hich I had
made here in Seville, ornamented with stones and gold." Swords
were baptized; they were named, and seemed to have a veritable
personality of their own. The sword of Charlemagne was christened
"Joyeuse," while we all know of Arthur's Excalibur; Roland's sword
was called Durandel. Saragossa steel was esteemed for helmets,
and the sword of James of Arragon in 1230, "a very good sword,
and lucky to those who handled it," was from Monzon. The Cid's
sword was similar, and named Tizona. There is a story of a Jew who
went to the grave of the Cid to steal his sword, which, according
to custom, was interred with the owner: the corpse is said to have
resented the intrusion by unsheathing the weapon, which miracle
so amazed the Jew that he turned Christian!

[Illustration: MOORISH SWORD]

German armour was popular. Cologne swords were great favourites
in England. King Arthur's sword was one of these,--

"For all of Coleyne was the blade
And all the hilt of precious stone."

In the British Museum is a wonderful example of a wooden shield,
painted on a gesso ground, the subject being a Knight kneeling
before a lady, and the motto: "Vous ou la mort." These wooden shields
were used in Germany until the end of Maximilian's reign.

The helmet, or Heaume, entirely concealed the face, so that for
purposes of identification, heraldic badges and shields were displayed.
Later, crests were also used on the helmets, for the same purpose.

Certain armourers were very well known in their day, and were as
famous as artists in other branches. William Austin made a superb
suit for the Earl of Warwick, while Thomas Stevyns was the coppersmith
who worked on the same, and Bartholomew Lambspring was the polisher.
There was a famous master-armourer at Greenwich in the days of
Elizabeth, named Jacob: some important arms of that period bear
the inscription, "Made by me Jacob." There is some question whether
he was the same man as Jacob Topf who came from Innsbruck, and
became court armourer in England in 1575. Another famous smith
was William Pickering, who made exquisitely ornate suits of what
we might call full-dress armour.

Colossal cannon were made: two celebrated guns may be seen, the
monster at Ghent, called Mad Meg, and the huge cannon at Edinburgh
Castle, Mons Meg, dating from 1476. These guns are composed of steel
coils or spirals, afterwards welded into a solid mass instead of
being cast. They are mammoth examples of th