Serpent, The, is used symbolically to represent veneration from the shedding of its skin, and sometimes eternity, and not unfrequently a guardian spirit; also prudence and cunning, especially as embodied in Satan; is an attribute of several saints as expressive of their power over the evil one.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Serjeant-at-Arms * Serpukoff