Then Gascoyne, leading the
horse by the bridle-rein, conducted him back to his station at the east
end of the lists.
As the faithful friend and squire made one last and searching
examination of arms and armor, the Marshal and the clerk came to the
young champion and administered the final oath by which he swore that he
carried no concealed weapons.
The weapons allowed by the High Court were then measured and attested.
They consisted of the long sword, the short sword, the dagger, the mace,
and a weapon known as the hand-gisarm, or glave-lot--a heavy swordlike
blade eight palms long, a palm in breadth, and riveted to a stout handle
of wood three feet long.
The usual lance had not been included in the list of arms, the
hand-gisarm being substituted in its place. It was a fearful and
murderous weapon, though cumbersome, Unhandy, and ill adapted for quick
or dexterous stroke; nevertheless, the Earl of Alban had petitioned
the King to have it included in the list, and in answer to the King's
expressed desire the Court had adopted it in the stead of the lance,
yielding thus much to the royal wishes. Nor was it a small concession.
The hand-gisarm had been a weapon very much in vogue in King Richard's
day, and was now nearly if not entirely out of fashion with the younger
generation of warriors. The Earl of Alban was, of course, well used to
the blade; with Myles it was strange and new, either for attack or in
defence.
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