CHAP. IX.] USE OF FIREARMS BY CAVALRY. 



236 



powder to military purposes, the more the horsemen 

 naturally desired to make use of it and apply it to their 

 own service. The result was a rapid spread in the use 

 of firearms in the cavalry service all over Ev'^pe. 



The petronel, as we have already sflid, was the first 

 firearm used ; it was sometimes called the arquebus-a- 

 croc. The arquebus-a-rouet, or wheel-lock, which was 

 invented in Nuremberg in 1515, was soon used by the 

 cavalry because its management was more easy on 

 horseback.' 



A new weapon was invented early in the sixteenth 

 century, called the pistol, some say from its being first 

 made at Pistoja, in Italy, but Demmin, who is a good 

 authority, derives it from pistallo, which means pommel. 

 Pistols are said to have been first introduced into Eng- 

 land in 1521, and into France about 1531.^ They were 

 in use by the French infantry at Cerisoles in 1544, who 

 used them under the protection of the pikemen.* The 

 German cavalry, or Reitres, used pistols at the battle of 

 St. Quentin in 1557.* 



The invention of the wheel-lock pistol was a great 

 advantage to the cavalry, as it gave them a weapon easily 

 managed on horseback and one capable of inflicting a 

 deadly blow. The pikes, the arquebuses of the infantry, 

 and the clumsiness of the horsemen, who were unable to 

 charge faster than a slow trot, soon caused the cavalry 

 to forget that their great advantage consisted in the im- 

 petuous charge and the violent shock of men and horses, 

 and led them, contrary to the genius of the service, to 

 employ firearms against infantry similarly armed. It is 

 extraordinary how the prejudices of an age impede the 

 improvements and reforms which cor stant changes are 

 continually rendering necessary. The spirit of chivahy 

 had not yet died out, and the feeling in favour of horse- 

 men was -io great that it was actually believed that 

 horsemen, mounted upon animals that raised them up a 

 distinct mark for missiles, could abandon their impetuous 

 charges and rely mainly upon the use of projectile 



* Humbert, 77 ; Demmin, 519. » Webster, word "Pis il." 



3 Vaiiderburch, 175. * Bardin, 4430. 



