Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/280

 attribution. The ingenious deciphering of the central battle scene, the substance of which we give, is taken from Sir Samuel Meyrick's work: it is a most graphic description of the subject.

The centre of the shield is occupied by a panel formed almost to the outline of a conjoined circle. In this is most delicately embossed and chased in low relief a composition intended to represent the retreat of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, following on his march on Paris. He had advanced within eleven leagues of Paris, burning and plundering on his way in order, at the instigation of the Duc de Bourbon, to crown his sovereign, Henry VIII, as King of France. The English army was, however, defeated through the French calling out the levy en masse in aid of the army under Trémouille. The extensive landscape represented is, according to Sir Samuel Meyrick, that "from the mouth of the Somme to the bridge of Bray, and of the coast as far as Calais." In the foreground are the French infantry flanked by cavalry and artillery. In the distance are views of various fortified towns and small companies of the conflicting armies seen between the hills. In the two angles that shape the central panel into its double-circle form, the top one is filled with an oval, crowned escutcheon of the Arms of France encircled by the collar of the Order of St. Michael, an order instituted by Louis XI in 1469. This is supported by two nude recumbent figures of boys: at the side of each appear griffin-like monsters bound captive. In the lower segment are two recumbent, partly draped, female figures, possibly representing Bellona and Minerva; while behind and around them are grouped their respective attributes. The narrow ribbon borders to these compositions have formerly shown damascened Latin inscriptions, which have now almost entirely perished; but among other words can be traced:.

The bordering of this fine shield is composed of fourteen dolphins in seven different attitudes, and as many crabs placed alternately. The groundwork from which they are embossed is engraved with a waved design.

This shield, like the three others of this make which are in England, appears to date from the third quarter of the sixteenth century.

Turning to the kite-shaped shields by the same hand, we confidently put forward that example, which is preserved with its morion helmet (Fig. 1285) in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, as being of prime importance (Fig. 1321). In the first place it is a piece to which historical interest attaches, by reason of the fact that it was made for King Charles IX, and in the second place it is remarkable from the circumstance that the medium is that of solid