it be easie to passe the residue of the host in despite of the enemies But the best and surest way is not to vse open force but to make passage by some policy When the emperor IuliaÌ„ warred against the Persians afore he passed a certain riuer he sent Lucilius with fifteen hundred men to the further side of the water and yet for the passing of the water he vsed no open force but caused captaine Victor with a good number of men of war to passe ouer secretly in the night season and a good way off from the camp for feare least he should be perceiued and to ioin himself with Lucilius This had so good succes that being ioined togither vnperceiued of the enemy they charged vpon him behind vnlooked for wherwith he being afraid betook him to flight This bickering gaue the emperour leisure to passe his army in boats and to obtain the further bank Sometimes hast is made to take the enemy vnprouided and out of aray to astonish him and to break the order of his battel as Henrie the bastard of Castile did against his lawfull brother don Peter by the aduice of Bertrand of Guesclin For he saw he had but few men and considered that if don Peter should haue come against him in battell raunged in good order he had not beene able to stand against him by reason of the small number of men that he had to encounter so great a number of well trained souldiers as don Peter brought with him Therefore he set forward and led his men of war thick set and in good order before him without any incling of his comming knowne to don Peter And finding him out of aray with his bands scattered here and there far from him he discomfited him and put him to the woorst Marius was like to haue ben discomfited by being taken after that sort vnprouided and yet by another policy he tooke his enemies in a trip in such sort as I will tell you Boâ—chus and Iugurtha came to assaile Marius vpon the suddaine ouer night as he was retiring his armie into garrison All that Marius could then doe was but to get two little hils for his defence very fit for the seating of a campe And when he had retired himselfe thether to his aduantage he let his enemies alone who enuironed the two hils with great noise and so passed forth the most part of that night On the contrary part the Romans made not any noise but held themselues quiet But when they perceiued that their enemies beg into fall asleepe and to take their rest then Marius caused his men to issue out with great noise vpon the Moores and Getulians of whom he slue a great number as they lay asleepe and compelled the rest to forsake the place and to go seeke another more sure at the fauour of the night by means whereof he scaped that daunger Sometimes men are afraid to giue battell by reason of the aduauntage of the place In that case policie is to be vsed as to take a higher ground than where the enemy lieth as Paulus Emilius did against Perseus in Macedonie and Sylla against Tigranes and diuerse others of whom I haue spoken heretofore For then must they either dislodge or fight to their apparant losse Or else he must draw them by some traine as Bertram of Guesclin did the men of Nauarre who seeing their armie in a high place of aduantage and on the other side being aduertised that succour was comming to them the next day when he and all the army of France ranged in battell had spent a great part of the day in the plaine sore vexed with heate and trauel he thought therfore that it was not for him to fight with them in a place of so great disaduantage But forasmuch as he was sure that the Nauarrians desired greatlie to come to encounter them and yet that they would not leaue their strength to draw them to battell he made countenance to retire so long vntill the day began to decline causing his armor bagage and pages to passe ouer a bridge holding himselfe alwaies still in one quarter to see what countenance the Naâ—arrians would make And the better to conceale his pretence he caused many of his men of armes to passe also Anon one Iohn Iouell a captaine of the Nauarrians contrarie to the aduice of the captall of Buze went downe the hill and led his men to the encounter whom the captall of Buze followed and all the army after him When the Frenchmen saw him in the plaine they turned againe vpon the Nauarrians amaine of whome in the end few or none escaped which were not either slaine or taken ptisoners Sometimes when a captaine commeth neere his enemies he will not by and by giue battell because his men are wearie of their way But yet to hold his enemie in expectation he keepeth his men a long while in battelray as if he ment to come to handstrokes and in the meane while maketh trenches the which being done he retireth his men faire and softly into them lodging the hindermost first and so successiuelie those that are next them one after another whereat the enemie is astonished to see the army of his aduersaries lodged safe within their trenches as Paulus Emilius did against Perseus For he made so faire a shew of encountering and lodged his men so cuÌ„ningly that he had by little and little vndone his battell and lodged his people in their campe well fortified without any noise or hurly burlie ere his enemies had perceiued it Yet doth it not follow but that it may at some times be for a mans aduauntage though he be wearie and haue trauelled a long iourney to set vpon his enemies out of hand But that must be when he is sure to find them out of order as the countie of Egmount did to the Frenchmen neere vnto Graueling and Bertram of Guesclin did to don Peter of Castile Timoleon intending to fight with Icetes who kept the way to Adrane twentie leagues distant from Tauremenion departed thence with all his armie of purpose to bid him battell The first day he made no great iourney but the next day he marched more speedilie And when it drue towards euentide tidings was brought him that Icetes was but then newlie arriued afore Adrane and was there incamped Whereof the captains hearing caused the foremost to stay to take their repast that they might be the better disposed to fight But Timoleon aduaunced himselfe forward vnto them and praied them not to do so but to march on still as speedilie as they could that they might take their enemies out of order And he himselfe marched foremost as if he had held the victorie in his hand and so the residue followed him with like confidence As soone as they came there they charged vpon their enemies whom they found all disarmed and therfore they tooke them to their heeles as soone as they saw
