Marks of Cadency, as they are borne on Shields of Arms, may also be charged on Badges, Crests, and Supporters. As a matter of course, they appear on Armorial Banners and Standards under the same conditions that they are blazoned upon Shields and Surcoats. Such examples as may be necessary to illustrate heraldic usage in these cases, I propose to describe in the following Chapters. It cannot be necessary for me to adduce any arguments in order to impress upon Students of Heraldry the importance of investigating early Cadency, or to assure them that a special interest is inseparable from this inquiry: I may suggest, however, that it is most desirable that Students should arrange groups of allied Shields, and should carefully blazon them with their various “Marks of Cadency,” being careful also to record their authorities for every example. MODERN CADENCY is marked by the Label and by single small Charges, which take precedence in the following order:-- 1. The _Label_, No. 271. 2. The _Crescent_, No. 166, A. 3. The _Mullet_, No. 278. 4. The _Martlet_, No. 161. 5. The _Annulet_, No. 154. 6. The _Fleur de lys_, No. 246. 7. The _Rose_, No. 298. 8. The _Cross Moline_, No. 99. 9. The _Octofoil_, or _Double Quatrefoil_. When they are adopted, Marks of Cadency now are generally placed upon the Honour Point of the Shield, or in some other conspicuous position: one of these Marks also may be charged upon another, if desired,--as a Martlet may be charged upon a Crescent to denote the fourth son of a second son; and so in other cases. [Illustration: No. 365.--Seal of William Fraser: appended to Homage Deed, A.D. 1295, preserved in H.M. Record Office.] The Seal of WILLIAM FRASER, No. 365, from Mr. Laing’s Collection, exemplifies in a singular and interesting manner the early use of a differenced Label. Here the Label appears, without any Shield, borne as if it were a Badge: and it is charged, on each of its three points, with two devices that have the appearance of mullets of six points, but which really may be _fraises_--strawberry-leaves, the rebus-device of Fraser. (See pp. 182-185.) CHAPTER XIII DIFFERENCING _Differencing to denote Feudal Alliance or Dependency: Differencing without any Alliance-- Augmentation-- Abatement._ “Differencing, which comprises in truth the growth and ramification of Coat-Armour, and the whole system of its early development, has been strangely lost sight of in the numerous treatises on Armory that have satisfied recent generations of Englishmen.” --HERALD AND GENEALOGIST, II. 32.