CHAPTER XI

MODERN Arms.

PART I.-ARTILLERY.

THE word "Artillery," in its primary and true acceptation, has been used to denote every variety of engine that has been in use on the field of battle, and more particularly in the operations of sieges. We now propose to pass in review and briefly to describe the principal machines that were employed on such occasions, before the discovery of cannon.

We have already seen how the ancient Assyrians, in their sieges, made use of an enormous spear to breach walls; and how their soldiers were sheltered under strong timber-work sheds, while by sheer strength, or aided by some simple machinery, they thrust forward their battering-spears. The same machine, or, at any rate, one that is analogous to it, is found amongst the Romans under the name of Terebra. The catapults, and the beliers, or battering-rams, which are mentioned in the most ancient histories of all nations, are also met with amongst the Romans, and subsequently they appear in France, where Roman traditions were long preserved. In our endeavour to trace the history of these engines from age to age, we shall not fail to find that our inquiries are overshadowed with a certain degree of obscurity.

The belier, or battering-ram, was a long and strong beam of wood, armed with an iron head, representing more or less correctly the head of a ram (adopted, doubtless, in consequence of the natural habit of the animal to butt with its head and horns), and sheltered under a kind of pent-house,

from the roof of which it was suspended by ropes. This battering-ram, having been brought up close to the hostile wall, was driven against it by the strength of men's arms. Preparation was made for the approach and use of the ram, by means of the terebra (auger, or boring implement) which has just now been mentioned. The terebra was a long and strong spear, placed on a kind of pin or axis, so that it might be worked in a groove by some machinery which has never yet been clearly understood. (See Histoire de la Milice Française, par le P. Daniel, t. 1er planche 10.) What is well known is,

er.,

Fig. 48.-ASSYRIAN BATTERING-RAM AND SPEARS.

that the auger was caused to advance against the walls by men who worked some kind of capstan and cables. The work that the auger had to accomplish was to break up the first stone, and thus to make the commencement of a breach; and then the ram would be brought up to enlarge the opening by beating away the adjoining stones. In Fig. 48 an Assyrian battering-ram and some spears are shown.

The catapult discharged great darts armed with iron heads, or which carried at their extremities some inflammable composition. The largest engine of this kind threw darts six feet in length which, at the distance of a hundred paces, would pierce through several men. These catapults were generally

made from the trunks of trees roughly fashioned; and, having been bent by means of ropes and pulleys, the pieces of timber, when suddenly released, violently struck the darts that were placed in readiness upon stakes prepared for that purpose, and drove them forwards.

The balista, a variety of the catapult, was a machine for discharging stones. One or more large stones were placed in a kind of wooden bucket suspended from the end of a beam which, after having been elevated, fell by a simple contrivance, and projected to a distance the contents of the bucket.

In the middle ages, and after the invention of the crossbow, instead of catapults for the purpose of discharging bolts or arrows of great size, they used arblasts or cross-bows, which had power proportioned to the magnitude of the bolts. This bow was drawn by pulleys and cords, and in fact it was a tower or fortification cross-bow (arbalète de tour). The Artillery Museum at Paris possesses two of these formidable engines-balista bow's (arcs de balista), as they have also been called; one is made of a hard fibrous wood, which has the appearance of the wood of the palm-tree, and the other is of steel.

Ancient artillery, as may clearly be seen, could never have led the way to the introduction of modern artillery. They have really nothing in common, and it is not possible for the one to be considered the development of the other.

The art of composing or compounding inflammable substances, which eventually led to the production of gunpowder, and consequently to the invention of ordnance, is at least as ancient as the art of constructing such engines as the balista. At all times, in war, arrows have been discharged which were provided with some inflammable or combustible substance fixed to their heads; and of substances such as these a principal ingredient has always been pitch. The Greeks of the Lower Empire are well known to have invented a

celebrated composition of this kind, which has been identified with them under the title of "Greek fire.' We now know what was the composition of this once mysterious substance, which, after all, has not proved to be either very wonderful or very ingenious. It was a mixture of oil of naphtha with pitch, resin, and vegetable oil and grease, to which compound were added various metals in the form of powder. Of this "Greek

fire," the Greeks, as we have said, were the inventors; but for its reputation it was indebted to the Arabs, and to the manner in which it was used by them in their conflicts with the western barons in the Crusades. After all, however, it now is admitted that "Greek fire," while certainly it inspired great alarm, did not inflict much serious injury.

At the time of the first crusade, and perhaps still earlier, the Chinese, when searching for fresh inflammable compositions, had already discovered that singular combination of substances which eventually was destined to revolutionise the art of war. It now may be considered to have been clearly established that to the Chinese belongs the honour-if honour it be of having first introduced nitre or saltpetre into a mixture of charcoal and sulphur. The mixture of the two last-named substances they had made from very early times, and they had added various other substances from time to time; but they had not thought of nitre, which forms the distinctive element of real gunpowder, and imparts to the composition its explosive force. The Chinese appear to have made use of their discovery chiefly for manufacturing fireworks. Thanks to their communications with China, the Arabs were not long before they learned the art of making gunpowder; and, as it would seem, at the first they made petards with it—that is, they made objects such as "crackers," which would explode in a case. From such a use of powder as this, to putting it with a projectile into a tube for the purpose of discharging the projectile, a very long step had to be taken. It was by the

Arabs, once more, that this step was taken; and thus, with justice, they may claim to have performed a more important part in the invention of artillery than the Chinese themselves. But at this point we fall back into the obscurity which envelopes the invention of gunpowder; or, more strictly speaking, from that obscurity at this point we are unable to extricate ourselves. It still remains unknown by whom the first cannon were made-the time, the place also, and the manner of their original construction. All that we are able to assert with certain accuracy is, that in the year 1338 there was a cannon at Cambray, from which arblast-quarrels were discharged; that in the year following, 1339, at the attack on Quesnoy, there were several cannon of the same kind; and, again, that similiar pieces of artillery were present and in use, in 1342, at the siege of Algesiras; and so forth from that time onwards. Contemporary historians make mention of this novelty in warfare in a manner which proves them to have regarded it simply as a curiosity of no great value or importance-a proof that the cannon, at its first appearance on the field, not only did not produce any great effect, but also that it altogether failed to presage its own subsequent career. This is a circumstance that explains itself. The original cannon, of very small size, which discharged darts or small leaden balls, at most of three pounds in weight, was looked upon as neither more nor less than a substitute for the siege-arblast (arbalète à tour), or as a fresh engine of the same class, more noisy indeed than its predecessors, but not more calculated to do mischief. The many tales that have been told of the overwhelming terror caused by cannon on their first appearance, have been proved to be worthless. fictions of later ages.

The earliest cannon of which we now have any knowledge were made of hammered iron, and consisted of tubes strengthened by rings; the tube was made open at both ends, and the charge of powder, with the projectile, was placed in