told him that his enemies had many more ships than he And how many ships quoth he thinke you my presence may counteruaile As who would say it is a great sway to the victorie when a valeant prince is present which can skill how to gouerne The Numantines had obtained many victories of the Romanes vntill in the end Scipio was sent thither to haue the commaunding of the armie whose arriual there made the chance of the warre to turne For euer after the Numantines went by the worst neuerthelesse their captains bad their souldiers that they should not be afraid for the Romans were but the very same people whom they thēselues had vanquished so oft afore True it is indeed said one among them they be the same sheepe but they haue another maner of shepheard Antigonus hearing by some prisoners that Eumenes was sicke as he was indeed and therupon coniecturing that he should with small adoe discomfit his armie in his absence made all the hast he could to giue battell But when he came so neere that he might well and plainly descry the order behauior of his enemies who were so well ranged in order of battell as possibly could be he staied a long while altogether distroubled and as it were astonished in the which time he perceiued the horslitter of Eumenes passing from the one side of the battell to the other and therewithall he began to say Yon same in mine opinion is the litter that maketh vs war and offereth vs battel And with that word he caused the retreit to be sounded and conueyed his men backe into his camp Iulius Caesar did put himselfe in great perill by going to find his armie that was distressed by the Gauls and by his only presence did rid them of the distresse giuing them courage to fight so greatly was his name redouted of his enemies Cabades king of Persia seeing his men repulsed from the citie Damida vvhich he had surprised and scaled and hovv that many of them began to come dovvne the ladders because the men of the citie made them to leape dovvne from aboue stepped to the foote of a ladder vvith his svvord dravvne and threatned to kill as many of them as came dovvne And so the presence of the king caused many to mount vp the ladders againe and many that had begun to giue ouer fell so lustily to scaling againe that in the end they tooke the citie The prince of Wales to giue courage to his men of vvarre vvas personally at the castle of Remorentin by vvhose presence the Englishmen gaue such a forcible assault that they vvhich vvere vvithin vvere faine to yeeld themselues Henrie king of Castile seeing his armie begin to scatter assembled them againe three times and with his incouraging of them made them to endure the battell a long time so as they durst not any more flee for shame when they saw their lord and king fight so valiantly and speake so amiably Ferdinand king of Naples perceiuing the Neapolitans to rebell at the change of his fortune at such time as Charles the eighth subdued all vnder his obedience departed suddenly from Capua and drue streight to Naples As soone as he arriued there euery man laying downe his weapon came to welcome him with singular affection ceasing their vprores in all places Consalua being brought to distresse at Barlette and yet cheerefully ouerpassing all pains matched vvith great scarcitie of victuals and of all other things needfull did by his example hold in the Spaniards a long time who were forewearied with trauell and in the end got the vpper hand of the Frenchmen At such time as king Henrie the second was fiercely assailed in his own realme at two places at once and could not put garrisons in all the towns on the frontiers the admirall Hannibalt being aduertised that the enemies made towards Fere with ful assurance to get possession thereof conueid himselfe into it with a few men and saued the towne by his presence For the enemies thought that so great a lord vvould not shut vp himself vvithout a good companie and othervvise they esteemed him to be a vvise captaine as hauing had triall of him afore at Mesieres at Petone and at Laundersey hovv greatly the presence of a good captain auaileth vvhich maketh weake towns impregnable The end of the first booke The second Booke CHAP. I. ¶ Of Wisedome and Discreetnesse IN old time when by Gods sufferance Oracles had place the citie of Delphos was renowned through the whole world for the prowd and stately temple there which was dedicated and consecrated to Apollo whereunto folke resorted frō al parts of the world to aske counsell and to heare the answers that were giuen by his image At the enterance of this goodly Temple were written these words KNOW THY SELFE In the interpretation of which words many haue erred imagining that a man knows himselfe when he can skill of the things that concerne his duetie or office and his mysterie trade of liuing or profession as when a Surgion can skill to launce a sore or a Phisition to heale a disease or a Shoomaker to make a Shoe But none of all these is the knowing of a mans selfe And though a man beheld all the parts of his bodie yet knew he not himselfe the more for all that For as Plato saith He that knoweth his bodie knoweth that which is his but he knoweth not himselfe So that neither Phisition nor handicraftsman knoweth himselfe but their knowledge is of things that are separated from themselues Wherefore to speake properly none of them according to their art can bee said to be wise Likewise hee that hath a care of his owne body mindeth that which is his and not himselfe And vvhosoeuer loueth a man cannot bee deemed to loue his bodie but his soule Therefore vvhen we say a man must know himselfe it is as much to say as hee must haue a care of his soule to prepare it to the knowing of God his maker after whose image it is created that hee may as it were in a looking glasse behold the inuisible Godhead the efficient cause of wisedome and of all good things and that by the knowledge of the vertues which God hath giuen vnto him he may consider how greatly he is indetted vnto God and that he hath not any thing of himselfe but that all commeth of God And when he knoweth what he is that is to wit a reasonable creature then lifteth he vp his heart as is soong in the church that is to say he lifteth vp his mind to the author of his welfare Now then to know God it behooueth to haue the knowledge of our selues that is to wit of our inward man which is framed of diuine essences to the intent we despise not the heauenly vnderstanding and mind that was giuen to man in his creation for want of knowing it aright and for want of considering the vertue and power thereof least through want
