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Supporters. - Mottoes. - Shield. - Colors. - Metals. - Furs: French

The motto as now seen is Dieu et mon droit. This was selected by Richard Cœur de Lion, who, in 1198, gained a victory at Gisons, in Normandy, over the French. The king's military password for the day had been this sentence; and when success crowned his arms, the king, in memory of his triumph, adopted it as England's motto.

And now let us at last take the shield. No two are precisely alike, some being covered with animals, flowers, shells, etc., and others having geometrical lines drawn upon them. These lines are supposed to suggest the old strengthening braces and framework of the Norman shield, which, as you know, consisted of skins drawn tightly over a wooden skeleton. After the shield had been made in this manner, it became the fashion to gild or paint these bars and clamps, and so a large number of ornamentations arose, each one of which has its own distinctive name. - The colors used in decoration are but few in number, and some have singular names. A herald never thinks of calling the stripes on our flag red-oh! never! To him they are gules - perhaps from the Persian word "gul," a rose. Then blue - ah, but that is not blue in the herald's eyes, he says it is azure - a word taken from the precious stone, lapis lazuli. From this stone the painters obtain their costly pigment, ultramarine blue. Black is sable, but nobody can tell the why or the wherefore. Purple is purpure, which is a French word; so is vert, which in English is green. Besides these, gold and silver were used, but under French names, or, and argent. These and also the colors were not permitted to be borne upon each other. If the shield was gules, or red, and had a stripe placed across it, it must either be of metal or of fur. They had furs, you see, also, with which to ornament their shields. One variety is called vair, which is usually a mixture of blue and white, and is intended to call to your mind a little gray and white squirrel. There are two or three kinds of this vair, such as counter-vair, etc FURS.

But the most important fur is that which we call ermine, and about the early use of which queer stories are told. Some one says that the first one to use this fur upon a shield was Brutus, the son of Silvius, who, having by accident killed his father, left that unhappy region and travelled long in Brittany and France. There falling asleep one night, he awoke to find the little beast called ermine upon his shield, and from that time he wore a "shield ermine." "The ermine is a creature of so pure a nature that it will choose rather to be taken than to defile its skin." When the hunters wished to take it, the old story was that they would surround it with a wall of mud, which, from its dislike of dirt, it would not cross, and was thus easily secured. It was from this supposed instinctive love of cleanliness that the little animal became the emblem of purity and of honor without stain. With this signification it is used by royalty as a lining to their robes; internal purity should regulate their conduct.

Among the many, many ancient Orders of Chivalry was one named after the ermine, probably on account of the legendary purity of the animal.