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Updated: May 15, 2025
Then came the aristocratic guild of the cross-bow men that company the members whereof were required to prove their noble descent untainted for so many generations, before they could be admitted into the guild; and, being admitted, were required to swear a solemn oath, that no other pastime or exercise should take up any part of their leisure, the whole of which was to be devoted to the practice of the noble art of shooting with the cross-bow.
For a moment I hesitated. Then I rushed past him whirling my crowbars, and shouting to confound the aim of the Selenite. He was aiming in the queerest way with the thing against his stomach. "Chuzz!" The thing wasn't a gun; it went off like cross-bow more, and dropped me in the middle of a leap.
The cross-bow was meant at first for the defence of towns, like Genoa or the towns of Castile. So strength was more important than lightness, and the archer had time to take aim. It was a bow on a cross piece of wood, along which the string was drawn back peg after peg by mechanism. The bow was then held to the breast, and the arrow let off. It was clumsy, heavy, and expensive.
Ah, suddenly that deadly foe has fallen upon the prey, Yet stoutly rise the Christians and arm them for the foe, And doughty knights their lances seize and scour their coats of mail, The soldier with his cross-bow comes and the peasant with his flail.
Perhaps there was something in the aspect of those bands of Englishmen still seated in silence on the ground, with never a horse among them, that gave them pause. Then, as though at a word of command, the Genoese cross-bow men set up a terrific shout. "Do they think to make us run at a noise, like hares?" said Hugh contemptuously.
Thus Spanish letters, tied to sticks, and tossed over into the next entrenchment, were replied to by others, composed in four languages by the literary man of Ostend, Auditor Fleming, and shot into the enemy's trenches on cross-bow bolts. On the 29th May, a long prepared mine was sprung beneath the Porcupine.
"This I have to say, that I am resolved not to explore another fathom o' this land until I can make sure of hittin' the crown o' my cap with a cross-bow bolt at a reasonable distance; and I would advise you both to make the same resolution, for if you don't you will have to do your exploring without me."
And the citizens settled down without further delay to a little serious plotting. A few days after this, Hedwig gave Tell a good talking to on the subject of his love for adventure. He was sitting at the door of his house mending an axe. Hedwig, as usual, was washing up. Walter and William were playing with a little cross-bow not far off. "Father," said Walter. "Yes, my boy?"
The plaintive song begins to well forth and float away over meadow and river the cross-bow is slowly raised to position, a steady aim is taken, the bolt flies straight to the mark the figure sinks down, still singing, the knight takes the wool out of his ears, and recognizes the old ballad too late! Ah, if he had only not put the wool in his ears!
The ordinary weapons of these cavaliers were sword, lance, and knife; the demi-launce, or light horsemen, were similarly armed; and a force of this class, common in the Irish wars, was composed of mounted cross-bow men, and called from the swift, light hobbies they rode, Hobiler-Archers.
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