the Christians. A knight, who despised the swords and lances of the
Saracens, relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and those
of his companions, at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine
that discharged a torrent of the Greek fire, the feu Gregeois, as it is
styled by the more early of the French writers. It came flying through
the air, says Joinville, [22] like a winged long-tailed dragon, about
the thickness of a hogshead, with the report of thunder and the velocity
of lightning; and the darkness of the night was dispelled by this deadly
illumination. The use of the Greek, or, as it might now be called, of
the Saracen fire, was continued to the middle of the fourteenth century,
[23] when the scientific or casual compound of nitre, sulphur, and
charcoal, effected a new revolution in the art of war and the history of
mankind. [24]

[Footnote 16: Our sure and indefatigable guide in the middle ages and
Byzantine history, Charles du Fresne du Cange, has treated in several
places of the Greek fire, and his collections leave few gleanings
behind. See particularly Glossar. Med. et Infim. Graecitat. p. 1275, sub
voce. Glossar. Med. et Infim. Latinitat. Ignis Groecus. Observations sur
Villehardouin, p. 305, 306. Observations sur Joinville, p. 71, 72.]

[Footnote 17: Theophanes styles him, (p. 295.) Cedrenus (p. 437) brings
this artist from (the ruins of) Heliopolis in Egypt; and chemistry was
indeed the peculiar science of the Egyptians.]

[Footnote 18: The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium of the history of
Jerusalem, (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167,) the Oriental fountain of
James de Vitry, (l. iii. c. 84,) is introduced on slight evidence and
strong probability. Cinanmus (l. vi. p. 165) calls the Greek fire: and
the naphtha is known to abound between the Tigris and the Caspian Sea.
According to Pliny, (Hist. Natur. ii. 109,) it was subservient to the
revenge of Medea, and in either etymology, (Procop. de Bell. Gothic.
l. iv. c. 11,) may fairly signify this liquid bitumen. * Note: It is
remarkable that the Syrian historian Michel gives the name of naphtha
to the newly-invented Greek fire, which seems to indicate that this
substance formed the base of the destructive compound. St. Martin, tom.
xi. p. 420.--M.]

[Footnote 19: On the different sorts of oils and bitumens, see Dr.
Watson's (the present bishop of Llandaff's) Chemical Essays, vol. iii.
essay i., a classic book, the best adapted to infuse the tas