The Greek fire, still discountenanced among the Christian states of the West, was in frequent use with the enemies of the Cross in the East. All the accounts of the Crusades contain instances of its employment. Of the tubes from which it was discharged we have already spoken. In the _Bibliothèque des Croisades_ of M. Reinaud[227], we have the account of a variety of this incendiary agent, from the pen of an Arabian historian of the Third Crusade, Ibn Alatir. "When Acre was besieged by the Christians," he tells us, "there came into the town a man of Damascus, to assist in its defence. He began by casting upon the towers erected by the besiegers, pots filled with naptha and other ingredients. These not being alight, fell harmlessly among the Christians, who laughed at and jeered the Mussulmans for their seeming failure. Meanwhile, the man of Damascus waited till the mixture had diffused itself over every part of the tower. Then, casting forth a lighted missile, in an instant the tower was in flames, and so rapid and so extensive was the combustion, that the Christians had no time to descend: men, arms, all was consumed." From a curious passage of Wace we learn what were the weapons employed by the peasantry when driven to revolt against their lords. In describing the insurrection of the "vilains" under Richard the Second, duke of Normandy, he makes these "bachelers de bele juvente" exclaim:-- "A machues è à grant peus, A sajetes et as tineus, As arcs, as haches, as gisarmes, Et as pierres ki n'ara armes, Od la grant genz ke nous avum, Des chevaliers nus desfendum."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 6043. The _peus_, or _pieux_, were pikes; the _tineus_ were poles used to carry the grape-tubs at the vintage, which, when converted into instruments of war, we may suppose were armed with heads of iron. The idea of contention by throwing stones is by no means a mere poetical fancy of our author. Froissart even tells us of a victory achieved by this means. A band of French knights and nobles going to attack a section of the Free Companies, these latter posted themselves on a hill, and being well provided with stones, "cast them so forcibly upon those who approached, that they broke their bassinets, however strong they might be, and wounded and maimed the men-at-arms to such an extent, that none either could or dared to advance further, however good his shield might be, (tant bien targé qu'il fut). And this first division was so thoroughly crushed that never again could it do good service." Reinforcements arriving to the Companies, a more regular onset was made: "Que vous ferois-je long parlement? De celle besogne dont vous oyez parler, les François en eurent pour lors le pieur[228]."