Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/176

 bow, as well as all the metal parts of the stock, are etched and gilt: the wooden stock is inlaid with polished stag's horn. Beneath the stock are painted the arms of France and Milan. Below, within a heart-shaped panel, are represented the armorial bearings of Ann of Brittany (1476-1514), and below these the emblem of the Order of the Porcupine (porc-éþic, founded in 1391) in the later form it assumed under Louis XII (1462-1515). On the bow is an armourer's mark, probably of Italian origin.

German, about 1460. It belonged to Ulrich V of Würtemberg Metropolitan Museum of New York

Judged by these heraldic characters the crossbow should date within the closing years of the XVth century. It probably came as a present from King Louis XII to the young Archduke Philip of Austria, who visited the King at Blois in 1499. The windlass illustrated with it is the actual one made for and belonging to it, and even the strings are the originals; indeed it is one of the very few existing perfect examples of this unwieldy contrivance. We can refer to another royal gift of a crossbow, though made at an earlier time. When Louis de Bruges attended a special mission sent by Charles of Burgundy to Edward IV of England, King Edward presented him with "a Royall Crossbowe, the strynge of silk, the case covered with velvette of the King's colour, and his armes and badges thereupon." This gift was put to the test a few hours after it was received; for "before