(Fig. 1): An English archer of the 15th century, wearing a salade with movable visor to protect the head. It will be noticed that he has stuck some arrows into his girdle, so that they may be “handy” for shooting. See Fig. 8 also, and compare with Fig. 7. (From Royal MS., 14 E. iv.) (Fig. 2): An English salade. This was worn by archers, and it also formed the usual head-piece for soldiers about the time of Henry VI. (Wars of the Roses.) (Fig. 3): A Brigandine, from a specimen in Warwick Castle. (Figs. 4 and 5): Quarrels, quarells, or bolts, for shooting from the cross-bow or arbalest. Fig. 4 is feathered; Fig. 5 is from the Tower of London. (Fig. 5a): A bird-bolt, used for shooting birds from a “sporting” cross-bow. (Fig. 6): An English arrow of the ordinary form during the Middle Ages, showing the sharp projection of the barb, which rendered the extraction a difficult and painful matter. (Fig. 7): An English archer using the long-bow, and cross-bowman winding up his cross-bow. It will be noticed that the former is left-handed, as the arrow was usually drawn back with the right hand and shot from the right shoulder. He has arranged his arrows for shooting by sticking them, point downwards, into the ground at his side. Both he and the cross-bowman are wearing _jazerine_ jackets, but the former has a camail and a chain mail jacket beneath it. The cross-bowman has, hanging from his girdle, a leathern bag, to contain the quarrels for his cross-bow. (Fig. 8): A sea-fight, showing four archers using the long-bow, one cross-bowman, and one soldier using the military flail. One of the archers has placed his arrows in his belt, as in Fig. 1. (From the Cambridge MS. of the “Greater Chronicles,” by Matthew Paris, who died 1259 A.D.)] EARLY CANNON. The discovery of gunpowder, which, by degrees, totally changed military tactics and the constitution of armies, was the event that most powerfully influenced warfare in the Middle Ages. Very little is known about its actual invention. It is supposed that Greek fire, which was used with such terrifying and destructive effect in warfare, particularly in sieges, consisted of the three ingredients of gunpowder, with resin and naphtha in addition. Roger Bacon, an English friar, discovered the secret of the composition of gunpowder in the latter half of the 13th century; but Schwartz, a Franciscan, at Cologne, perfected it about a century later. The use of cannon for siege purposes commenced in England in the armies of Edward III. Froissart says that the English army used them against Calais, when besieging it in 1347. But there were very few made at first; an important fortress like the Tower of London, in 1360, only mounting four guns, while Dover Castle, in 1372, had six. When first introduced, cannon were small and vase-shaped; they were slow in fire, and very liable to accidents.