t is Sir Rodkins, a friend and ally of your fathers’, and known to be a loyal subject of the king. A groom has a horse saddled and you go out to meet him while he is still in the woodland around the castle, while your father –given a warning whisper by a very young page-- insists on showing Sir Sidbury some recently-acquired stained glass windows for the chapel--at great and pious length. The glass windows face the opposite direction from the entrance to the castle. You intercept Sir Rodkins and he delays in the wood until Sir Sidbury has left the castle and is safely out of sight.
     Sir Rodkins has an important message for your father. There is indeed a serious plot against the King. Their plan is for the King to have an "accident" crossing a small river to the south, on land belonging to the Earl of Egerton, at a place where the King had been told it is safe to ford the river. Once the King is dead, his son, just a young boy, will be crowned in his place, with the plotters left as regents and the real powers in the kingdom. This will give them authority over the other nobles in the kingdom.
     The message has to be delivered to several others who will be loyal to the King. The plotters, however, are more advanced in their plans than you knew, and it is not safe for anyone known to be against them to be on the roads. Your father would be dishonored to travel in disguise; however you, since you are not yet a knight and therefore have no coat of arms of your own, can travel in simple clothes like any well-off tradesman’s son. (A peasant would no reason to travel out of the village, and would not have a riding horse anyway. But the son of a craftsman or tradesman might well have business going from one place to another).
     Unknowing of the plot that is brewing, Sir Timmors has planned a tourney to celebrate his daughter’s betrothal to the son of a very important knight. The men to whom you have to give the message will be at the tourney, but you must make sure the message doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
     On the road--in some places it is little more than a muddy path--you hit bad weather--there is thunder and lightening in addition to the driving rain. Your health may not matter, but you cannot afford for your horse (who is more valuable than he looks) to stay wet and possibly get sick. Up ahead you can see the lights of an inn--food, a fire and a warm stable for your steed. You try not to think too much about the bedbugs; actually, you’d rather sleep in the stable with your horse, but this would attract comment.
     You enter the Pig and Whistle Inn cautiously without attracting attention, especially after you notice that there are some fine horses in the stable, too good for any but the richest tradesmen. Sure enough, there are two knights in the inn. They are not together, but sit at opposite ends of the room, as though they are less than close allies. Although they have their helmets off, you can’t recognize their faces, for you’ve never seen them before. You can’t ask them who they are, as that would be highly impertinent from the tradesman’s son you are pretending to be. But the knight nearest the fire has his shield by his side. Who is the knight nearest the fire?

Click on the knight whose blazon matches the shield.

Read Roger the Herald's Notes on Blazonry for Beginners