

1830.] The .Greek Fire. 157 



The invention was in the hands of the Arabs,, e,ven five hundred years 

 before. It had been used in their fire-ships, at the second siege of Con- 

 stantinople, in 716. 



" It is not very easy/' says the author of the memoir, " to conjecture 

 what it really was. Supposing it to have been naptha, or petroleum, or 

 any similar liquid, it could not have been thrown from machinery in a 

 stream, to any distance, as it must have been extinguished in its passage 

 through the air. As little could it have been used by hand, to produce 

 any serious effect ; or not, at least, without the risk of equally injuring 

 both parties. On the other hand, it could not have been thrown in an 

 inflamed state in those bottles, or closed vessels, as it could not have 

 burnt without the contact of air." 



Among the qualities most essential to a fire used for maritime pur- 

 poses, and the one for which the Greek fire was most renowned, was 

 that of being inextinguishable by water. None of the receipts for 

 its composition enable us to discover by what means it was in possession 

 of this quality. Vinegar and sand were supposed to be the chief 

 resources against this persevering flame. The Sieur de Joinville's des- 

 cription, to which we have already alluded, gives the most intelligible 

 account of, at least, its appearance and effects, in his narrative of the famous 

 siege of Acre, by the Crusaders. It came forward, " rushing through 

 the air as large as a wine barrel, with a tail like an enormous fiery 

 sword ; its noise was as loud as thunder, and it was like a fiery flying 

 dragon." When it was seen rising for its flight from the Saracen 

 ramparts, the whole camp of the Crusaders w r as held in terror. Knights 

 are mentioned, who commanded their soldiery to think of no defence, 

 but to fall on their knees, and pray to Heaven as the sole resource against 

 this incarnation of evil. It was on such occasions that St. Louis, 

 when in bed, was accustomed to rise, and " with uplifted hands, pray 

 for the preservation of his warriors." The fire was thrown three times in 

 the night from a " petrary," probably a stone cannon or mortar, and four 

 times from a cross-bow. 



The sight of this general commotion in the splendid camp of the 

 Christian knighthood, must have been finely picturesque ; from the 

 rich mixture of arms and caparison, the standards, emblazoned tents, 

 and the other usual accompaniments of the days of chivalry ; for the 

 light discovered the whole, from front to rear, spreading over the 

 entire horizon an illumination as bright as day. 



One of the most curious circumstances of the whole secret, is that it 

 should have remained a secret so long. This might have been conceivable 

 had the use of it been confined to Oriental war, in which credulity and 

 superstition equally blind the keenness of human curiosity. But its 

 use was brought into Europe, and among the most subtle and investi- 

 gating people of the middle ages. The Greeks used it against the 

 Pisans, in the eleventh century. It was used even against the vessels of 

 our own country, by Phillip Augustus, at the Siege of Dieppe. It was 

 used even so late as the year 1383, at the Siege of Ypres, by the 

 garrison. 



Gibbon, who has collected every thing that he could turn into a sneer 

 against religion, repeats the monkish legend, that this celebrated invention 

 was revealed to Constantine the Great, by an angel, with the condition 

 annexed, that it should never be communicated to any foreign nation; 

 it being the peculiar privilege and blessing of the Christian empire, and 



