content_output-087_7 (Q6799)

For use on horseback the fire-arm appears to have been considered as supplementary to lance and sword until the middle of the sixteenth century. Old drawings show that it was of secondary importance. Books of military exercises instruct the gunner how to use his weapons to best advantage against infantry, but the fact that the fire-arms could be used by cavalry as an offensive weapon against foot soldiers was not soon discovered.