were termed pages, and served chiefly the Countess and her waiting
gentlewomen, in whose company they acquired the graces and polish of the
times, such as they were. After reaching the age of fourteen the lads
were entitled to the name of esquire or squire.

In most of the great houses of the time the esquires were the especial
attendants upon the Lord and Lady of the house, holding such positions
as body-squires, cup-bearers, carvers, and sometimes the office of
chamberlain. But Devlen, like some other of the princely castles of the
greatest nobles, was more like a military post or a fortress than an
ordinary household. Only comparatively few of the esquires could be
used in personal attendance upon the Earl; the others were trained
more strictly in arms, and served rather in the capacity of a sort of
body-guard than as ordinary squires. For, as the Earl rose in power and
influence, and as it so became well worth while for the lower nobility
and gentry to enter their sons in his family, the body of squires became
almost cumbersomely large. Accordingly, that part which comprised the
squires proper, as separate from the younger pages, was divided into
three classes--first, squires of the body, who were those just past
pagehood, and who waited upon the Earl in personal service; second,
squires of the household, who, having regular hours assigned for
exercise in the manual of arms, were relieved from personal service
excepting upon especial occasions; and thirdly and lastly, at the head
of the whole body of lads, a class called bachelors--young men ranging
from eighteen to twenty years of age. This class was supposed to
exercise a sort of government over the other and younger squires--to
keep them in order as much as possible, to marshal them upon occasions
of importance, to see that their arms and equipments were kept in good
order, to call the roll for chapel in the morning, and to see that those
not upon duty in the house were present at the daily exercise at arms.