282 GUNS, GUN LOCKS, BARRELS, &C.

it est Irh-bonne. II ecrivoit sorts le regne de Francois 1.Si nous en croyons Luigi-Collado dans son Traitede V Artillerie,imprime a Venise , Van 1586, on ne commenfa que de son ternsa se servir des arquebuses d rouet en Aliening ne. Nell’ Alle-tnagna etiandio fu ritrovata Vinventione de gl' Archibugi daruoto.” This is assuredly confirmed by the testimony ofMartin Iiellay, who, speaking of the league formed be-tween the Emperor Charles V. and Pope Leo X. againstFrance , and the siege of Parma undertaken in the year1521, says, “ De ceste heure Id furent inventees les harcque-bouzes qu’on droit sur une fourchette.”

It appears, likewise, that pistols with a -wheel, were usedearlier in Germany than in France . Bellay mentions themill the year 1544, in the time of Francis I. and underHenry II . the German horsemen, des reiters, were calledpistoliers. De la Noue , who served under both kings, has toldus, in his Discours Politiques et Militaires, that the Germans first employed pistols. Frisch conjectures this name is de-rived from pistillo, or sdopo, because pistols used to have largeknobs on the handle. Daniel and others think, with moreprobability, that the name came from Pistoia in Tuscany ,because there they were first made and provided; and ifwe might hazard an opinion, we add, we think his con-jecture right. Hence, although Germany might first havegenerally used them, as may appear, we think they were anItalian invention.

Muskets are said to have received their name from eitherthe French mouchet, or else from the Latin muschetus;however, w'e shall hazard an opinion, which may be found,perhaps, entitled to some respect, when ye say, we believeneither of these terms gave its original, and submit that weconceive it came from the Latin muscarium; the fall ofmen, being as sudden after the explosion, as the death ofa fly, after it is flapped by that instrument, as common inbutcher’s shambles in ancient Rome as at those of ourbutchers.

Daniel proves they were known in France as early asthe period of Francis I. Brantome, however, asserts theywere introduced by the Duke of Alva ; that cruel monster,that tool of a blood-thirsty tyrant, whose name has its meritwhen it has eternal execration,—as the exploits of thatdiabolical character in the Spanish Netherlands bear indu-bitable testimony: that wretch existed in 1507; and thatthey were not known in France at that period, as the lastnamed author proves, or rather asserts, in another place;where he also says, they were first made known in France by