And all that saw them prais'd them,--they lauded man and horse, As matched well, and rivalless for gallantry and force. Ne'er had they look'd on horseman might to this knight come near, Nor on other charger worthy of such a cavalier. Thus, to and fro a-rushing, the fierce and furious steed, He snapp'd in twain his hither rein:--'God pity now the Cid;' 'God pity Diaz,' cried the Lords;--but when they look'd again, They saw Ruz Diaz ruling him with the fragment of his rein; They saw him proudly ruling, with gesture firm and calm, Like a true Lord commanding,--and obey'd as by a lamb. And so he led him foaming and panting to the king, But 'No,' said Don Alphonso, 'it were a shameful thing That peerless Bavieca should ever be bestrid By any mortal but Bivar,--mount, mount again, my Cid.'"[127] It has been often said that the knight had always his ambling palfrey, on which he rode till the hour of battle arrived; and that the war-horse, from the circumstance of his being led by the right hand of the squire, was called dextrarius.[128] With respect to sovereigns and men of great estate this was certainly the custom, but it was by no means a general chivalric practice. Froissart's pages are a perfect picture of knightly riding and combatting; and each of his favorite cavaliers seems to have had but one and the same steed for the road and the battle-plain. Even romance, so prone to exaggerate, commonly represents the usage as similar; for when we find that a damsel is rescued, she is not placed upon a spare horse, but the knight mounts her behind himself.[129] The _destrier_, _cheval de lance_, or war-steed, was armed or barded[130] very much on the plan of the harness of the knight himself, and was defended, therefore, by mail or plate, agreeably to the fashion of the age. His head, chest, and flanks were either wholly or partially protected, and sometimes, on occasions of pomp, he was clad in complete steel, with the arms of his master engraven or embossed on his bardings. His caparisons and housings frequently descended so low that they were justly termed bases, from the French _bas à bas_, upon the ground. His head, too, was ornamented with a crest, like the helmet of a knight. The bridle of the horse was always as splendid as the circumstances of the knight allowed; and thus a horse was often called Brigliadore, from _briglia d'oro_, a bridle of gold. The knight was fond of ornamenting the partner of his perils and glories. The horse was not always like that of Chaucer's knight; "His hors was good, but he was not gay."