clearly defined; the latter is charged with three signets. The border is foliated. The nationality of this pavis would appear to be Northern French. There is in the Pageant of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, commonly called the Warwick MS., an authority to which we have already referred, an excellent drawing representing the siege of Rouen, in the left-hand corner of which the crossbowmen can be seen firing from behind their pavises (Fig. 607). This drawing, which dates towards the close of the XVth century, gives an excellent idea of the actual use of the archer's shield we have just described. Here then we complete a comprehensive but by no means exhaustive examination of such shields as have any true significance in the science of heraldry. With the introduction of metal as the medium of construction, the shield, save in the case of plain bucklers of various diameters, finally ceases to be used as a defensive armament. Splendid undoubtedly are the metal shields of the XVIth century, with their glory of embossing and damascening, and their association with the names of great artists; but they have lost their utilitarian purpose, and we can only put them in the category of pageant armour.
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Fig. 613. Horn Buckler or Boce
I 5, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris
In dealing with the auxiliary defence furnished by the shields in use during the XVth century, it must be borne in mind that the circular shield, rondache, rondel, boce, or buckler was still in constant use, and had indeed continued to be used from the Saxon times in which we have first taken note of them. This kind of shield was to be seen twice represented in the perished frescoes of the Painted Chamber, once the glory of old Westminster Palace, frescoes which date from the first half of the XIIIth century. We give illustrations of two of the Virtues that figured in the frescoes taken from Crocker's famous drawings; the one (Fig. 608) christened "Fortitude" has her circular buckler charged with a cross crosslet and four lions on a field vert, the other (Fig. 609), an unknown Virtue, holds a buckler emblazoned with a cross gules on a field or. Of almost the same period is a round buckler to be seen on the effigy of an unknown knight in Great Malvern Church, Worcestershire (Fig. 610). In the small form of "boce" these shields figure continuously in the pictures and illuminations of the XIVth and XVth centuries: for instance, the half human monster taken from
