that originally they were chosen and adopted for the express purpose of denoting and recording some alliance or dependency. Some early Labels are of a compound character; that is, they are charged with two distinct groups of devices, which are at once divided and conjoined by impalement. Such a Label was borne by Prince HENRY, son of JOHN of GHENT, between the time of his father’s death and his own accession as HENRY IV. (Feb. 3 to Sept. 30, 1399): it was a _Label of five points per pale of Brittany and Lancaster_, No. 342, being his father’s Label impaling that of his mother’s father. The second son of this Prince, THOMAS Duke of CLARENCE, instead of adopting impalement, charged _a red canton upon each point of an ermine Label_, as in No. 343: while his brother, JOHN Duke of BEDFORD, bore their father’s Label, No. 342. [Illustration: No. 344.--Holland, of Kent.]