cases robbed of their prize cups, chains,
and jewels; even the cautious Leipzigers had not preserved the silver
statue of their holy Sebastian. Many old customs were maintained in
their desolate shooting houses; the cross-bow, at the popinjay and
target, had dragged on a miserable existence; it lasts in a few cities
as a curiosity up to the present day; the rifled weapon became
naturalised; in larger communities the new Imperial nobility favoured
shooting guilds and their old "_Koenigsschiessen_,"[73] and these
festivals acquired a stiff pretentious character of pedantic state
action. This great change in the city festival,--the only meagre
feast of arms which remained to the German citizen in the eighteenth
century,--is apparent in a description of the Breslau shooting in the
year 1738. It is found where one would hardly look for it, in the
laborious work of the physician Johann Christian Kundmann, entitled
"Beruhmte Schlesier in Muentzen," 1738, i., p. 128, and is given as
follows, literally, with few omissions:--

"At this time the following solemnities were observed at the
'_Koenigsschiessen_.' On Whitsunday the king of the preceding year went
with the elders, the Zwinger brotherhood, also with some invited
friends, in some twenty carriages, out to the Zwinger.[74] By the side
of the carriage went the secretaries as servants, two outriders,
the markers, and the king's own servant; they were received with
kettle-drums and trumpets. After that, the perquisites of the king were
read aloud to the shooters in the room, and those who wished to shoot
for the kingdom were to sign their names with their own hand. Then
appeared two gentlemen, commissaries of the worshipful and illustrious
council, who are usually the two youngest councillors of the nobility;
they wore Spanish mantles, trimmed with lace or fringe, and placed
themselves opposite to the king in the room,--who stayed there in his
kingly attire, bearing the great golden bird. The councillors state
that they, as commissioners, have to be present at this shooting. After
this the king goes to the shooting ground, accompanied by the
commissioners, the elders, and shooters.

"As, according to old usages, a popinjay was to be the mark, a large
carved bird with outspread wings was set up, instead of a target, and
at this there were six courses, that is, each shooter fired six times.
A small silver bird, or a large _klippe_, was attached to the king as a
badge of honou