And in the well-known passage of the Monk of Marmoustier, where he describes the knighting of Geoffry, duke of Normandy, we are told that the young hero was "mounted upon a Spanish horse, which had been presented by the king."
How the horses of the knights were conveyed in ships and disembarked from the vessels, is curiously shewn in the ninth and tenth plates of the Bayeux tapestry.
Of the Engines employed in sieges, all those mentioned in our first division appear to have been still in use. The ancient Vinea (Cat or Sow) is frequently mentioned, and the moveable Tower, or Beffroi, becomes a prominent feature in all the great siege operations of this century. William of Malmesbury has left us an excellent description of these two contrivances in his account of the siege of Jerusalem[237]:—
"There was one engine which we call the Sow, the ancients, Vinea; because the machine, which is constructed of slight timbers, the roof covered with boards and wicker-work, and the sides defended with undressed hides, protects those who are within; who, after the manner of a sow, proceed to undermine the foundations of the walls. There was another, which, for want of timber, was but a moderate-sized tower, constructed after the manner of houses. They call it Berefreid[238]. This was intended to equal the walls in height. And now the fourteenth day of July arrived, when some began to undermine the wall with the Sows, others to move forward the Tower. To do this more conveniently, they took it toward the works in separate pieces[239], and putting it together again at such a distance as to be out of bowshot, advanced it on wheels nearly close to the wall. Meantime the slingers with stones, the archers with arrows, and the crossbow-men with bolts, each intent on his own department, began to press forward and dislodge their opponents from the ramparts. Soldiers, too, unmatched in courage, ascend the Tower, waging nearly equal war against the enemy with missile weapons and with stones. Nor indeed were our foes at all remiss, but trusting their whole security to their valour, they poured down boiling grease and oil upon the Tower, and slung stones on the soldiers, rejoicing in the completion of their desires by the destruction of multitudes. During the whole of that day the battle was such that neither party seemed to think they had been worsted. On the following, the business was decided: for the Franks, becoming more experienced from the event of the attack of the preceding day, threw faggots flaming with oil on a tower adjoining the wall, and on those who defended it; which, blazing by the action of the wind, first seized the timber, and then the stones, and drove off the garrison. Moreover, the beams which the Turks had left hanging down from the walls, in order that, being forcibly drawn back, they might, by their recoil, batter the Tower in pieces, in case it should advance too near, were by the Franks dragged to them, by cutting away the ropes; and being placed from the engine to the wall, and covered with hurdles, they formed a bridge of communication from the Tower to the ramparts. Thus what the infidels had contrived for their defence, became the means of their destruction; for then the enemy, dismayed by the smoking masses of flame, and by the courage of our soldiers, began to give way. These, advancing on the wall, and thence into the city, manifested the excess of their joy by the strenuousness of their exertions."
William of Tyre mentions also the use of the beffroi at the siege of Jerusalem; adding that the side towards the city was so constructed that a portion of it might be let down, after the manner of a drawbridge, thus enabling the assailants to enter upon the walls[240]. Philippe Auguste frequently employed this engine. At the siege of Château-Roux, in Berry,—
"Cratibus et lignis rudibus Belfragia surgunt
Turribus alta magis et mœnibus."—Philippidos, lib. ii.
And again, at the siege of Radepont, in Normandy: "Erectis in circuitu Turribus ligneis ambulatoriis, aliisque tormentis quam plurimis viriliter impugnavit et cœpit[241]."
King Richard I. constructed also in Sicily a wooden tower, which he afterwards carried with him to the Holy Land. After forcing the city of Messina, "the king," says Richard of Devizes, "having but little confidence in the natives, built a new wooden tower of great strength and height by the walls of the city, which, to the reproach of the Griffones, (Greeks,) he called Mate-griffun," (sub an. 1190). In 1191, "the king of England, about to leave Sicily, caused the tower which he had built to be taken down, and stowed the whole of the materials in his ships, to take along with him." And "on the third day after his arrival at the siege of Acre," continues Richard of Devizes, "the king caused his wooden tower, which he had named 'Mate-griffun' when it was made in Sicily, to be built and set up; and before the dawn of the fourth day the machine stood erect by the walls of Acre, and from its height looked down upon the city beneath. And by sunrise were thereon archers casting missiles without ceasing against the Turks and Thracians."
The name Mate-griffon appears to be derived from the favourite game of the courtly in these days; "donner eschec et mat" being equivalent to the "check-mate" of our modern chess-players. Ordericus Vitalis has a passage curiously illustrative of this subject: "Castrum condere cœpit, quod Mataputenam, id est, devincens meretricem, pro despectu Haduissæ Comitissæ, nuncupavit[242]."