WARFARE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 33 



the expense of war, urging them to bring on at once a great battle, by 

 which the issue was usually decided ; and this main action itself was mostly 

 a series of single combats, without plan or order, it being of much less con- 

 sequence that the commander-in-chief should have especial skill in the art 

 of war, than that he should be looked up to with respect by the army, and 

 that each subordinate should obey him willingly and observe his orders. 



In the feudatory force, cavalry was predominant ; in that furnished by 

 the cities, infantry; until here also equalization was introduced. Sometimes 

 the cavalry fought entirely distinct, usually on the flanks ; sometimes dis- 

 persed in masses among the infantry, or with single foot-soldiers between 

 the horsemen to support them ; or the archers brought on the conflict, 

 which the cavalry then continued. The infantry were usually disposed (as 

 in Jig. 3) in deep order, and carried long spears, with which they killed the 

 horses, and so put the riders hors-de-comhat. 



Prisoners were, in general, harshly treated ; not unfrequently, indeed, put 

 to death. A ver}^ common practice was that of decimation {pi. 14:, fig. 1), 

 which was applied also in case of mutiny in the army. The whole number 

 of condemned were placed in a row, and then every tenth man counted oflf 

 and immediately executed, while the remainder were permitted to go free, 

 or with only some light punishment. 



Ere we proceed to the time when, under the Emperor Maximilian, the 

 German army received, from the renowned Captain George of Frondsberg, 

 a regular organization, we will give some details respecting the arms and 

 military dress of that period. 



The most ancient weapons of the Germans, Normans, Anglo-Saxons, and 

 Danes, we have described already in pages 19, 20. The art of the armorei 

 was everywhere diffused in the middle-ages, and stood in high repute ; nexl 

 to peltry, arms were up to the end of the twelfth century the chief article 

 of barter for the wares of India. Among the Goths in Southern France, 

 we find mentioned, in the fifth century, shields inlaid with gold and silver ; 

 and the swords of the Vandals were also inlaid with gold. PI. 15, fig. 63, 

 shows a dagger which Duke Rudolph of Swabia wore, when, in 1080, he 

 fought at Merseburg, against King Henry IV., which belongs, therefore, to 

 the last halt of the eleventh century, if not still earlier. This dagger, the 

 richly decorated gold hilt of which displays a skill in carving remarkable 

 foi that age, gives evidence also of the perfection of the armorer's art at 

 that period. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, this art 

 attained in Germany, but especially in Northern Italy, a very high degree 

 of excellence ; and we have admirable suits of armor of that age, in which 

 the inlaid work is principally arabesque and leaf-work, or escutcheons. 

 Here also we will follow the division of weapons into those of offence and 

 defence, and describe them as they are represented in plates 15 and 16. 



The bow proper {pi. 15, figs. 1 and 2) held its repute longest among the 

 Scandinavians and Normans ; in Germany it was almost entirely super- 

 seded, as early as the twelfth century, by the crossbow, which the old 

 balista suggested. 



The Genoese were the first who constructed the balista, known in anti- 



609 



