E.
EAGLE. Black-Eagle, an order of military knighthood in Prussia, instituted by the elector of Brandenburg, in 1701, on his being crowned king of Prussia. The knights of this order wear an orange colored riband, from which is suspended a black eagle.
White-Eagle, is a like order in Poland, instituted in 1325, by Uladislaus V. on occasion of the marriage of his son Casimir to the daughter of the great duke of Lithuania. The knights of this order wear a chain of gold, to which a silver eagle, crowned, is suspended.
The white headed eagle, peculiar to America, is the standard of the United States.
Eagle. The standard of the ancient Romans. In a general sense, it formerly meant the standard of the Roman armies; in a more limited acceptation, the sign or flag of the several legions.
The standard of the German empire was an eagle with two heads, referring to the eastern and western Roman empires, whose successors they claimed to be, and called themselves Keisar, or Cæsar.
The difference between the Roman and the Imperial eagle consists in this, that the first were eagles of gold or silver, fixed at the end of a pike, having their wings extended, and holding the lightning in their claws; the second are eagles painted or embossed upon the colors and standards of the emperors. The eagle likewise signified, in a figurative sense, the German empire, now extinct.
EARL-MARSHAL. An officer who has the care and direction of military solemnities. The dukes of Norfolk are by hereditary right, earls marshal of England.
EARTH-bags. See [Bags].
EASE, in a military sense, signifies a prescribed relaxation of the frame, from the erect and firm position which every well dressed soldier should observe. He is, on no account to lounge, or in his common gait so far to give way to an idle fluctuation of his limbs, as to feel himself constrained when he returns to duty. A habit of this sort will gradually gain upon recruits, if they are not corrected during the intervals of drill.