On the second plate of the treatise are given examples of two of the Arabian mangonels. One is formed of a sling and weighted lever, like the instruments represented in Roy. MS. 16, G. vi., engraved in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations," and on the ivory casket figured in the fourth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Association. The other differs only in having, in lieu of a weight, a number of cords hanging from the end of the lever; from which it would appear that the lever was in this case moved by men acting together by means of the cords. Captain Favé remarks that the expressions, La flèche de la Chine, La fleur de la Chine, in shewing us that the Chinese practised the fabrication of incendiary agents and contributed these names to the Arabs at so early a period, may permit us to suppose that this mode of warfare received its chief development from them, and even that to them may be ascribed its invention (p. 44).
The various STANDARDS and FLAGS found in the last period are continued throughout the present. But the advancement of the science of heraldry gave to the devices of this age a permanence which has in many cases subsisted to the present day. The Dragon Standard was still in use in England. At the battle of Lewes, in 1264, between the king and his barons, "the king, being informed of the approach of his enemies, soon set himself in motion with his army, and went forward to meet them with unfurled banners, preceded by the royal ensign, which was called the Dragon[391]." In the same battle, on the barons' side, we find the ancient Carrocium. When the revolted nobles, with De Montford at their head, "had reached a place scarcely two miles distant from the town of Lewes, Simon with his friends _ascended an eminence_ and placed his Car thereon, in the midst of the baggage and sumpter horses. There he displayed his Standard, fastening it securely to the car, and surrounded it with a great number of his soldiers[392]." The Milanese still held their Carrocio in the utmost veneration. When the Emperor Frederic, in 1236, crossed the Alps to attack them, "the citizens sallied forth from the city in great strength, to the number of about fifty thousand armed men, and proceeded with their Standard, which they call Carruca, or Carrochium, to meet the emperor, sending word that they were ready to fight him[393]." In 1237 the Milanese again placed their defiant Carrocium in front of the imperial host. They went forth with an army of about sixty thousand men, and fixed their Carrocium where their ranks seemed to be strongest. At sight of this, the emperor summoned his counsellors, and, animating them by warlike words, said: "Behold how these insolent Milanese, our enemies, dare to appear against us, and presume to provoke me, their lord, to battle; enemies as they are to the truth and to Holy Church, and borne down by the weight of their sins. Cross the river, unfurl my Banner, my victorious Eagle! and you, my knights, draw your formidable swords, which you have so often steeped in the blood of your enemies, and inflict your vengeance on these mice, which have dared to creep out of their holes, to cope with the glittering spears of the Roman Emperor[394]." From the letter of the emperor himself, addressed to "Richard, earl of Cornwall, his beloved brother-in-law," we learn that the Standard-Car was drawn by horses: "quod apud Crucem-Novam (_Nuova Croce_) in equorum celeritate præmiserant." And further on he writes: "We now directed our attention to the attack and capture of this standard, and we saw that some of our troops, having forced their way over the top of the trenches, had penetrated almost to the mast of the Carrocium. Night, however, coming on, we desisted from the attack till the following morning; lying down to rest with our swords drawn, and without taking off our iron hauberks. When day broke, however, we found the Carrocium deserted, left amidst a crowd of vile wagons, entirely undefended and abandoned, and from the top of the staff where the Cross had been, the Cross was now severed: but, being found too heavy for the fugitives to carry off in safety, they had left it half-way[395]."