She walketh up and doun wher as her list.
She gathereth floures, partie white and red,
To make a sotel gerlond for hire hed.[427]
One at each side of her, walked two of the youngest bachelors in chivalry. These youths did not wear their harness, but came arrayed in gay attire, having on white hoods, perhaps embroidered with dancing men in blue habits, like the one given by Edward III. to the Lord Grey of Rotherfield, to be worn at a tournament; or looking,[428] each of them, like the “yonge Squier,” of whom Chaucer said:—
Embrouded was he, as it were a mede,
Alle ful of fresshe floures, white and red.[429]
[425] Chaucer, The Flower and the Leaf, v. 207, &c.
[426] Antient Kalendars of the Exchequers, ed. Palgrave, ii. p. 184.
[427] Chaucer, The Knightes Tale, v. 1050.
[428] Dugdale’s Baronage, i. 723.