touching the aduantage of a hill it is very great so there be nothing aboue it that may command it Perseus had planted his campe to great purpose on a high ground of aduantage neere the mountaine Olimpus and had caused all the passages of the hill to be warely kept sauing one that seemed vnapprochable By reason wherof it behoued the Romans to be ill lodged and vnable to do any exploit of war For Perseus stood vpon his defence intending to wearie them by protracting of time for he assured himselfe that he could not be assailed in so strong a place Paulus Emilius vnderstanding that there was but that onely one passage whereat to distresse Perseus bethought himselfe how he might winne it Whereupon feigning to fetch about by the sea and to come vpon his enemies at their backs he dispatched Nasica secretly with eight thousand footmen and six hundred horsmen to get the the passage and he himselfe tooke his way towards the seas side But when night came he led them cleane the contrarie way from the sea vntill he came to the top of the hill where he lodged himselfe vpon a plaine in the sight of Perseus who was so astonished thereat that he remoued his campe immediatly Iulius Caesar hauing to do with the Belgians who were the hardiest and of greatest number of all the Gauls tooke a certaine little hill the which he caused his men to intrench in two places beneath least the Gauls who were without comparison mo in number than the Romans should enuiron him But neither the one nor the other durst go find out his enemie because there was a maris betwixt them But aboue all things a captaine must beware that he lodge not in the midst of a hill vnlesse he be sure from aboue sor by that means he may easily indomage his host as Salomon a captaine of the Romans endomaged the Maurusians whom being incamped vpon the middest of a high hill to their great aduauntage he was come to assaile from below But yet he bethought himselfe to take first the toppe of the hill and for the doing thereof appointed Theodericke with certaine footmen to climbe the hill ouer night by a way most difficult and whereof his enemies had least doubt commaunding his men not to make any noise when they were come nigh them but to keepe themselues close till the sunne-rising In the dawning of the day he marched with his armie directlie vp the hill and at the same instant the other part of his armie shewed themselues to the enemies vpon the toppe of the hill so as the Maurisians perceiuing themselues to be betweene the two armies and hauing their enemies both aboue them on the toppe of the hill and beneath them at the foot were constrained to take them to flight through the thick forrest with the losse of siue thousand men and not one Roman slaine Sylla to compasse Mithridates got the back of a hill that was almost vnapprochable in the day of the battell and there shewing himselfe to his enemies aboue them did put them all to flight to the chase Lucullus being within the view of the campe of Tigranes who was imbattelled vpon a high ground somewhat neere the citie Cabyra durst not come downe into the plaine because he had but a handful of men in comparison of Tigranes But by good hap one Arthemidorus offering himselfe vnto him promised that if he would follow him he would bring him into a place where he should lodge his campe safely and where he had a castle aboue the citie Cabyra As soone as night was come Lucullus making great store of fires in his campe departed thence and after he had passed some dangerous places came by the next morning to the top of the mountaine wherat his enemies were sore abashed to see him aboue them in a place where he might come down vpon them with aduauntage if he listed to fight and could not be forced to fight except he listed Quintus Flaminius perceiuing that he could not giue his enemies battell by reason of a certaine streight found the means to discouer a way which within three dayes brought him to his enemies campe And for his guides he tooke the shepheards who assured him that that way was not garded Vpon trust of whose word Flaminius sent three thousand footmen and thirteene hundred horsmen who marching by moone light and resting a day times came the third day to the top of the hill All that while he stirred not vntill the said third day and then he caused his armie to march vp the hill against the cragged cliffs And as he marched he espied his owne men vpon the top of the hill which doubled the courage of the Romans that were with him And on the other part his companions that were aboue perceiuing him so mounting vp against the hill began to raise a noise behind their enemies wherewith they put them in such â—eare that by and by they tooke them to flight The constable of France considering the sortification of the passage of Suze how that vpon two little hils on either side of the streight his enemies had made two sconses and had cut a great and deepe trench betwixt them perceiued that by winning two other hils higher than those were where his enemies had their fortifications a man might force them with the shot of harquebusses to abandon their fortification Wherupon he ceised immediatly vpon those hils The which thing when his enemies perceiued they forsooke the passage and betooke themselues to flight When the commodity of woods hils and riuers is not to be had and a small company of men is to deale with a great number they must intrench themselues with all speed and if it be possible they must chuse a place vneasie to be comne vnto â—ull of hedges and vineyards as the prince of Wales did at Poitiers when he tooke king Iohn priâ—soner For he had put himselfe into a place of such aduantage as there was but one way to come at him and that was full of hedges and bushes and he had laid the hedges full of archers And as for his horsmâ—n they were all alighted on foot in the vineyards in so strong a place as no men on hors-back could enter into For when an army is to be assailed in their hold neither horsmen nor footmen can approch theÌ„ without breaking their owne aray as it happened to the Frenchmen at Bicock through the wilfulnes of the Suissers and to the king of Castile against the king of Portugall at the battell of Iuberoth The Entalits seeing themselues to weake for the Persians incamped themselues veâ—y sharply in a place of great aduantage and inclosed themselues about with great deepe and large trenches leauing only one way to passe at with ten men a â—ront and when they had so done they couered the trenches with leaues and russhes And when they saw the Persians approch they sent out certain
