[377] “Quaedam vero auditum perturbant.... Nullus tonitrui fragor posset talibus comparari. Quædam tantum terrorem visui incutiunt, quod coruscationes nubium longe minus et sine comparatione perturbant.... Experimentum hujus rei capimus ex hoc ludicro puerili, quod fit in multis mundi partibus, scilicet ut instrumento facto ad quantitatem pollicis humani ex violentia illius salis qui sal petrae vocatur, tam horribilis sonus nascitur in ruptura tam modicæ rei, scilicet modici pergameni, quod fortis tonitrui sentiatur excedere rugitum, et coruscationem maximam sui luminis jubar excedit.”—_Opus Majus_, London, 1733, p. 474. “Offenbar ist hier das Schiesspulver verstanden.”—L. Schneider, “Roger Bacon,” 1873, p. 110. Two centuries before, when referring to Bacon’s remarks on the destruction of the Midianites by Gideon, Borrichius had said: “Hic apertissime loquitur Bacon de nitrato illo sclopetorum pulvere.”—_De Ortu &c., Chemiæ_, 1668, p. 126. [378] This is M. Berthelot’s view; _Sur la Force des Matières Explosives_, Paris, 1883, ii. 358; and it is probably the right one. [379] ... δυσμαχώτατον τέρας· ὁς δὴ κεραυνοῦ κρείσσον’ εὑρήσει φλόγα, βροντάς θ’ ὑπερβάλλοντα καρτερὸν κτύπον. —ÆSCHYLUS, _Prometheus Vinctus_, 921. [380] “State Papers,” Domestic Series, 1581-90. [381] “Archæologia,” xiii. 27, 397-400. The term _slur-bow_ is, I presume, akin to the German _schleuderbogen_. [382] “The Book of Archery,” London, 1840, Pl. xvii., No. 5. [383] “The Cross-bow,” 1903, fig. 84, p. 129. [384] Rupert’s Diary, in Warburton, “Prince Rupert,” iii. 163. [385] Napoleon III., iii. 261. [386] Ὀστράκινα σκεύη—earthenware vessels. J. Cameniata, p. 527. [387] Reinaud and Favé, in _Jour. Asiatique_, 1849. [388] Froissart’s “Chronicles,” ed. Bouchon; ii., ch. 181, p. 235. [389] St. 65, ed. Robson. [390] According to Sir Walter Scott, the Scotch in the beginning of the last century still called crow’s-feet _calthrops_, a word which goes back to “Piers Plowman,” cir. 1393:—“The Rev. Dr. Heavysterne from the Low Countries sustained much injury by sitting down suddenly and incautiously on three ancient calthrops” (“Antiquary,” ch. iii.). [391] “Fictili globo incendiarii pulveris.”—P. Jovii, _Hist. sui Temp._, i., c. 18. [392] _Mém. de Castelnau_, ed. Bouchon; xiii., p. 154. [393] _Mém. de Messire du Bellay_, ed. Bouchon, vii., p. 632. [394] Fol. 41. These brazen grenades of Whitehorne’s correspond to the “Kobber-Granater” shown in the books of the Copenhagen Arsenal at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Blom’s _Kristian d. IV.’s Artilleri_, pp. 268-69. [395] “The Bombardier,” 1802, p. 147. [396] _Danduli Chronicon_, Muratori, xii. 448, in Elliot, vi. 469. [397] In Elliot, vol. iii. [398] In Elliot, vii. 125. [399] In the war of Chiozza. During the attack on the Torre della Bebbe, “furono tirate molte rochette.”—Muratori, xv. 769.