The Coustiller, employed, as we have seen, at Bovines in 1214, continues in request throughout this century; and will be found again in the pages of Froissart, taking part in the battles of the succeeding age.
The Slinger is still of occasional occurrence. In this very curious group from Harl. MS. 4751, fol. 8, a work of the early part of the thirteenth century, the slinger appears without any defensive armour, and his weapon differs in no particular from the sling of Anglo-Saxon times, as shewn in our woodcut, No. 12. Besides the ancient Cord Sling, there appears in the manuscripts of this century a variety of the arm, the Staff Sling. It seems to have been in vogue for naval warfare, or in the conflicts of siege operations. The example here engraved is from Strutt's Horda, vol. i. plate 31; the authority being a MS. of Matthew Paris of this century, preserved in the library of Benet College, Cambridge. Other examples of the Staff Sling are given in Strutt's Sports, bk. i. chap. 2.
The Bideaux (_bibaldi_) were foot-troops fighting without defensive armour, whose usual weapons were a spear, javelins and a coutel. Guiart exactly describes them:--
"De Navarre et devers Espaingne Reviennent Bidaux a granz routes. En guerre par accoustumance Portent deux darz et une lance, Et un coutel a la ceinture: D'autres armures n'ont cure."--_Pt._ ii. _verse_ 10,518.
The Ribaux or Brigans were the humblest of the troops, and by their extreme poverty were driven to acts of depredation which eventually made their very name synonymous with marauder. They carried such weapons as they could obtain:--
"Li uns une pilete[284] porte, L'autre croc ou macue torte.
L'un tient une epee sans feurre, L'autre un maillet, l'autre une hache."--_Guiart_, v. 6635.
They are not only without armour, but their equipment altogether is in a very tattered condition:--
"Et Ribaldorum nihilominus agmen inerme, Qui nunquam dubitant in quævis ire pericla." _Philippidos_, lib. iii.
"Leurs robes ne sont mie neuves, Ainz semble tant sont empirées Que chiens les aient déciriées."--_Guiart_, v. 6640.
Matthew Paris names them with but little honour: "Ribaldi et viles personæ[285]." They were, however, by no means useless members of the host. Thus, when Philippe Auguste appeared before Tours in 1189: "Dum Rex circumquaque immunita civitatis consideraret, Ribaldi ipsius, _qui primos impetus in expugnandis munitionibus facere consueverunt_, eo vidente, in ipsam civitatem impetum fecerunt," &c.[286]