light horsmen with expresse commandment that they should not be too earnest in fighting but that as soone as the Persians charged them any thing whotly they should turne their backs and run home to their hold vpon the spur and that when they were against the trenches they should step to the passage so as they might passe the strait at their leisure The Persians perceiuing them failed not to charge vpon them and they on the other side failed not to â—lie and to mount vp the side of the hill vntill they were come to their companie againe They were pursued by the whole host of the Persians who hauing gotten the side of the hil fell to running against the Enthalits and not perceiuing the trenches draue downe one another and tumbled into them with great violence one vpon another by means wherof they were all discomfited and the king with his 30 sonnes whom he had brought thither were all found dead Tomombey would haue done the like to Selim but his enterprise was discouered Cabaon captaine of Tripolie finding himselfe not strong inough for the Vandals if he shuld fight with them in the plain because they were all horsmen and the most part of his men were footmen and yet notwithstanding hauing no means to chuse any other place bethought himselfe to make faire great trenches and therto enuironed his camp with a great number of camels amongs the which he placed his choisest souldiers who were hidden among the camels Besids this he set twelue camels in the face of the battell to scare his enemies horses for horses are woonderfully afraid of camels When his enemies attempted to approch they were driuen back with shot of arrows On the other side in stead of comming on their horses gaue back for feare of the camels insomuch that they were all discomfited The Marrusians vsed the like stratageme against the Romans but the Romans had taken order for it For when the Marrusians had ordered theâ—â— battels as it is said afore and that the Romans were constrained to flee specially the horsmen Salomon the generall of the Roman army seeing it alighted from his horse and commanded all his horsmen to do the like and with fiue hundred men entred into their campe The enemies who had put all their strength in their camels and in their fortifications when they perceiued them disappointed and their camels terrified and putting all things out of order were driuen to flee and to leaue their wiues and children to the mercie of the Romans CHAP. XII How to giue courage to men of warre afore a battell or in the battell IT hapneth oftentimes that souldiers conceiue a feare when they see they haue to do with too great a number or with an enemy that is mightie and a great warrior or else that in the conflict they be suddenly dismaid so as it behoueth them to be encouraged by some cunning in which behalfe the skill of the captains serueth maruellously well who haue vsed their owne deuise and diuerse policies according as the case required Some vse long orations and declarations as Iulius Caesar did to rid his men of the feare that they had of the Gauls and Almanes and it is an ordinarie matter to make an exhortation to the souldiers in the day of battell Others doe put their people in heart by speeches and countenances as the Lacedemonian did to whoÌ„ when one said that they should be ouerwhelmed with the arrowes of the Persians so much the better qd he for then shal we fight with them in the shadow And as another did to whoÌ„ when one said That the enemies were very many I ask not qd he how many or how few they be but where they be that I may fight with them The day afore the battell of Cannas Hanniball tooke certaine men with him went to view the Romans And as he beheld theÌ„ one named Gisco said to him It is a wonderful thing to see so great a nuÌ„ber of men of war To whoÌ„ Hannibal laughing answered There is another thing much more maruelous thaÌ„ that which is that there is not one of them al like thee Wherat euery maÌ„ began to laugh so heartily that the bruâ—t therof went froÌ„ hand to hand through the host greatly encoraged the souldiers when they saw their captain so assuring himseâ—f of good â—peed Lisander seeing his souldiers dismaid at the siege of Corinth and refusing the assault sought by all means to recoÌ„fort them and as it hapned a hare started out of the towne ditch wherevpon he tooke occasion to say thus vnto them Are you not ashamed to be afraid to assaile those enemies which are so slothfull and negligent that hares sleepe quietly within the precinct of their walles Quintius beholding his men astonied at the great power of Antiochus made this account vnto theÌ„ On a time at a certaine supper in Chalcis where I was there were brought in many sorts of meat and I asked of mine host why he had prepared so much wherunto he answered That it was all but one sort of meat namely porke dressed after diuerse maners euen so whereas you heare that Antiochus hath so many light horses so many men at armes so many archers so many light armed footmen and so many corslets assure your selues that all this people are but Syrians armed and furnished after diuerse fashions Marius perceiuing his men to be afraid of the great number of the Dutchmen that would haue passed into Italie thought it good not to permit his souldiers to ioyne battell with them vntill they had seene them oft afore And therefore after he had made great and faire trenches he made them to come vpon the rampires of his campe one after another to view their enemies and to enure them with the sight of their countenances lookes and marchings that they might not be afraid of their voyces and words and that they might vnderstand the fashion of their armour and the manner of their gouernment By the means of which ordinarie sight he made the things familiar which had beene terrible to them at the first blush so as they were no more moued at them For he was of opinion that the strangenesse of things maketh men through error of iudgement to thinke things vnaccustomed more horrible dreadfull than they be in deed And contrariwise that customablenes abateth much of the dread and terror of things which of their owne nature are terrible Which thing was seene at that time by experience For their dayly accustoming of themselues to the ordinarie beholding of those barbarous people not onely diminished some part of the former fearfulnesse of the Roman souldiers but also whetted them vnto choler by the proud brags and intollerable brauerie of the barbarous people which did set their courage on a burning desire to fight with them Pelopidas and Epaminondas captains of the Thebans did the like inuring the Thebans to behold
