Never having adopted either the tight-fitting hose or the balloon trousers, they wore an easy jerkin, a large cloak, and a felt hat, which the English made conical and with a broad brim.

The stranger was tall and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially concealed a flame-coloured jerkin.

" So Beltane, lighting down from the horse that reared and plunged no more, went and fetched the great sword; and when they had laid their jerkins by (for the sun was hot) they faced each other, foot to foot and eye to eye.

"Leave go, I say, or you will rend my jerkin asunder.

Here is my breast" (tearing open his jerkin).

" "If you value your buff jerkin, I counsel you to say nothing slighting of the Queen of England in my hearing," returned a bluff, broad-shouldered fellow, raising his bludgeon after a menacing fashion.