Accordingly, that part which comprised the
squires proper, as separate from the younger pages, was divided into
three classes--first, squires of the body, who were those just past
pagehood, and who waited upon the Earl in personal service; second,
squires of the household, who, having regular hours assigned for
exercise in the manual of arms, were relieved from personal service
excepting upon especial occasions; and thirdly and lastly, at the head
of the whole body of lads, a class called bachelors--young men ranging
from eighteen to twenty years of age. This class was supposed to
exercise a sort of government over the other and younger squires--to
keep them in order as much as possible, to marshal them upon occasions
of importance, to see that their arms and equipments were kept in good
order, to call the roll for chapel in the morning, and to see that those
not upon duty in the house were present at the daily exercise at arms.
Orders to the squires were generally transmitted through the bachelors,
and the head of that body was expected to make weekly reports of affairs
in their quarters to the chief captain of the body.
From this overlordship of the bachelors there had gradually risen a
system of fagging, such as is or was practised in the great English
public schools--enforced services exacted from the younger lads--which
at the time Myles came to Devlen had, in the five or six years it had
been in practice, grown to be an absolute though unwritten law of the
body--a law supported by all the prestige of long-continued usage.
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