their enemies oftentimes who were valiant and redoubted And afore they would come to fight in good earnest he sent them diuerse times to light skirmishes like good yong greyhounds let slip for the nonce and then led them to it the more safely afterward when he had well fleshed them by giuing them a little tast of the ease and pleasure that commeth of victorie And by that means hee hartned them more and more and made them the more sure and strong insomuch that by such skirmishes they became more hardie and war-like than they were afore Sometime a good captaine turneth the fearfulnesse of his souldiers into a furie of fighting by reason of the trauell that they endure as Sylla did who when he saw his souldiers astonished at the great and puissant host that Mithridâ—â—es led well armed for he would not make them to fight in that feare but kept them occupied in cutting great trenches without giuing any of them leaue to rest to the intent that being weary of the paines that they tooke about such works they should the rather desire to trie the hazard of battell as it came to passe For the third day after they had begun so to labour as Sylla passed along by them they fell to crying vpon him that he should lead them against their enemies Wherunto he made answer That those cries were not of men that were desirous of battell but of men that were wearie of their worke And if ye be desirous to fight said he I will haue you all to go in your armour to yonder passage on the side of the hill Which thing they did and obtained it afore their enemies that were sent thither to get it could come there and so they possessed themselues thereof to lodge therein Morius did almost the same when he went against the Dutchmen for he made his souldiers to runne and to make great and long steps compelling euery man to beare his own fardels and to carie with him whatsoeuer he should need to liue with But he did that to inharden them and to make them the more tough to abide the trauell of warre Iugurth to assure his owne men and to put the Romans in feare slue a souldier at his arriuall and brandishing his bloodie speare to the Romans told them in their owne language that he had learned with them before Numance that they â—ought vpon credit hauing lost their consull Marius Which saying made the whole armie of the Romans in mind to haue fled and they were like to haue turned head had not Sylla staid them Marius a good captaine if there were any at those dayes in Rome intending to fight with the Dutchmen had planted his campe in a place of verie great aduauntage but he wanted water The which he did of purpose to whet the courage of his souldiers by that means For when it was told him that they were in danger of great thirst he pointing them to the riuer that was along the side of his enemies campe said that it beâ—ooued them to fetch drinke from thence and so they did For the pages hauing no water for themselues nor for their beasts went thither in great companies to fetch water and there fell into so whot a skiâ—mish that the Dutchmen were faine to passe the riuer to come to tâ—e bickering where being taken out of order and wanting time to raunge their battels in array they were all discomfited and the most part of them were drowned in the riuer Next vnto pains Despaire is a great incourager to fight when men are forced either to fight or to die and that there is no place of refuge to retire vnto This is a thing that oftentimes maketh men to fight most valiantly in a straunge countrie William duke of Normandâ—e to dispatch his men of al hope of returning home made all his ships to be set on fire Manie others haue done the like But if a generall be accompanied with leaguers and allies it is hard for him to inforce them to fight vnlesse he do it by some policie as Themistocles did at the famous battell at Salamis For when it was vniueâ—sally agreed vpon to fight with the Persians vpon the sea in a strait that was greatly to the aduauntage of the Greeks because it was easie to be kept The Lacedemonians and other their allies confederats seeing the sea couered with the ships of the Persians determined to depart the next morning and euerie man to go home Themistocles being greeued thereat bethought himselfe of this policie He had with him a Persian that was a schoolemaister to his children named Sincinnus whom he trusted him he sent secretly to the king of Persia to aduertise him that Themistocles the chieftaine generall of the Athenians hauing a good will to do him some speciall seruice gaue him knowledge of the good hap that the Greekes were minded to retire and flee away counselling him not to let them scape but to set vpon them lustily while they were so combred and afraid and disseuered from their armie on land and so to vanquish all their whole power by sea at once Xerxes beleuing the counsell enuironed them in such sort that they could by no means depart thence the necessitie whereof made them to resolue themselues to abide the battell wherein Themistocles had the vpper hand and vtterly defeated the whole power of Xerxes by sea Zabdas Constable vnto queene Zenobia being retired to Antioch after he had lost a battel to the emperour Aurelian and fearing least the people should fall vpon him in a rage if they vnderstood the newes of that discomfiture tooke a man that resembled Aurelian and made it to be bruted that he brought the emperour prisoner with him By which guile he kept the Antiochians from rebelling while he caused his men to retire secretly by night vnto him without being perceiued of any man The countie Petilian seeing the armie of the Italians defeated by king Charles at Foronouo and being escaped out of the hands of the Frenchmen where he had beene a prisoner to the intent to assemble againe the men that were fled and to giue them courage ran as fast as he could to the Venetians and told them that the Frenchmen were vanquished and put all to flight counselling them not to let the victorie scape out of their hands whereby he made them that were astonished to take courage againe in such sort that by the authoritie of his name he made as many as he met to returne into the battell which partly was the cause that the army was not vtterly defeated When Charles duke of Burbon was slaine with a bullet before the citie of Rome by and by his bodie was couered with a cloke to the end that the report of his death should not stay the souldiers from entring into the breach The Romans perceiuing themselues vnable to match the Persians kept themselues in order within the riuer Phasis of which armie
