and their near approach to the King's person gave them
dignity in their own eyes, as well as importance in those of the nation of
France. They were sumptuously armed, equipped, and mounted; and each was
entitled to allowance for a squire, a valet, a page, and two yeomen, one of whom
was termed coutelier, from the large knife which he wore to despatch those whom
in the mêlée his master had thrown to the ground. With these followers, and a
corresponding equipage, an Archer of the Scottish Guard was a person of quality
and importance; and vacancies being generally filled up by those who had been
trained in the service as pages or valets, the cadets of the best Scottish
families were often sent to serve under some friend and relation in those
capacities, until a chance of preferment should occur.
    The coutelier and his companion, not being noble or capable of this
promotion, were recruited from persons of inferior quality; but as their pay and
appointments were excellent, their masters were easily able to select from among
their wandering countrymen the strongest and most courageous to wait upon them
in these capacities.
    Ludovic Lesly, or, as we shall more frequently call him, Le Balafré, by
which name he was generally known in France, was upwards of six feet high,
robust, strongly compacted in person, and hard-favoured in countenance, which
latter attribute was much increased by a large and ghastly scar, which,
beginning on his forehead, and narrowly missing his right eye, had laid bare his
cheek-bone, and descended from thence almost to the tip of his ear, exhibiting a
deep seam, which was sometimes scarlet, sometimes purple, sometimes blue, and
sometimes approaching to black; but always hideous, because at variance with the
complexion of the face in whatever state it chanced to be, whether agitated or
still, flushed with unusual passion, or in its ordinary state of weatherbeaten
and sunburnt swarthiness.
    His dress and arms were splendid. He wore his national bonnet, crested with
a tuft of feathers, and with a Virgin Mary of massive silver for a brooch. These
brooches had been presented to the Scottish Guard, in consequence of the King,
in one of his fits of superstitious piety, having devoted the swords of his
guard to the service of the Holy Virgin, and, as some say, carried the matter so
far as to draw out a commission to Our Lady as their Captain General. The
Archer's gorget, arm-pieces, and gauntlets, were of the finest steel, curiously
inlaid with silver, and his hauberk