The privileges of knighthood were at one time so great, that if the goods of a knight were liable to seizure, they could not be seized where he or his wife were present, nor even where his cloak or shield was to be found.—Part. ii. Tit. 21. Ley 23.
The coated scales of steel
Which o’er the tunic to his knees depend.—[XII. p. 111.]
Canciani (T. 3. p. 34.) gives a representation of Roland from the porch of the Cathedral at Verona, which is supposed to have been built about the beginning of the ninth century. The figure is identified by the inscription on the sword, ... Du-rin-dar-da. The lorica, which Canciani explains, Vestica bellica maculis ferreis contexta, is illustrated by this figure. It is a coat or frock of scale-mail reaching to the knees, and with half sleeves. The only hand which appears is unarmed, as far as the elbow. The right leg also is unarmed, the other leg and foot are in the same sort of armour as the coat. The end of a loose garment appears under the mail. The shield reaches from the chin to the middle of the leg, it is broad enough at the top to cover the breast and shoulder, and slopes gradually off to the form of a long oval.
At every saddle-bow
A gory head was hung.—[XIV. p. 127.]
This picture frequently occurs in the Spanish Chronicles. Sigurd the elder, Earl of Orkney, owed his death to a like custom. “Suddenly clapping spurs to his horse, as he was returning home in triumph, bearing, like each of his followers, one of these bloody spoils, a large front tooth in the mouth of the head which hung dangling by his side, cut the calf of his leg,—the wound mortified, and he died.—The Earl must have been bare-legged.”—Torfæus, quoted in Edmonston’s View of the Zetland Islands, vol. i. p. 33.