groomes of the kings chamber whom he had taken prisoner to aduertise the king that the Greeks were resolued to breake the bridge of shippes which he had made ouer the streit of Hellespont Wherof he was very willing to aduertise him to the intent that in good time he might withdraw himselfe out of the seas of his territorie and passe ouer again into Asia with all speed possible in the meane time that he withheld the residue from pursuing him whereof Xerxes was so afraid that he departed with all the hast he could Paul a Romane captaine perceiuing that he could not hold out against the power of Totilas determined to make a salie out and to sell his life as deare as he could But Totilas dreading this despaire of his graunted him reasonable conditions that is to wit either to giue him entertainment to serue him or to go home into his owne countrie with all his souldiers for he would not lose his people against men that were desperat The Venetians at Foronouo would not stop the way of king Charles but let him go and returne home at his ease fearing least through necessitie turned into despaire he should make himselfe way with great blood shed of those which vndiscretly would haue stopped him Notwithstanding the Italians and Spaniards being caried away with the contrarie counsel found to their exceeding great losse how daungerous a matter it is to hold backe an armie that is desperat and driuen by necessitie to fight CHAP. XVII Of the retiring of an armie and how to saue it when it is in a place of disaduauntage IT happeneth sometimes that an armie either through the default of the guides or otherwise lighteth into such a place as it standeth them on hand to retire speedilie if they will not be foyled In this case the captaine is to vse policie and quicknesse as Hanniball did who being come into the bottome of a sacke by the ouersight of his guides to scape the daunger wherein he was because he had Fabius at his side who would haue starued him for hunger or made him to fight to his great disaduauntage chose out a thousand oxen and tied to euerie of their hornes a fagot of willow and of vine twigs commaunding them that had the charge that in the night time when he should lift them vp a token in the aire they should set the fagots on fire and driue the oxen vp the hill towards the passage which the Romans had seazed He for his part had set his men in order of battel and as soone as night was come he made them to march a leysurely pace Now so long as the fire that burned the fagots vpon the oxens hornes was but small the oxen went faire and easily vp the foot of the hill like as it had beene an armie marching in aray with torches lighted But when the fire once burned the roots of their hornes then they began to push one another and to run here and there ouer the hils for the paine that they felt This did so astonish the Romans that kept the passage for feare least they should be beset that they durst not tarie at the passage where they were appointed but leauing the straits fell to fleeing towards their campe By means whereof anon the vâ—untcuâ—rors of Hanniball tooke the passage whereat he passed all his host without feare or perill Brasidas being charged by the Illirians and intending to retire did cast his armie into a square and made them to march on so in good order and he himselfe taried bâ—hind with three hundred of the best and forwardest souldiers of his armie to abide the shocke of the foreriders When he was in the plaine he bethought himself that there was but one narrow passage whereby he might saue himselfe which was betweene two rocks whereof the Illirians had begun to take possession Which thing when Brasidas saw he commaunded his three hundred men that were with him to run with al the hast they could to seaze the strongest of those two rocks afore the Illirians were assembled in greater number The which thing they did so readily and cunningly that they draue the Illirians thence and by that means passed their armie in safetie Quintius vsed another slâ—ight to scape another daunger wherein he was when he saw himselfe hemmed in on all sides by his enemies And this it was He sent a cornet of Numidians to skirmish with them who plaid their part so well that one while approching them and another while recoiling they deceiued their wards and hauing so done fell to pilling and wasting the countâ—ie which was the cause that the enemies drawing backe their garrison to chase the Nâ—midian sorragers gaue leasure to the Romans to scape the daunger wherein they were Epaminondas to turne away Agesilaus and to keepe him from succouring the Manâ—ineans to the rescue of whom he was come with all his power dâ—pâ—ted from Tegoea one night without any inckling thereof to the Mantineans and went straight to Spartâ— by another way than Agesilaus came insomuch that he had surprised the citie Sparta afore they had any aduertisement of his comming This feate caused Agesilaus to leaue the Mantineans and to returne to Sparta in great hast Artaxerxes being entred verie vnaduisedly into the countrie of the Cadusians where he was like to sterue for hunger was beset by two kings that had their armies incaÌ„ped asunder the one froÌ„ the other Now Tiribasus hauing talked with king Artaxerxes hauing made him priuie what he ment to do went vnto the one of those kings himself and sent his sonne secretly to the other the same time doing either of them to vnderstand that his fellow had sent vnto Artaxerxes to desire peace in deceit of his companion And therefore quoth he is you be wise ye must get the forehand and make speed afore the treatie be concluded and for my part I will helpe you what I can Both the kings beleeued his words either of them thinking that his companion had maligned him insomuch that the one of them sent his ambassadors vnto Artaxerxes immediatly with Tiribasus and the other likewise with his sonne and so was peace concluded betwixt them Eumenes also auoided a great danger by a readie shiâ—t His souldiers had set theÌ„selues at large to passe the winter against his will and held almost threescore leagues of the countrie in length Antigonus being aduertised thereof determined to ouerrunne them when they nothing suspected it thinking it had beene hard to haue assembled them togither in small time And to go vnperceiued he tooke a rough and elendge way But he was encountered with so hideous winds and so great cold that his men were constrained to â—est themselues and to make prouision against the rigour of the season For the doing wherof they kindled great store of fires to warme them the which being perceiued by those that were neerest gaue warning thereof immediatly to the garrisons who were
