Fig. 17.Fig. 18.Fig. 19.
The cross, which is the ordinary St. George's Cross, is pre-eminently the heraldic cross, out of nearly four hundred varieties of the sacred sign. It is really a simple combination of the fesse and pale. Bend is again a broad band, but it runs diagonally across the field from the dexter chief to the sinister base. It is supposed to occupy a third portion of the field, but rarely does so (Fig. 19). The saltire is the familiar St. Andrew's Cross, owing its name probably to the French salcier (see Fig. 20). The chevron, resembling the letter V turned topsy-turvy, is a combination of a bend dexter and a bend sinister, and is rather more than the lower half of the saltire. The French word chevron, still in use, means rafters (Fig. 21). The pile, derived from the Latin for pillar, is a triangular wedge, and when charged singly on a field may issue from any point of the latter, except from the base (Fig. 22). If more than one pile occurs, we generally find the number is three, although the Earl of Clare bears "two piles issuing from the chief." Many old writers, notably amongst the French, attribute a symbolical meaning to each of these ordinaries. Thus, some believe the chief to represent the helmet of the warrior, the fesse his belt or band, the bar "one of the great peeces of tymber which be used to debarre the enemy from entering any city." The pale was thought by some to represent the warrior's lance, by others the palings by which cities and camps were guarded; the cross was borne by those who fought for the faith; the bend was interpreted by some to refer to the shoulder-scarf of the knight, whilst others describe it as "a scaling-ladder set aslope." Another variety of the scaling-ladder was represented by the saltire. The chevron, or rafters, were held to symbolize protection, such as a roof affords, whilst the pile suggests a strong support of some sort.
Fig. 20.Fig. 21.Fig. 22.
There is a tenth ordinary, which is known as the "shakefork" (Fig. 23). Practically unknown in English heraldry, it is frequently met with in Scotch arms. It is shaped like the letter Y and pointed at its extremities, but does not extend to the edge of the field. Guillim attributes its origin to "an instrument in use in the royal stables, whereby hay was thrown up to the horses" (surely this instrument must have been next-of-kin to our homely pitchfork?), and he believes the shakefork to have been granted to a certain Earl of Glencairne, who at one time was Master of the King's Horse.
Fig. 23.
Many historical stories are connected with the different charges we have just been describing, but we have only space to mention two, referring respectively to the fesse and the saltire.
The former reminds us of the origin of the arms of Austria, which date from the Siege of Acre, where our Cœur-de-Lion won such glory. It was here that Leopold, Duke of Austria, went into battle, clad in a spotlessly white linen robe, bound at the waist with his knight's belt. On returning from the field, the Duke's tunic was "total gules"—blood-red—save where the belt had protected the white of the garment. Thereupon, his liege-lord, Duke Frederic of Swabia, father of the famous Frederic Barbarossa, granted permission to Leopold to bear as his arms a silver fesse upon a blood-red field.