Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/403

NOTICES OF FOREIGN SEPULCHRAL BRASSES. 289 England it appears commonly to be open in front and behind, for the convenience of the mounted warrior. The knees and shins are protected by plate, the shin-pieces being attached by several straps round the calf. It is not easy to deter- mine what kind of protection of the legs and feet is here found under the greaves ; it may possibly have been leather, or stockings of stout cloth. There is no appearance of any armour on the feet. Willem Wenemaer is portrayed holding his drawn sword upraised, and the blade bears an inscription along its entire length, — the following Leonine verse : — |^0rrc6ant . Uitlfum . rrjirnftt . inc . rcrnrre nulfum. (Erst while the evil quaked to see me drawn.) The cross-guard of the hilt is of a singular fashion, which appears in some effigies in Scotland, as is curiously shown by several examples recently given in Mr. Graham's interesting "Antiquities of lona." Many examples of the inscribed sword-blade might be cited, besides that, most memorable in our history, the brand once wielded by Talbot, and preserved in the Treasury at St. Denis until the Revolution of 1790. The bad Latinity of this legend — sum talboti m.iiii.c.xliii. pro viNCERE iNiMico MEO may perhaps be set down to the inability of the decypherer, wliose blundered reading has been perpetuated by Camden,^ and attributed to Talbot's " camping Chaplain." The medieval armourer, however, paid slight heed to the preciseness of clerkly expression in such cases, as we may notice in the legends of Latin and Spanish phrases mixed together on the fine swords of Ferdinand IIL and Isabelle la Catholique, in the Armeria at Madrid.^ The sword of James IV. of Scotland, slain at Flodden in 1513, of which Sir Charles Young has recently given an interesting notice in the " Archa3ologia," bears the maker's name, maestro DOMINGO, with a motto, read thus : — espoir conforte le gveval. {X) * Several other examples of inscribed swords 2 Camden's Remains, Epitaphs, p. 383, the Cabinet des Medailles, in ascertaining, ed. 1637. This legend has been given through the earlier inventories, that this differently by other authors : " Sum Tal- interesting relic of Talbot had actually boti pro vincere inimicos meos." A large been there deposited. No trace of its portion of the valuable objects preserved existence is however now to be obtained, by the Monks at St. Denis were removed, •" Jubinal, Armeria Real, pis. 14, 16, &c. when the abbey was desecrated, to the ■* Archseologia, vol. xxxiii., pi. xiv., p. Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. I sue- 3-10. Possibly (riuTid may signify the ceeded, by the kindness of the curators of Gael. VOL. VII. Q Q