And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
Ver. 17. Breastplates of fire, &c.] Muskets, arquebuses, pistols, and other spitfires; but especially those great guns and murdering pieces, so much used by the Turks, those mighty ordnance they brought before Constantinople, Rhodes, and other places, nothing inferior to those two that were cast by Alphonsus Duke of Ferrara, the one whereof he called the earthquake, the other Grandiabolo, or the great devil. (Chalcondylas. Peacham's Valley of Vanity.)
a The early type of portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket, which on account of its weight was, when used in the field, supported upon a tripod, trestle, or other ‘carriage', and afterwards upon a forked ‘rest'. The name in German and Flemish meant literally ‘hook-gun', from the hook cast along with the piece, by which it was fastened to the ‘carriage'; but the name became generic for portable fire-arms generally in the 16th century, so that the type with the hook was subsequently distinguished as arquebuse à croc: ŒD