Fig. 70.—Battle-axe and Pistol of the 16th Century. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.)
Then followed the pistoles and the pistolets, thus named, it is said, because they were invented at Pistoia; but, with other etymologists, we can also believe that they owed the name to the fact of their bore being of equal diameter with that of the pistole, a coin of the time. The earliest pistols were made with wheels (à rouet), and the barrel did not measure more than a foot in length. Subsequently they varied in shape and in use; some were made which fired several shots in succession, and in other cases they attempted to combine a pistol with the dagger or the battle-axe. ([Fig. 70], &c.) This is a notably fine specimen.
We must not forget to note, in what may be called les armes de luxe, the joint application of the match-holder and the wheel to highly-finished arms, this combination being available.
The screw-plate à miquelet, improved by French experiments, led to the mechanism called flint-lock (fusil). There were also then pistols and arquebuses with flint-locks, as formerly there had been pistols and arquebuses with wheels. Subsequently the explanatory became the absolute term, and the entire weapon was known as fusil.
Fig. 71.—Banner of the Sword-cutlers of Angers.
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY.
Horsemanship among the Ancients.—The Riding-horse and the Carriage-horse.—Chariots armed with Scythes.—Vehicles of the Romans, the Gauls, and the Franks: the Carruca, the Petoritum, the Cisium, the Plaustrum, the Basterna, the Carpentum.—Different kinds of Saddle-horses in the Days of Chivalry.—The Spur a distinctive Sign of Nobility: its Origin.—The Saddle, its Origin and its Modifications.—The Tilter.—Carriages.—The Mules of Magistrates.—Corporations of Saddlers and Harness-makers, Lorimers, Coachmakers, Chapuiseurs, Blazonniers, and Saddle-coverers.