with fine gold o'erlaid
A piece of silk of white and sable hue:
With this she trapt the horse."[71]

The tabards or surcoats which knights wore over their armour was the
article of dress in which they most delighted to display their
magnificence. They varied in form, but were mostly made of rich silk,
or of cloth of gold or silver, lined or trimmed with choice and
expensive furs, and usually, also, having the armorial bearings of the
family richly embroidered. Thus were women even the heralds of those
times. Besides the acknowledged armorial bearings, devices were often
wrought symbolical of some circumstance in the life of the wearer.
Thus we are told in Amadis that the Emperor of Rome, on his black
surcoat, had a golden chain-work woven, which device he swore never to
lay aside till he had Amadis in chains. The same romance gives the
following incident regarding a surcoat.

"Then Amadis cried to Florestan and Agrayes, weeping as he spake, good
kinsman, I fear we have lost Don Galaor, let us seek for him. They
went to the spot where Amadis had smitten down King Cildadan, and seen
his brother last on foot; but so many were the dead who lay there that
they saw him not, till as they moved away the bodies, Florestan knew
him by the sleeve of his _surcoat_, which was of azure, worked with
silver flowers, and then they made great moan over him."

The shape of them, as we have remarked, varied considerably; besides
minor alterations they were at one time worn very short, at another so
long as to trail on the ground. But this luxurious style was
occasionally attended with direful effects. Froissart names a surcoat
in which Sir John Chandos was attired, which was embroidered with his
arms in white sarsnet, argent a field gules, one on his back and
another on his breast. It was a long robe which swept the ground, and
this circumstance, most probably, caused the untimely death of one of
the most esteemed knights of chivalry.

Sir John Chandos was one of the brightest of that chivalrous circle
which sparkled in the reign of Edward the Third. He was gentle as well
as valiant; he was in the van with the Black Prince at the battle of
Cressy; and at the battle of Poictiers he never left his side. His
death was unlooked for and sudden. Some disappointments had depressed
his spirits, and his attendants in vain endeavoured to cheer them.

"And so he stode in a kechyn, warmyng him by the fyre, and his
servantes jangled with