"ordynaunce and munitions belonging to the fort of Archeclief beside the peere of Dover," an inventory to which we have several times had occasion to refer, we note among other items: "Cross-bowes called latches, winlasses for them—130." It has been suggested that the latch was an improvement on the arbalest, and that it was bent by a lever of much simpler form than the windlass à tour. The derivation of the word "latch," and the reason for the name being applied to the crossbow have yet, however, to be explained.
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Fig. 942. From the MS. of Gaston Phoebus in the National Library of France
Bending the bow by means of the graffle
Although the next type of crossbow to which we are about to allude is not met with in the century with which we purport to be dealing, although, too, it is essentially a mid-XVIth century weapon of the chase, we think it as well to take this opportunity of alluding to what was termed the "prodd,"
