110 EDIBLE BEITISH MOLLUSKS. 



when some great advantage always ensued ; for instance, 

 one day he put himself at the head of the troops of 

 a King of Spain, Ramira, King of Leon, and leading 

 them against the Moors, mounted on a white horse, 

 the housings charged with escallops,* defeated those 

 infidels. St. James supported his people, by taking part 

 in their battles, down to a very late period, as Caro de 

 Torres mentions two engagements in which he cheered 

 on the squadrons of Cortes and Pizarro " with his sword 

 flashing lightning in the eyes of the Indians."t The 

 great Spanish military order of Santiago de la Espada 

 is supposed to have been instituted in memory of the 

 celebrated battle of Clavijo ; the peculiar badge of which 

 order is a red cross, like a sword, charged with a white 

 scallop shell, and the motto, " Rubet ensis sanguine 

 Arabum."J To this day you are told in Spain, that the 

 scallops found at Clavijo were dropped there by St. 

 James, or Santiago, when he assisted the Spaniards to 

 kill 60,000 Moors, in the year 997, and they are consi- 

 dered visible proofs for those who doubt the miracles of 

 this saint. 



Other orders of knighthood used the scallop shell as 

 an ornament, viz., that of St. James of Holland, the 

 badge and collar being formed of escallops ; and Louis 

 IX. of France, or St. Louis, as he was generally called, 

 instituted an order of knighthood, called the " Ship 

 and Escallop Shell," to induce the French nobility to 

 accompany him in his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.§ 

 He quitted Paris the 12th of June, 1248, to embark at 



» ' Heraldry of Fish,' p. 222. 



t ' Ordenes Militares,' fol. 5. Note, Prescott's ' Ferdinand and Isa- 

 tella,' vol, i. p. 274. 



J Heraldry of Fish. § Ibid. 



