Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 37 
people!” This petrary only threw it three times in the night, 
but it was also thrown four times from a cross-bow. 
Here we have apparently two kinds of artillery ; since, as 
it is described to have come from ‘“ the bottom of the petrary,”’ 
that machine can scarcely have been any thing but a piece of 
ordnance ; a mortar, perhaps, of large bore. The cross-bow, 
or balista, might have been used for the same purpose for a 
smaller projectile of the same nature, or possibly for some 
other kind of fire. 
To confirm the opinion already given of the nature of the 
fire which thus annoyed St. Louis, it must be remarked, that it 
came forward as large as a barrel of verjuice, with a tail 
issuing from it as big as a great sword; making a noise in its 
passage like thunder, and seeming like a dragon flying through 
the air; while, from the great quantity of fire which it threw 
out, it gave such a light that one might see in the camp as if 
it had been day. 
Now we are here still left to our conjectures as to the exact 
nature of this fire ; as we have no other account of it than that 
of Geoffrey de Vinesauf, who attended Richard to the crusade, 
and who describes it as consuming even flint and iron, and as 
being unextinguishable by water, while it was also attended by 
a pernicious stench and a livid flame. 
It is apparent, on considering this evidence, that the fire 
now under review bore no relation to those which were first 
described, and that we have to choose between a rocket and a 
carcass. There are difficulties both ways. The fact of its 
having been projected from a petrary, is in favour of a carcass; 
as a rocket would not have borne the explosion of a piece of 
ordnance, and which indeed could not have been necessary, 
since it is capable of flying by its own energy. As little could 
a cross-bow be required for a rocket; while small carcasses, or 
inflamed balls, like our modern light-balls, of a firm texture, 
might easily have been projected in this manner. 
On the other hand, though the fuse of a carcass would pro- 
duce a tail of light, that would not have been equal to a long 
sword, nor could it have illuminated the whole camp. This is 
