Other names occur at this time, indicating machines for casting stones: some of these are probably mere synonyms of the words already noticed; and of the particular mechanism implied by others, it is vain, in the absence of cotemporary drawings, to hope for an exact idea. Besides the engines of the mangona kind, formed by a sling and weight, there was another class constructed on the principle of the cross-bow. The Spingarda and Spingardella (_Espringale_) appear to have been arbalests mounted on frames with wheels, somewhat after the manner of the field-pieces of our own day. The French used them against the Flemings at the battle of Mons-en-Puelle in 1304:-- "Joignant d'eus rot deux Espringales, Que garçons au tirer avancent."--_Guiart._ They shot forth, not only stones, but darts or quarrels:-- "Et font getter leurs espringales: Ça et là sonnent li clairain: Li garrot, empené d'airain, Quatre on cinq en percent tout outre." _Guiart_, année 1304. They were also called _Arbalestes à tour_, and under this name are included by Christine de Pisan (in the fourteenth century) in the armament for a strong siege: "Deux cens arbalestres, _trente_ autres _arbalestes à tour_, et cent autres à croc, ... douze tours tous neufs, à tendre arbalestres," &c. From the last item we see very clearly that the distinctive name of this arbalest was derived from the instrument used to bend its powerful bow. The figure of an espringale mounted on its carriage is given in the _Études sur l'Artillerie_, vol. i. Plate I. The old contrivances to cover the sappers as they approached the walls of a besieged place, still continued in use: the Cat, the Cat-castle (CHAT-CHASTEL) the Vinea, and other varieties of the mantlet occurring frequently in the chronicles and poems of the time. The king, in the _Roman de Claris_, "----fait ses engins drecier, Et les Chats aux fossez mener." In 1256, the Papal troops, led by the Archbishop of Ravenna, attack Padua, defended by the partisans of the tyrant Eccelino; the archbishop, surrounded by a medley of knights and monks, soldiers and priests, assaulted the city at the gate of the Ponte Altinato: they had made their approaches under cover of a "kind of moveable gallery which they called _Vinea_." The defendants from their walls poured burning pitch and boiling oil upon the wooden vinea, so that it took fire; but the city gate being also of wood, the besiegers pushed the machine close to the gate, burnt it down and entered the place[415]. The Moveable Towers also were still in vogue. Under the name of _berfrois_, they are mentioned in the passage on a preceding page from the _Roman de Claris_. Under the year 1204 they are named by Guiart:-- "Un fort Chastel se fust drécié: Le sommet plus haut en repose Que les murs de Gaillart grant chose."