His complexion was crimson, his large blue eyes somewhat
prominent, and his whole appearance full-blooded and choleric. He
was short, but massively built, and evidently possessed of immense
strength. His voice, however, when he spoke was gentle and
lisping, while his manner was quiet and courteous. Unlike the
King or the Prince, he was clad in light armor and carried a sword
by his side and a mace at his saddle-bow, for he was acting as
Captain of the King's Guard, and a dozen other knights in steel
followed in the escort. No hardier soldier could Edward have at
his side, if, as was always possible in those lawless times,
sudden danger was to threaten, for this was the famous knight of
Hainault, now naturalized as an Englishman, Sir Walter Manny, who
bore as high a reputation for chivalrous valor and for gallant
temerity as Chandos himself.
Behind the knights, who were forbidden to scatter and must always
follow the King's person, there was a body of twenty or thirty
hobblers or mounted bowmen, together with several squires, unarmed
themselves but leading spare horses upon which the heavier part of
their knights' equipment was carried. A straggling tail of
falconers, harbingers, varlets, body-servants and huntsmen holding
hounds in leash completed the long and many-colored train which
rose and dipped on the low undulations of the moor.
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