Immediately the banners and pennons, which waved in numbers below, were seen moving in various directions through the crowd, and each became stationary at its fixed point, near the edge of the area of the court-yard. This was a preliminary arrangement, without which the herald would have found great difficulty in executing his duty. As it was, he and his assistants soon began to bring the most beautiful order out of the gay confusion [[298]]that prevailed. The Earl of Fife, who was to represent the King, appeared, and the Countess of Moray, and all the ladies, gorgeously apparelled in robes of state, came forth from the Castle, and began to mingle their slender and delicate forms with the firm, muscular, war-proved, and mail-clad figures of the knights.
At length all were marshalled and mounted; the court-yard shook with the shrill clangour of the trumpets and kettle-drums, and the neighing and prancing of the steeds; and the shouts that began to arise from the vulgar thousands who were impatiently waiting without the walls, announced that their eager eyes were at least gratified with the appearance of the first part of the spectacle.
Forth came some mounted spearmen and bowmen, before whom the dense crowd began slowly to open and divide; and then some half-dozen trumpets, with several kettle-drums and clarions, all riding two and two. These were followed by a troop of pages, also riding in pairs, and after them came a train of esquires, all gallantly mounted and armed, and riding in the same order. Between the pages and the esquires were some kettle-drums and trumpets as before. Then came the Royal Standard, preceded by a strong band of trumpets, kettle-drums, and clarions, and various other martial instruments, and guarded by some of the oldest and noblest of the knights, and such as had no ladies present to claim their attendance. The standard was followed by the Earl of Fife, who rode a magnificent milk-white charger, armed and barbed at all points, and caparisoned with regal splendour. On the present occasion he was here acting as representative of the King his father, and the pomp of his array was not inferior to what might have been looked for from a crowned head. Before him rode six pages and six esquires; and eight more pages walked, four on each side of his horse, supporting the poles of a canopy of crimson velvet, covered with golden shields, bearing the lion rampant gules. His golden surcoat, and the drapery of his horse, were richly emblazoned with the rampant red lion, and his private banner that followed bore the full blazon of his arms. The Earl of Fife was attended by a number of elderly knights of noble blood, who acted as his guards.
After the King’s representative came the trumpets of the heralds, followed by the pursuivants; immediately after them appeared the heralds, in their crowns and robes; and in the middle of the latter was Albany Herald, his horse led by a page on each side of him. He bore before him, on a crimson [[299]]velvet cushion, a helmet and sword of rare and curious workmanship, which glittered with gold, and sparkled with precious stones. These were to be the prize of him who, by universal consent, should best acquit himself in the lists; and the very sight of them called forth loud shouts of applause from the populace. Immediately after the heralds came the Marischal and Speaker of the Lists, attended by the Marischal’s men.
After these came the Earl and Countess of Moray, richly attired, magnificently mounted, and nobly attended. They were accompanied by the Lord Welles, and his suit of English knights, to whom succeeded the married knights who had ladies present, each riding according to his rank, with his lady by his side, her palfrey being led by a page on foot. Before each chevalier went his banner or his pennon, and he was followed by his esquire, pages, and other attendants. Next came the young or unmarried knights, also marshalled according to their rank, each preceded by his banner or pennon, and followed by his squire and cortège. But the youthful gallants were each bound round the neck with a silken leash, which was held in gentle thrall by the fair hand of a lady, who rode beside him on a palfrey, led by a foot page. It is perhaps unnecessary to mention that Sir John Halyburton’s silken fetters were held by the Lady Jane de Vaux.
After the knights came another train of esquires, who were followed by pages and lacqueys; and, lastly, the procession was closed by a considerable force of spearmen, bowmen, and pole-axemen.
The head of the procession had no sooner appeared through the echoing gateway, than the air was rent with the repeated acclamations of the populace, who formed a dense mass, stretching away from the outworks in one uninterrupted mosaic of heads and faces, until they disappeared beneath the shade of the distant trees of the woodland. The paltry roofs of the cottages in the straggling hamlet were clustered so thick that they looked like animated heaps of human beings; and the ancient single trees that arose here and there among the hovels, were hung with living fruit. The agitation and commotion of the motley and party-coloured crowd was very great, but it expanded, and consequently thinned itself, as the procession moved on, the whole flowing forward like a vast river, until it lost itself in the depths of the forest, where its winding course, and the appearing and disappearing of its various parts among the boles of the trees, with the brilliant though transient gleams produced by the sunbeams, that pierced their way now and then downwards [[300]]through accidental openings in the foliage, kindling up the bright lance-heads and helmets, and giving fresh lustre to the vivid colours of the proud heraldic emblazonments, lent an infinite variety of effect to the spectacle.
Whilst they moved over the green sod, under the leafy canopy of the forest, the tramp of the horses was deafened, and the shouts of the populace were in some sort muffled; but when the procession issued forth on the Meads of St. John, the affrighted welkin rang again with the repeated and piercing acclamations of a multitude which went on increasing in numbers as they advanced, particularly after they had crossed the bridge, and even until they reached the lists. The gates and barriers were wide open, and the procession filed in.
The Royal Standard was now hoisted over the crimson-covered central balcony, in which the representative of the Sovereign was afterwards to take his place, and it was hailed with prolonged cheers; while the heralds, pursuivants, Marischal, and Speaker of the Lists, and the judges of the field, having stationed themselves on a platform immediately underneath the royal balcony, the procession formed itself into a wide semi-circle in front of it. Meanwhile the galleries surrounding the lists were rapidly filled up by the populace, and all waited the issue with breathless impatience.
The Albany Herald now advanced to the front of the platform, and, holding up the prize sword and helmet in both hands, there was a flourish of trumpets and kettle-drums, which was drowned by the deafening shouts of the spectators. This had no sooner subsided, than Albany, having commanded silence by means of the shrill voices of his pursuivants, thus began:—