[Illustration: _Fig. 42. This is how a musketeer looked when he was just getting ready to aim his gun. He has more gadgets than even a modern infantryman._] [Illustration: _Fig. 43. The Three Musketeers carried muskets like this one in form, but without the elaborate inlaid decoration._] [Illustration: _Fig. 44. Was the decoration of the gun copied from the engraving, or the engraving from the gun?_] The earliest, simplest form of hand firearm, the hand cannon of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, is also the least interesting esthetically. Consisting of a simple tube of iron, it was usually crudely formed, and quite undecorated. Such hand cannon have much archaeological interest, but contribute nothing to the history of art. The first step forward in the mechanization of firearms was the matchlock, and matchlock guns also were usually crude and strictly utilitarian, military pieces (Fig. 42). However, a few specimens of fine quality were made for important personages, and the Museum is fortunate in possessing precisely such a specimen (Fig. 43), the gift of the John M. Olin Trust. The exact date and place of its manufacture are uncertain; it could be English but seems a bit more likely to be Dutch, toward the middle of the seventeenth century. The lock is the standard seventeenth century matchlock, with the earlier form of trigger resembling that of a crossbow. The serpentine which holds the burning slow match moves upon pressure of the trigger in the rearward direction, from the muzzle towards the butt, bringing the burning slow match (a piece of rope impregnated with saltpeter) into contact with the powder pan, the swiveling cover of which must first have been opened by hand. After the slow match has ignited the priming powder and fired the piece, a release of pressure on the trigger allows a return spring to force the serpentine back to its original position. Notice the shape of the serpentine, suggesting not so much a snake as a double-headed dragon. [Illustration: _Fig. 45. Hercules carries away Iole, daughter of Eurytus._ (_She shows no strenuous objection._)] Evryti regis filiam Iolam, occiso patre, aedvxit Hercvles 15 HsB 44 The barrel is one-third octagon with finely forged cross mouldings at the change of shape as well as at breach and muzzle. The rear sight is a steel tube, beautifully formed in partly octagonal, partly fluted and molded sections. A flash guard extends from the pan to this rear sight to protect the shooter’s eyes against particles of burning powder from the pan.