text:  His costume was one which he had chosen for himself and which was worn by his peculiar troop; a short brown mantle an under-robe with the arms naked to the shoulder a broad leathern belt loaded with pistols a huge sabre in hand rusted from hilt to point which he declared to have been stained with the blood of aristocrats and the republican red cap which he frequently waved in the air or lifted on the point of his sabre as a standard