NOTE 2.—The same MS. has here a passage which I am unable to understand. After the words “300 lbs. and more,” it goes on: “Et la veoit l’en voler moult loing, desquelles pierres _il en y avoit plus de_ lx _routes qui tant montoit l’une comme l’autre_.” The Bern has the same. [Perhaps we might read lx _en routes_, viz. on their way.—H. C.] NOTE 3.—I propose here to enter into some detailed explanation regarding the military engines that were in use in the Middle Ages.[2] None of these depended for their motive force on _torsion_ like the chief engines used in classic times. However numerous the names applied to them, with reference to minor variations in construction or differences in power, they may all be reduced to two classes, viz. _great slings_ and _great crossbows_. And this is equally true of all the three great branches of mediæval civilisation—European, Saracenic, and Chinese. To the first class belonged the _Trebuchet_ and _Mangonel_; to the second, the _Winch-Arblast_ (Arbalète à Tour), _Springold_ etc. Whatever the ancient _Balista_ may have been, the word in mediæval Latin seems always to mean some kind of crossbow. The heavier crossbows were wound up by various aids, such as winches, ratchets, etc. They discharged stone shot, leaden bullets, and short, square-shafted arrows called _quarrels_, and these with such force we are told as to pierce a six-inch post (?). But they were worked so slowly in the field that they were no match for the long-bow, which shot five or six times to their once. The great machines of this kind were made of wood, of steel, and very frequently of horn;[3] and the bow was sometimes more than 30 feet in length. Dufour calculates that such a machine could shoot an arrow of half a kilogram in weight to a distance of about 860 yards. The _Trebuchet_ consisted of a long tapering shaft or beam, pivoted at a short distance from the butt end on a pair of strong pyramidal trestles. At the other end of the shaft a sling was applied, one cord of which was firmly attached by a ring, whilst the other hung in a loop over an iron hook which formed the extremity of the shaft. The power employed to discharge the sling was either the strength of a number of men, applied to ropes which were attached to the short end of the shaft or lever, or the weight of a heavy counterpoise hung from the same, and suddenly released. [Illustration: Mediæval Artillery Engines. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Chinese; Figs. 6, 7, 8, Saracenic; the rest Frank.]