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TO FIGHT FOR ONE'S COUNTRY THAN TO BE DECEIVED BY A PRETENDED PEACE—IN THE TIME OF ARMS (i.e. WAR)—THE LAWS ARE SILENT. IT IS LAWFUL TO DRIVE BACK FORCE (OR VIOLENCE) WITH FORCE.—JAMES BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF BRITAIN, FRANCE, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND—IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1616.

Made probably at the sign of ''La Roche d'Argent'' about 1670. Collection: Sir Martin Harvey

The hilt is probably Italian (Brescian) workmanship, about 1660. J 223, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

These sentences, in very corrupt Latin (which we have endeavoured to translate), are etched and gilt upon the blade by a workman who was doubtless ignorant of what he was copying. But we have given the inscriptions in full, as they go to prove that, irrespective of the royal emblems appearing upon the blade, it was really made either for James I or Charles I, and was not one of the many stock pattern blades turned out in such large numbers