by sovereigns on subjects that have become eminent for their services,
either in the council or the field of battle. Volumes have been
written upon the origin and form of the honourable ordinaries. These
long and tedious inquiries can only be interesting to antiquaries: it
is sufficient for the tyro in Heraldry to know that they are merely
broad lines or bands of various colours, which have different names,
according to the place they occupy in the shield; ancient armorists
admit but nine honourable ordinaries--the chief, the pale, the bend,
the bend sinister, the fess, the bar, the chevron, the cross, and the
saltier.

The _chief_ is an ordinary terminated by an horizontal line, which, if
it is of any other form but straight, its form must be expressed; it
is placed in the upper part of the escutcheon, and occupies one third
of the field.

Ex. Argent, on a chief, gules, two mullets, sable.

[Illustration: Chief]

Any of the lines before described may be used to form the chief.

[Illustration: Chief]

Ex. Argent, a chief, azure, indented.

The chief has a diminutive called a _fillet_; it must never be more
than one fourth the breadth of the chief.

[Illustration: Fillet]