Menestrier says of lozenges:

"Lozange est une figure de quatre pointes, dont deux sont un peu plus
etendues que les autres, et assise sur une de ces pointes. C'est le
Rhomb des mathematiciens, et les quarreaux des vitres ordinaires en ont
la figure."

Of fusils:

"Fusees sont plus etendues en longue que les lozanges, et affilees en
point comme les fuseaux. Elles sont pieces d'architecture ou l'on se
sert pour ornement de fusees et de pesons."

The celebrated _Boke of St. Albans_ (1486) thus describes the difference
between a lozenge and fusil:

"Knaw ye y^e differans betwix ffusillis and losyng. Wherefore it is to
be knaw that ffusillis ar euermore long, also fusyllis ar strattyr
ouerwart in the baly then ar mascules. And mascules ar larger ou'wartt
in the baly, and shorter in length than be fusyllis."

The mascle is afterwards explained to be the lozenge pierced. Again:

"And ye most take thys for a general enformacion and instruccion that
certanli losyng eu'more stand upright ... and so withowte dowte we have
the differans of the foresayd signes, that is to wete of mascules and
losynges."

Dallaway, an elegant writer on Heraldry, says:

"Of the lozenge the following extraordinary description is given in a
MS. of Glover, 'Lozenga est pars vitri in vitrea fenestra.' But it may
be more satisfactory to observe that the lozenge, with its diminutive,
are given to females instead of an escocheon for the insertion of their
armorial bearings, one of which is supposed to have been a cushion of
that shape, and the other is evidently the spindle used in spinning;
both demonstrative of the sedentary employments of women. On a very
splendid brass for Eleanor, relict of Thomas of Woodstocke, who died
1384, she is delineated as resting her head upon two cushions, the
upper of which is placed lozenge-wise."--P. 140.

The above is taken from his _Miscellaneous Observations on Heraldic
Ensigns_, the following from the body of his great work:

"Females being heirs, or conveying feodal lordships to their husbands,
had, as early as the thirteenth century, the privilege of armorial
seals. The variations were progressive and frequent; at first the
female effigy had the kirtle or inner garment emblazoned, or held the
escocheon over her head, or in her right hand; then three escocheons
met in the centre,