and to ioine them to a new power which he had caused to come and to gather them all togither at their ease fled openly to a certaine towne that was strongly situated and fell in hand with fortifying it as if he had ment to abide the siege there for doubt least his enemies should come thither to find him out The which they failed not to do But as soone as he vnderstood that his people were in safetie and the supplie of new force ready he went out of the town to ioine his new forces togither with the which he came backe againe to find his enemies Neuerthelesse the retiring into a towne except it be defensible and well prouided of vittels is verie daungerous Yet notwithstanding sometime a man is constrained to retire thither because he hath none other place of refuge as it befell to Nectanebus king of Aegypt who was compelled to saue himselfe in a fortresse wherein he was by and by besieged by the pursuers who forthwith began to make trenches round about to keepe him in by reason whereof Nectanebus would haue hazarded the small power that was left him rather than yeeld himselfe by constraint of famin if Agesilaus had not letted him For he would haue no speech of fighting vntill he saw the trenches almost finished and that there was no great space betweene the two ends of them that they were not fully met togither And then he shewed Nectanebus how he might escape without daunger because the trench should serue their turne and be an impediment to the enemies that the whole multitude of them should not runne vpon them at once because it should gard them on either side and by that means they should match them with equall number And in deed as soone as the euening was shut in they marched in order of battell out at the gap that was not entrenched and hauing foiled the first that encountered them they saued themselues at ease Sometime a captaine saueth himselfe by the commodious seat of his campe as Agesilaus did who in accompanying Nectanebus king of Egypt was compelled to turne his backe vpon his enemie and to flee Neere vnto his campe was a maris with a narrow cawsey cast vp on both sides with brode and deepe ditches full of running water He turned so long to and fro in his flight that at length he drew a great sort of the enemies that lay vpon his hand vnto the said cawsey the which he passed and afterward vpon the midst therof he suddenly stopped their passage with the forefrunt of his battell the which he made equall to the bredth of the cawsey and thereby made the number of his people equall to the number of his enemies because they could no more come about him neither on the sides nor behind by means whereof after he had fought a while he put them all to flight Eumenes being discomfited by Antigonus and fleeing before him tooke a path a little out of the way cleane contrarie to those that chased him and trauelled so long till he came againe to the field where the battell was fought There he caused the bodies of his men that were slain in the battel to be gathered vp and to be buried with the accustomed funerals and also tooke him that had betraid him whom he had pursued so freshly that he gaue him no respit to retire to the enemies And he might also haue taken all the stuffe and baggage of Antigonus but that he thought it would be a let to his escaping CHAP. XVIII Of Ambushes NOw must I speak of Ambushes which diuerse times are the cause of the winning of a battell and sometime of the taking of a citie and are practised diuersly after as the places and occasions are offered Hanniball excelled all captaines in that feat and neuer fought battell without laying some Ambush I speake of the iourney of Trebia wherein he ouercame the Romans by laying his brother Mago in ambush in a wood with ten thousand men that the Romans might be assailed both before and behind when they thought least of it Demosthenes being generall of the Athenian armie fearing to be inclosed by the Peloponnesians who were farre stronger than he in number of men â—ent four hundred men to lie in ambush in a faire greene way that was ouergrowne with bushes commanding them to breake out when the battell was begun and to lay vpon their enemies with maine blowes As soone as the battell was once begun and that the men which lay in stale saw the Peloponnesians fetch about to haue inclosed the Athenians they assailed them behind so as they put them out of array finally to flight When Brasidas discomfited the Athenians at Amphipolis he kept a good sort of men in store who were of the citie to fall vpon the enemies when they were in the hotest of the battell saying that they which come suddenly to a conflict strike more fear and terror into them than they that fight face to face Selim woon the field of Acomaâ— his elder brother by means of an ambush For afore the battell he sent his brother in law Camolis with a thousand good horses into a forrest neere hand willing him to come out and assaile his enemies behind when euerie man was most busie on all sides and that onely thing woon him the battell â—or Acomat being a valiant prince entred violently euery where with a few men and began to ouerthrow Selims people when suddenly Camolis came vpon him and assailed his men behind at such time as they fought best and made them to turn towards him with great outcries Then Selims footmen began to march close linked against Acomat. And Selims horsemen that were fled perceyuing that returned to the battell so as Acomats armie was enuironed on all sides and cut in peeces Marius did as much to the Almans by sending Marcellus to lie in a stale behind a little hill as I haue said afore Iulius Caesar vsed the like feate against the Swissers by sending Labienus with two legions in the night to winne a certaine hill when he was to shew himselfe the next morning in the field to bid the Swissers battell But the enterprise abode vnperformed by reason that he was falsly aduertised that the Gaules had taken the hill aforehand which caused him to draw his armie backe Hanniball hauing chosen a faire plaine wherein there was a deepe vallie and a certaine little hill verie aduauntageable for his armie which had beene no hard matter for him to haue gotten to the intent to draw Minutius to battel left it indifferent for a bait to train his enemies to the encounter And one night he couched a certaine number of his men of warre in those and afterward at the breake of the day sent a small troope to take the said hill Minutius likewise sent out his vauntcurrors and after them all his men of armes and finally when he saw Hanniball come thither in person he himselfe also
