The Scotch use even less armour than do our borderers,
their breast pieces being smaller, and they seldom wear back pieces. It
is a question chiefly of the activity of the horses, as of the skill of
their riders, and our little moor horses are as active as young goats;
and although neither horse nor rider can stand a charge of a
heavily-armed knight or squire, methinks that if one of our troopers
brought him to a stand, he would get the better of him, save if the
knight took to mace or battle-axe."
"Have you your horse with you, Oswald?"
"Yes, it is in the stable. I have gone out with it, every morning, as
soon as the castle gates were opened, and have ridden for a couple of
hours before I began my exercises."
"Do you take him in hand first, Marsden," Allonby said to one of the
younger esquires, a young man of two or three and twenty.
Light steel caps with cheeks, gorgets, shoulder and arm pieces, and
padded leathern jerkins were put on; and then, with blunted swords,
they took their places facing each other. The squire took up a position
of easy confidence. He was a good swordsman, and good-naturedly
determined to treat the lad easily, and to play with him for a time
before scoring his first hit.
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