i64 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



nobleman. The young noble, before attaining the rank 

 of chevalier, or complete warrior, had to serve many years' 

 apprenticeship under the designations of page, variety 



damn'Lseau, and ecuyer It was in the name of 



Saint George or Saint Michael that he W2cs> armed as a 

 chevalier.' The young nobles filled in the castles of their 

 lords all kinds of domestic offices, to which the feudal 

 system, the conservator of Celtic traditions, did not attach 

 any idea of servility.'^ The Gauls and Bretons had 

 already afforded an example of this servitude. The 

 popular ballads of Brittany, collected by M. la Ville- 

 marque, and which are supposed to have been sung by 

 the bards of the fifth and sixth centuries, contain allusions 

 to it. One ballad savs : 'And all the castles he saw were full 

 of men-at-arms and horses, and each warrior furbished his 

 helmet, sharpened his sword, cleaned his armour, and shod 

 his horse' Another song, entitled ' Le Barde Merlin,' 

 recounts the success of a young noble in a horse-race, the 

 prize for which was to be Leonora, the king's daughter, 

 and says : ' He has equipped his red steed, he has shod it 

 ivith polished steel, he has put on its bridle.' ^ 



In connection with this greatly increasing importance 



The bards of the 6th century, however, use the word eddestr for a 

 charger, which was of Celtic derivation. 



' Varlet, vaslet, vasselet, under-servant. Damoiseaii, from domicellus, 

 diminutive of dominus, an inferior lord. Ecuyer, scutifer, or shield- 

 bearer. He carried the buckler of his lord, and attended him in combat, 

 like the Gaulish ' trimarkisia.' 



Saint Michael was the chief of celestial chivalry, and Saint George 

 of the terrestrial. 



" Hist. France, p. io8. 



3 Megnin. La Marechalerie Fran9aise, p. 72. 



