lum_, &c.
had all the moral and sentimental importance of the colours of to-day.
During the dark and the middle ages, however, the basis of military
force being the individual knight or lord, the banner, or other flag
bearing his arms, replaced the regimental colour which had signified the
corporate body and claimed the devotion of each individual soldier in
the ranks, though the original meaning of the colour as a corps, not a
personal distinction, was sometimes maintained by corporate bodies (such
as trade-gilds) which took the field as such. An example is the famous
_carroccio_ or standard on wheels, which was frequently brought into the
field of battle by the citizen militia of the Italian cities, and was
fought for with the same ardour as the royal standard in other medieval
battles.

The application of the word "colour" to such insignia, however, dates
only from the 16th century. It has been suggested that, as the
professional captain gradually ousted the nobleman from the command of
the drilled and organized companies of foot--the man of gentle birth, of
course, maintained his ascendancy in the cavalry far longer--the leaders
of such bodies, no longer possessing coat-armour and individual banners,
had recourse to small flags of distinctive colour instead. "Colour" is
in the 16th century a common name in England and middle Europe for the
unit of infantry; in German the _Fahnlein_ (colour) of landsknechts was
a strong company of more than 300 foot. The ceremonial observances and
honours paid nowadays to the colours of infantry were in fact founded
for the most part by the landsknechts, for whom the flag (carried by
their "ensign") was symbolical of their intense regimental life and
feeling. The now universal customs of constituting the colour guard of
picked men and of saluting the colours were in equal honour then; before
that indeed, the appearance of the personal banner of a nobleman implied
his actual presence with it, and the due honours were paid, but the
colour of the 16th century was not the distinction of one man, but the
symbol of the corporate life and unity of the regiment, and thus the new
colour ceremonial implied the same allegiance to an impersonal
regimental spirit, which it has (with the difference that the national
spirit has been blended with the regimental) retained ever since. The
old soldier rallied to the colours as a matter of habit in the confusion
of battle, and the capture or the loss of