carried cranequin crossbows in action, as, for example, the select bodyguard of crossbowmen who guarded the person of Francis I. at Marignano in 1515.

Regarding the rate of movement of a cranequin, as compared with the windlass which preceded it, a cranequin with the usual handle of 9 in. in length, requires its handle knob to be turned round in a complete circle thirty times to draw back the bow-string of a crossbow 5 1/2 in., which was the common distance for the string to travel along the stock to the catch of the lock. This entails the manipulator moving his hand a space of 140 feet, and occupies him thirty-five seconds at a fair speed.

With a windlass, I find that the bow-string of the same crossbow can be drawn to the catch of its lock in twelve seconds; also that bolts can be discharged from a windlass crossbow at the rate of one a minute, whilst with a cranequin crossbow, the rate of discharge is two bolts in three minutes. Anyhow, nearly all the best sporting crossbows made after about 1480 and intended for killing deer, were fitted with ' cranequins ' as winders for their bow-strings instead of with windlasses.

For sporting crossbows this winder was admirably adapted, and in their case speed in action was of no great consequence. The cranequin crossbow may be known by the increasing width of its short stock near the lock, and by the transverse iron pin which projects an inch or so on each side of the stock about seven inches behind the catch which holds the stretched bow-string. Against this pin the cord loop of the cranequin was rested, preparatory to using the latter to bend the bow, figs. 86, 87.

In crossbows bent by a goat's-foot lever, the transverse pin for the fork of the lever to rest on was fixed through the stock just below the catch of the lock, fig- 45. p. 89.

I can find no cranequin or even an illustration of one of a date previous to 1480, though I know of several crossbows made about 1460 that have the projecting metal pins through their stocks which indicate that cranequins were applied to bend their bows.¹

The earliest cranequins to be seen in Continental and other armouries, date from about 1480. From this period the cranequin shows no change in its mechanism for some 150 years, or till the time when the crossbow with a heavy steel bow was no longer used for sporting purposes. The cranequin was a clever contrivance and acted perfectly, as it was able to stretch the

¹ It is probable that the cranequin was invented about the end of the first half of the fifteenth century.