Coin From A Treasure Hidden At Siang-Yang During The Siege In 1268-73, Lately Discovered.]

[1] And to the Bern MS.

Which seems to be a copy of it, as is also I think (in substance) the Bodleian.

[2] In this note I am particularly indebted to the researches of the Emperor Napoleon III. on this subject. (Etudes sur le passe et l'avenir de l'Artillerie; 1851.)

[3] Thus Joinville mentions the journey of Jehan li Ermin, the king's artillerist, from Acre to Damascus, pour acheter cornes et glus pour faire arbalestres - to buy horns and glue to make crossbows withal (p. 134).

In the final defence of Acre (1291) we hear of balistae bipedales (with a forked rest?) and other vertiginales (traversing on a pivot) that shot 3 quarrels at once, and with such force as to stitch the Saracens to their bucklers - cum clypeis consutos interfecerunt.

The crossbow, though apparently indigenous among various tribes of Indo-China, seems to have been a new introduction in European warfare in the 12th century. William of Brittany in a poem called the Philippis, speaking of the early days of Philip Augustus, says: -

"Francigenis nostris illis ignota diebus Res erat omnino quid balistarius arcus, Quid balista foret, nec habebat in agmine toto Rex quenquam sciret armis qui talibus uti." - Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script., V. 115.

Anna Comnena calls it [Greek: Tzagra] (which looks like Persian charkh), "a barbaric bow, totally unknown to the Greeks"; and she gives a very lengthy description of it, ending:

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