According to this author, the Greek fire was thrown from the walls of Acre by a machine called a petrary, occasioning such terror among the commanders of St. Louis's army, that Gualtier de Cariel, an experienced and valiant knight, advised his men, as often as it was thrown, to fall prostrate on their elbows and knees, and pray to God, as he alone could deliver them from the danger. And as the king lay in bed, whenever he was informed that this fire was thrown, he used to raise him self up, and lifting his hands, exclaimed, " Good Lord, preserve my people." This petrary only threw it three times in the night, but it was also thrown four times from a cross bow.
Here we have apparently two kinds of artillery ; since, as it is described to have come from the bottom. of the petrary, that can scarcely have been any thing but a piece of ordnance, and probably a mortar of large bore.
To confirm this opinion, it came forward as large as a barrel of verjuice, with a tail of fire issuing from it as big as a great sword ; making a noise in its passage like thunder, and seeming like a dragon flying through the air ; and, from the great quantity of fire it threw out, giving such a light that one might see in the camp as if it had been day. Now here we are still left to our conjectures as to the exact nature of this fire ; as we have no other account of its use at this place than that of Geoffry de Vinesauf, who attended Richard to the crusade, and who describes it as consuming even flint and iron, and as being unextinguishable by water, while it was also attended by a pernicious stench and livid flame.
It appears, on considering this evidence, that we have to choose between a rocket and a carcass. There are difficulties both ways. The fact of being projected from a mortar, if such was the petrary, is in favour of a car cass; as no rocket win bear the explosion of a piece of i ordnance, and as indeed it is not necessary. As little would a cross bow be applicable to a rocket ; while small carcasses, or inflamed balls of a firm texture, might easily be thrown in this manner. The tail of light is compatible with any species of carcass ; and if the pro jectile was a perfect one, would have proceeded from the fuse ; but the noise like thunder which attended its pass age is not reconcileable to this notion. Thus it might be supposed that it must have been a rocket ; an opinion perhaps supported by the early knowledge of this pro jectile in India, whence the Saracens seem to have de rived all their arts, and this among the rest, yet still at variance with the described mode of projection. We do
not pretend to overcome this difficulty, and must there fore leave it, and, as we imagine, in a hopeless state. 'hatever this formidable fire was, it seems however to have caused more alarm than injury, as rockets are well known to co.
But xs e have yet one remark to make on Joinville's narrative, and it leads to our opinion respecting the true nature, at least, of this particular kind of the Greek fire. If it was a rocket, it assures us that the Arabs were ac quainted with the explosive compounds that depend on the properties of nitre. If, on the contrary, it was any species of carcass, or fire-ball, the same is true ; as no resinous, bituminous, or other inflammable sub stances, could thus be projected in a burning state with out being extinguished ; particularly if confined in any case, which seems implied in the comparison which is made of it to a barrel. Nitre is here absolutely necessary, and that in considerable proportions ; and thus only can carcasses be rendered effectual, to wit, by compounding their materials on the same general principles that regulate the composition of gunpowder. The property of resisting water farther justifies this supposition. We need not prolong this part of the discussion, as no farther light can be thrown on the subject ; but to continue the history of this branch of Pyrotechny to as late a period as is necessary, shall mention the last instances of its use in the western parts of Europe.
At the end of the eleventh century, the Eastern Ro mans used it against the Pisans ; at which period the secret of its composition was unknown, not only to the sufferers, but to western Europe. We are farther in formed by Pere Daniel, that Philip Augustus brought some from Acre, and used it against the English vessels at tbe siege of Dieppe. Lastly, when Ypres was besieged by the bishop of Norwich, in 1383, the garrison defended itself with Greek fire. At this time gunpowder and ordnance had become common ; and from this period the very term of Greek fire fell into disuse, although in France not many years ago, and in our own country in very late times, different empirics and inventors have pretended to have discovered this secret ; always, of course, attributing to it the same effects as the careless and credulous Byzantine writers.