Armour & Weapons

N O H WEAPONS CHAP. VII so designed as to be a defence in itself. From this we get all the guards and counterguards, which are so varied and intricate that it would require more space than is at our disposal to treat of them with any degree of completeness. The type of sword that was thus developed by practice in its use was purely for thrusting purposes. The sword for cutting Fig. 49. Two-hand sword. alone is generally simpler in form. The Cutilax, Falchion, Dussack, and Cutlas are all weapons of this order and generally have a simple hilt. The modern Claymore is really an adapta- tion of the Italian Schiavona (Fig. 48), and is in no way derived from the Claymore proper, the Two-hand sword of the Middle Ages. This great weapon, often as much as 6 feet in length from point to pommel, was used by foot- soldiers, and special military arrange- ments were made for the space given to its users, who required a good sweeping distance between each man (Fig. 49). The Hand-and-half sword is a variety of cross-hilted sword, in which the grip is sufficiently long for two or three fingers of the left hand to be used to assist the right hand in delivering a swinging cut. The early Dagger is of much the same form as the sword ; it was worn on the right side with the sword on the left. One variety of the dagger was called the Miséricorde. It was finely pointed and, as its name grimly implies, was intended to penetrate the joints of the armour to give the coup de grâce to the fallen knight. The Main-gauche is also of the dagger order, but has a broad knuckle-guard and long straight quillons. It was used in conjunction with the rapier in duels with the point upwards, more as a means of warding off the sword-thrust than for