Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/239



North Italian, about 1570. Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue, No. 538)

of outline, is what might truly be classed as the "peaked" variety (Fig. 1286). One of the first allusions to the cabasset occurs in an Ordinance of François I^{er}, whereby men at arms shall wear the armet, light horse the salade, and "les arquebusiers seulement le cabasset pour viser mieux et avoir la tête plus délivrée." The cabasset did not impede the aim, and was therefore the head-piece most appropriate to the musketeer. At the period of François I it must have been very closely allied to the chapel, for it was low crowned and straight brimmed. At the end, however, of the XVIth century the cabasset assumed a very different form. The comb has now quite disappeared, and in its place the skull-piece is drawn out to what may be described as an almost pear-shaped contour, ridged down its centre; while a distinguishing feature rarely absent is the appearance of a curious little spike drawn out and turned back from the extreme apex. The brim may be straight or of inverted arch form, as in the case of the morion. We illustrate a fine and most representative example, No. 538 of the Wallace Collection (Fig. 1287). Rich as it is in its general appearance, it has that jumble of ornamentation which we have so often