[34] He remains gibbeted, however, in the pages of Shakespeare, which is perhaps the worst fate that could have befallen him.
[35] 18 Henry VI. cap. 18.
[36] Robert Patillock.
[37] Oman's Warwick.
[38] Yet they were not all ruffians. In the Paston Letters some professional soldiers hired for private defence are described as gentlemanly comfortable fellows, and their employer is warned that they must not be put to sleep more than two in a bed (vol. ii. p. 327).
[39] The same thing has been seen at our autumn manœuvres.
[40] Allusion has already been made to the supplanting of the sheriff's authority by the barons in raising troops, and the consequent fashion of issuing liveries to the corps so formed. It is perhaps worth while to note and dismiss the minute point that the garrison of Calais, the only truly national force belonging at that moment to England, was clothed in scarlet jackets, and were the first English soldiers thus distinguished.
[41] Readers of Kenilworth will remember the ballad quoted by Giles Gosling—
"He was the flower of Stoke's red field
Where Martin Swart on ground lay slain."