98 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



pointed star, on which lies the green cross of the order, with a gold central 

 shield in which the falcon appears. The central shield has a circular blue 

 border, with the motto, Vigilando ascendimus. The order has also a 

 golden collar, which is composed of golden falcons and the name-cyphers 

 E. A. and C. A. The Commanders wear the order en sautoir ; the Knights 

 have it smaller and from a narrow ribbon at the button-hole. 



Duchy of Saxe-Cohurg-Gotha. The Order of the Saxe-Ernestine House 

 {fig. 23), founded 1833 for Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, and Saxe- 

 Meiningen-Hildburghausen by Dukes Frederick, Ernest, and Bernhard 

 Erich Freund, as a renewal of the Order of German Honesty, established 

 by Ernest the Pious in 1690, consists of Grand Crosses, twelve Commenda- 

 tors of the first and eighteen of the second class, and thirty-six Knights. 

 The badge of the Order is a gold, white enamelled Maltese cross, between 

 the arms of which are golden lions, two marked with black and two with 

 white. On the face is a round gold shield, with the bust of Ernest the 

 Pious in gold, and, in a blue enamelled margin, the inscription, Fideliter 

 et constanter, about which is wound a green gold-bound oak wreath. The 

 central shield of the reverse displays the arms of the House of Saxe, border 

 and wreath as before, but as inscription, 25 December, 1833. Above the 

 cross is a gold crown. For foreigners, the oak wreath is left out ; for the 

 military, it becomes a laurel wrea^th, and the cross rests upon two crossed 

 swords. For the duchy which belonged to the founder, the upper arm of 

 the cross bears his name. The order is of three sizes. Grand Crosses wear 

 it from a hand-broad, red, green-bordered ribbon, en echarpe, from the 

 right, and with it an embroidered eight pointed star, the points alternately 

 of gold and silver, on which lies the white Maltese cross, with a gold central 

 shield bearing the green rue-crown. In the blue border, about which is 

 wound a green oak wreath (wanting for foreigners), stands, the device, 

 Fideliter et constanter. The Commendators wear the order en sautoir, 

 and the first class have also, on the left breast, the cross from the order-star 

 of the Grand Crosses. The Knights wear the order from a narrow ribbon 

 at the breast. 



Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg. The Cross of Distinction for Service for 

 Officers (pi. SI, fig. 24) founded by Duke Joseph Frederick Ernest in 1836 

 for those officers who had served the state honorably for twenty-five years, 

 is a silver cross, with gold border and a gold central shield, having on one 

 side the cypher J. F. E. under a crown, on the other, XXV., and is worn 

 from a green, silver-bordered ribbon, one and a half inches wide, on the 

 breast. 



The War Medal for 1814 {fig. 25) was instituted by Duke Ernest in 

 1816. The medal is of silver, and has for inscription, Dem Vertheidiger 

 des Vaterlandes (To the defenders of the fatherland), 1814; and the cir- 

 cumscription, Ernst H. z. S. C. S. The reverse displays a Maltese cross 

 in an oak wreath. The ribbon is green and white striped. 



Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. The War Medal for 1814 {fig. 26), esta- 

 olished by Duchess Louise Eleonora in 1816, is of silver, and displays on one 

 side a Maltese cross, surrounded by an oak wreath, on the other the 

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