ncisca, _securis oblonga, quam Franci
librabant in Hostes_. For the Horseman, beside his shield and Francisca
(Armes common, as wee have said, to the Footman), had also the Lance,
which being broken, and serving to no further effect, he laid hand on
his Francisca, as we learn the use of that weapon in the Archbishop of
Tours, his second book, and twenty-seventh chapter."

33. It is satisfactory to find how respectfully these lessons of the
Archbishop of Tours were received by the French knights; and curious
to see the preferred use of the Francisca by all the best of
them--down, not only to Coeur de Lion's time, but even to the day of
Poitiers. In the last wrestle of the battle at Poitiers gate, "La, fit
le Roy Jehan de sa main, merveilles d'armes, et tenoit une hache de
guerre dont bien se deffendoit et combattoit,--si la quartre partie de
ses gens luy eussent ressemble, la journee eust ete pour eux." Still
more notably, in the episode of fight which Froissart stops to tell
just before, between the Sire de Verclef, (on Severn) and the Picard
squire Jean de Helennes: the Englishman, losing his sword, dismounts
to recover it, on which Helennes _casts_ his own at him with such aim
and force "qu'il acconsuit l'Anglois es cuisses, tellement que l'espee
entra dedans et le cousit tout parmi, jusqu'au hans."

On this the knight rendering himself, the squire binds his wound, and
nurses him, staying fifteen days 'pour l'amour de lui' at
Chasteleraut, while his life was in danger; and afterwards carrying
him in a litter all the way to his own chastel in Picardy. His ransom
however is 6000 nobles--I suppose about 25,000 pounds, of our present
estimate; and you may set down for one of the fatallest signs that the
days of chivalry are near their darkening, how "devint celuy Escuyer,
Chevalier, pour le grand profit qu'il eut du Seigneur de Verclef."

I return gladly to the dawn of chivalry, when, every hour and year,
men were becoming more gentle and more wise; while, even through their
worst cruelty and error, native qualities of noblest cast may be seen
asserting themselves for primal motive, and submitting themselves for
future training.

34. We have hitherto got no farther in our notion of a Salian Frank than
a glimpse of his two principal weapons,--the shadow of him, however,
begins to shape itself to us on the mist of the Brocken, bearing the
lance light, passing into the javelin,--but the axe, his woodman's
weapon, heavy;-