Sergeant
n.
Formerly, in England, an officer nearly answering to the
more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to
attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest
traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and
two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign, attend on the
houses of Parliament (one for each house) to execute their commands,
and another attends the Court Chancery.