Swords tended to become more ornate as the fifteenth century advanced, and towards the end and early in the sixteenth both pommels and quillons varied greatly in form and in size, the former being round, square, cusped, truncated, crescent-shaped, etc., while the latter tended both downwards and upwards, sometimes counter-curved, and curled at the extremities, but this feature became more pronounced later. The play of sword and buckler is very ancient, and was displaced in England by the rapier and dagger in the second half of the sixteenth century. The sword was of medium size and double-edged, while the buckler was about fourteen inches in diameter. The usual form of the sword up to the middle of the sixteenth century is still cruciform, with or without the pas d’ane guard, a broad two-edged blade about three feet and a half long, and a large and frequently circular pommel; the quillons straight or slightly bent towards the blade, which tends to become narrower and lighter. There are, however, many examples of a greater elaboration of guards at an earlier period, when the guard formed like the letter S was not uncommon. An example of a sword by Ambrosius Gemlich, about 1530, is given in Fig. 44. There is a calendar on the blade. The simple cross-guard disappears with the commencement of the second half of the century, and the pas d’ane guard becomes common. The sword-hand now becomes adequately guarded, and you get the counter-guard, which later becomes amplified into one or more branches for encircling the back of the hand, while the quillons more generally assume curved forms and eventually merge into the knuckle-bow or finger-guard; and it was during the second half of the sixteenth century that the rapier hilt became completely developed. It was no longer the rule to wear the steel gauntlet; such guards had therefore become more necessary, and they were gradually evolved by reason of new developments in fencing strokes. Swordsmanship had now reached the point when the weapon, besides being for attack, was used more in a defensive sense. The term “shield” is applied to the flat piece of steel sometimes found at the base of the hilt, while the “shell” refers to a semicircular hilt. The growth of what are but inadequately described as counter-guards consists in a more or less complex system of perpendicular and horizontally curved and interlacing bars and hoops gradually evolving the S guard, cross and side ring, cross and finger loop, cross finger loop and half ring at the side, double branches, etc., which crystallised, so to speak, in certain classes of swords into the basket-hilt and the shell or cup. The practice and progress of the art of fencing had induced upward cuts and other movements that necessitated additional protection for the hand and wrist. [Illustration: Fig. 44.--Sword of the Emperor Charles V., about 1530.]