English men-at-arms never sullied their fame by cruel acts like these; not that they were better at heart: seeing that human nature is everywhere, and under all circumstances, pretty much alike. English infantry, mainly composed of archers, were far too valuable to be thus used. They bore the first brunt of battle, and not unfrequently decided it. At the time when every other foot soldier in Europe was the merest serf, the British archer was a yeoman. He had a fixed heraldic rank; the first of low degree. He was above the handicraftsman, however skilful,--above the merchant--taking his rank immediately after the gentry. The excellence of British archery, then tended to bring about a political result; helping to establish that middle-class which, ever since its consolidation, has been one of the sheet-anchors of our glorious constitution. THE ARBALEST, OR CROSS-BOW. ~Cross-bow, modification of long.~ In process of time a modification of the bow was invented. In place of the original instrument, a much shorter and stiffer bow, usually of steel, was placed transversely in a stock, bent by a lever, and discharged by a trigger, after the manner since used for a gun. ~Invented in Crete or Sicily.~ The cross-bow, or arbalest, called in Latin, arcus balistarius, or balista manualis, and in French arbalèt, is said by some to be of Sicilian origin; others ascribe its invention to the Cretans. It is supposed to have been introduced into France by the first crusaders, and is mentioned by the Abbé Suger in his life of Louis le Gros, as being used by that Prince, in the beginning of his reign, which commenced in the year 1108. ~To England by Saxons.~ Verstigan seems to attribute the introduction of this weapon into England to the Saxons, under Hengist and Horsa, but cites no authority in support of that supposition. In a print representing the landing of those generals, the foremost of them is delineated with a cross-bow on his shoulder, and others are seen in the hands of the distant figures of their followers, landed and landing from their ships. ~The Normans got cross-bows from Italy.~ It would appear that the Normans derived the cross-bow, with its name, from Italy. In Domesday Book mention is made of Odo, the arbalester, as a tenant in capite of the king of lands in Yorkshire; and the manor of Worstead, Norfolk, was at the time of Domesday survey, held of the Abbot of St. Benet at Holme, by Robert the cross-bow man. The names show them to have been Normans, and these instances are sufficient to prove the introduction of the weapon, though the few that may have been used at the battle of Hastings might occasion its not being represented in the Bayeux tapestry. ~No cross-bow among Romans.~ The absence of the cross-bow in early Roman monuments leaves it a matter of doubt, whether an arbalester would not simply mean the engineer of a catapult. There is no mention made of the hand cross-bow in very ancient authorities.