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 of the statues of soldiers from the façade of Reims Cathedral (Fig. 50). In all probability the date of this statue is of the first quarter of the XIIIth century, but the large overlapping scales are remarkable, for they show but a very slight defensive advance from those depicted as worn by Guy, Count of Ponthieu.

Guy, Count of Ponthieu, in a scaled garment, carrying the Danish or Norman axe. The head shown almost duplicates the example illustrated (page 26, Fig. 32)

Construed by John Hewitt. From Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe, by John Hewitt

From a statue of the early part of the XIIIth Century. Reims Cathedral

It is known that the helmets of earlier Norman times must have been usually conical, as no other shape appears on the Bayeux needlework, on the seals, or in the pictured MSS. of the XIth and early part of the XIIth century. But any slight variation in their general shape would be hard to detect owing to the crudeness of the drawing of those times.

They appear to have had wide nasal-*guards protecting the face; indeed, so wide that the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings must needs lift his helmet to show his face when he cries to the rout of the left wing that he still lives and will conquer, God willing. Where the Bayeux needlework shows him tilting back his helmet, we can see the coif of mail in its completeness as worn beneath (see page 34, Fig. 41). Let us examine the only other two presentments of the Conqueror known to exist—that on the great seal and that on the coinage of the time. In both of