The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott ... Notes & life of the author.

CANTO V. MARION1. 177
And much he marvelled one small land
Could marshal forth such various band:
For men-at-arms were here,
Heavily sheathed in mail and plate,
Like iron towers for strength and weight,
On Flemish steeds of bone and height,
With battle-axe and spear.
Young knights and squires, a lighter train,
Practised their chargers on the plain,
By aid of leg, of hand, and rein,
Each warlike feat to show;
To pass, to wheel, the croupe to gain,
And high curvett, that not in vain
The sword-sway might descend amain
On foeman's casque below.
He saw the hardy burghers there
March armed, on foot, with faces bare,
For visor they wore none,
Nor waving plume, nor crest of knight;
But burnished were their corslets bright,
Their brigantines, and gorgets light,
Like very silver shone.
Long pikes they had for standing fight,
Two-handed swords they wore,
And many wielded mace of weight,
And bucklers bright they bore.
*tL
On foot the yeoman too, but dressed
In his steel jack, a swarthy vest,
With iron quilted well;
Each at his back, (a slender store,)
His forty days' provision bore,
As feudal statutes tell
His arms were halberd, axe, or spear,
A cross-bow there, a hagbut here,.
A dagger.knife and brand.Sober he seemed, and sad of cheer,
As loth to leave his cottage dear,
And march to foreign strand;
Or musing who would guide his steer,
To till the fallow land.