40 On the Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 
It will not be misplaced to bestow a few words more it 
bringing down the use of this engine of war to a later period. 
We already hinted that, about the end of the eleventh century, 
the eastern Romans used it against the Pisans, at which period 
the secret of its composition was unknown, not only to the 
sufferers themselves, but to western Europe. But we are in- 
formed by Pére Daniel, that Philip Augustus brought some 
from Acre, and used it against the English vessels at the siege 
of Dieppe. Lastly, when Ypres was besieged by the Bishop of 
Norwich in 1383, the garrison defended itself with Greek fire. 
At this time gunpowder and ordnance had become common, 
and from that period the very term Greek fire fell into disuse. 
Since that, however, there have not been wanting inventors 
who have laboured to discover what required no discovery; 
dazzled by the visionary character of this exaggerated and 
mysterious substance. Neither have there been wanting quacks 
and impostors, who have pretended to a knowledge of the 
imaginary secret from interested views. Grose informs us that 
a chemist in this country, whose name, however, appears to 
have been forgotten, pretended to this piece of knowledge, and 
enjoyed an annual pension on condition of keeping it secret, 
because our government was unwilling to increase the destruc- 
tion and cruelty of war. The same attempts were frequently 
made by this fruitful race during the late war, but not with the 
same success. In France also, many years ago, a certain 
Dupré received a pension on the same grounds. But the world 
has grown wiser of late; and we are in little danger now of 
being misled by any modern empiric, however we may still 
choose to dream over the tales of the careless and credulous 
Byzantine writers. 
