Demmin gives a drawing from a manuscript dated 1472, and Herr Wendelin Boeheim that of a petronel (_poitrine_, the chest), a kind of hand-bombard, fired by a horseman from a forked rest fixed on to the saddle. The author has a specimen of this kind of support in his possession, which is hollow, and combines a long dagger screwed in at the top; but this accessory points to a rather later period than that of the hand-gun in question. It is an early form of linstock. The hand-gun when not in use hung suspended from the rider’s neck; it was attached by a ring to a necklace, and fired from the breast, and the left arm sustained the petronel, while the right hand manipulated the match-cord. The character of the armour on the figure would indicate a date in the second half of the century (the fifteenth), and the weapon is the prototype of the modern blunderbuss. The figure is taken from Victor Gay’s work. A still earlier example, but very similar, appears in one of a series of “notes” of great ability and industry, by Major Sixl in the _Zeitschrift für historische Waffenkunde_, and the features of both correspond very closely. The hand-gun of the earlier example is provided with a “hac” or spur; the horse on which the gunner is seated is unbarded, excepting for a crinet with a long spear springing from between the ears like a unicorn, while the horse of the later figure is barded, and the bassinet visored. The first person of note that we hear of as having been killed by a hand-gun was the Earl of Shrewsbury at Châtillon in 1453.[54] The type of weapon used by a contingent of three hundred Flemings in the ranks of the army of Edward IV. in 1471 was the hand-culverin; and the English Yeomen of the Guard were armed with it in 1485, as also was the Swiss contingent of six thousand men at the battle of Morat in 1476. These hand-culverins were each served by two men, one for holding the gun, and the other for applying the match, etc.; they were fired by a fuse-cord. By the end of the fifteenth century the priming was held in a pan at the side of the barrel, and the pan was protected by a lid, which moved on a pivot. The next improvement was the attachment of the pan to the plate, and the stock was more bent. These weapons, the length and weight of which varied greatly, were in general use; the bore was usually about half an inch. Examples may be seen at the Musée des Invalides, Paris, and in many other national collections. A hand-gun of the harquebus type is figured in “The Triumph of Maximilian”; the stock is straight, and almost square. The figure bearing it wears a bandolier collar! A similar weapon, with a primitive form of serpentin, is figured in one of the books of Maximilian I., about 1500.