Note 15 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Harquebuss, in the ancient statutes, is called also Arquebuse, Haquebut, or Hagbut; it is a hand-gun, or a fire-arm of a proper length to be borne in the arm. The word is formed of the French arquebuse, and that from the Italian, arcobusio, or arco abuso, of arco a bow, and busio, a hole; on account of the touch-hole in which the powder is put to prime it; and it is likewise so called because it succeeded the bows of the ancients.
The harquebuss is properly a fire-arm, of the ordinary length of a musket or fowling-piece, cocked usually with a wheel. Its length is forty calibers; and the weight of its ball one ounce seven-eighths; its charge of powder as much.
There is also a larger kind, called harquebuss a croc, used in war for the defence of places. The first time these instruments were seen was in the imperial army of Bourbon, when Bonnivet was driven out of the state of Milan. They are heavy and cumbersome.