Fig. 56.
Fig. 57.
Fig. 58.
Fig. 59.
The Bend is drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base (Fig. 57), and is sometimes accompanied by a smaller bend on either side, when it is said to be cotised and must so be distinctly described, as arg. a bend cotised sa.; if, however, the cotises were of another tincture to the bend the blazon would be, for instance, arg. a bend sa. cotised gu., that is, a black bend between two smaller red ones on a white shield. The word cotise is also used for other diminutives that accompany their ordinaries on either side, and there are instances of shields being said to be cotised by their supporters. Where two or more bends of equal width occur they are called bendlets, and when they are raised above their normal position as in the Arms of Byron and of Birmingham they are said to be enhanced.
The Bend-sinister is a bend reversed; that is to say, descending from the sinister chief to the opposite base; indeed, it sometimes occurs in wood-carving merely by reason of the carver having inadvertently turned his tracing over. The bend-sinister is sometimes used as a mark of illegitimacy. One of its diminutives, the Baton (a small bend-sinister, whose ends stop considerably short of the edges of the shield), is especially used with this intention. A bend-sinister is not necessarily a mark of illegitimacy. The old heralds indeed do not seem to have marked a coat in this way in order to hold up its bearer to obloquy, but simply employed the ordinary as a difference.