_True Blue._--I find the following account of this phrase in my note-book,
but I cannot at present say whence I obtained it:--
"The first assumption of the phrase 'true blue' was by the Covenanters
in opposition to the scarlet badge of Charles I., and hence it was
taken by the troops of Leslie in 1639. The adoption of the colour was
one of those religious pedantries in which the Covenanters affected a
Pharisaical observance of the scriptural letter and the usages of the
Hebrews; and thus, as they named their children Habakkuk and
Zerubbabel, and their chapels Zion and Ebenezer, they decorated their
persons with blue ribbons because the following sumptuary precept was
given in the law of Moses:--
"'Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to make to themselves
fringes on the borders of their garments, putting in them ribbons of
blue.'"--_Numb._ xv. 38.