Note {3} — Chapter LXX

Note 3.—I propose here to enter into some detailed explanation regarding the military engines that were in use in the Middle Ages.[2] None of these depended for their motive force on torsion like the chief engines used in classic times. However numerous the names applied to them, with reference to minor variations in construction or differences in power, they may all be reduced to two classes, viz. great slings and great crossbows. And this is equally true of all the three great branches of mediæval civilisation—European, Saracenic, and Chinese. To the first class belonged the Trebuchet and Mangonel; to the second, the Winch-Arblast (Arbalète à Tour), Springold etc.