common-weale let vs graunt to Xenophon that there is not a sweeter thing than to heare a mans owne praises But in my iudgement there is no present sight no memorie of things past no delightfull conceit that yeeldeth so great pleasure as the contemplation of the things that are done in a publick-weale as in an open spectacle The pleasure then of euery gentlemanly heart and especially of a prince teÌ„deth to honor to glory to reputation that his name may be spread abroad with renowne ouer all the earth and that he may be esteemed wise and vertuous And to shew that the pleasure of a good renowne passeth all other things Salomon saith That a good name excelleth all the precious ointments in the world And in other places the holy scriptures termeth a good name a sweet sent or sauor as who would say there were not a sweter or pleasanter thing in the world than that As touching the report to be a good warrior it cannot bee common to all because it dependeth vpon fortune and is gotten oft times by doing wrong But as for the renowne of being vertuous the more certaine and rare it is the more also is it to be sought Euery man cannot haue the good fortune of Sylla and of Augustus nor be a conqueror as was Alexander but euery man may be vertuous that will take paine to attaine vnto it Ferdinand king of Naples was woont to say That to be a king is a thing that most commonly dependeth vpon Fortune but to be such a king as may be reported in all respects to bee the welfare and felicitie of his people that dependeth alonly vpon himselfe and vpon his owne vertue Plutarch saith that Lucullus did more esteeme desire the praises that proceded of goodnesse iustice and clemeÌ„cie than the praises that sprang and proceeded of hault and great deeds of chiualrie because that in these his armie had one part and fortune had another part as well as he but the other were peculiar to himselfe alone Againe in them he receiued the fruit he had deserued so winning the hearts of his enemies by his behauior that many of them did willingly put themselues and all their goods into his hands We see how Alexander was curious in procuring himselfe that report and that all princes both good and bad without exception couet the reputation of good and vertuous men but the euill princes cannot obtaine it because they be not the same that they would be taken to be whereas the meane to atteine to perfect praise is as Socrates saith to be such a one in deed as a man would be esteemed to be And Antisthenes saith there is but one way to attaine to immortall fame and that is to liue vprightly and religiously For how faire a face soeuer a man setteth vpon the matter in the end he is discouered and nothing is so hidden which shall not be laid open And like as a Phisition is not the more esteemed for being a doctor in phisicke if he haue no skill in phisicke nor an Aduocate for his doctorship in the law if he want knowledge experience and practise in the law euen so it is not to be thought that a prince can be had in estimation if he be not a good man and such a one as endeuoreth to rule his people well For if a prince be not the same that he would seeme to be it is all one as Cirus said to Cambyses his sonne as if one being no good Tilman no good Phisition no good Musition nor skilfull in any other art or trade will neuerthelesse needs seeme to be such a one For besides the paine that he shall procure to himselfe in practising with his friends to giue him commendation and renowne and in prouiding the instruments fit for euerie of these Arts he may perchance deceiue the world for a time but in the end when he commeth to the proofe of his skill he shal be laughed to skorne as an ignorant boaster Nero and Tiberius were counted vertuous princes in the beginning of their raigns but in the end they were taken for vnkindly monsters wicked and vnworthie to be had in remembrance among men Wherefore if a prince will haue pleasure it behoueth him to be vertuous for otherwise he will loose his pleasure that is to say his honor wherof he is so zealous and which is preferred by Salomon before all the things in the world There is store inough of euill princes which haue intitled themselues Fathers of the people good vertuous and such other like and which haue caused those stiles of theirs to be grauen in stone and brasse against whom their people taking iust displeasure haue neuerthelesse defaced those titles of theirs but the memorie of their wicked dealings haue abidden ingraued in the hearts of their posteritie On the contrarie part such as were good men haue not only beene esteemed but also worshipped as Gods as Theseus Hercules and others Insomuch that Plinie saith That the God of men is a helper of men and that to doe good vnto men is the way to attaine to endlesse glorie the which way the greatest personages of Rome walked and that the name of the other Gods came of the deserts of men And afore him Cicero in his first booke of the nature of Gods saith that because much good and much hurt commeth of man vnto man and it is the propertie of God to doe good therefore if a man doe vs any good or rid vs out of any great danger because in so doing he resembleth God he is commonly said to haue beene a God vnto him whom he hath so gratified and he concludeth that the very beasts were canonised for the pleasures that they had done vnto men as for example the Aegyptians worshipped the Storke and diuers other birds and beasts And Iuuenall esteemeth a benefactor as a God saying If some God or some like vnto God or some man better than the Gods should giue thee a thing Likewise the Shepheard in the Eglogues of Virgil maketh Augustus a God because he gaue him leaue to feed his cattell where he would In the same respect the oath which the Scithians made by the wind and the sword was as great among them as if they had sworne by God because the wind giueth breath to liue by and the sword cutteth off life And to shew that nothing pleaseth a gentlemanly heart so much as praise Let vs consider what Themistocles did to attaine therunto Aforetime he had bin vicious and had no care either of vertue or of feats of arms But when once he had heard the praise that was giuen to Miltiades for the battell of Marathon he neuer ceased after vntill he became the chiefe of all Athens And one day when his companions asked him What had so altered him and what had made him so vigilant he answered That the Ensignes of Miltiadâ—s victorie suffered him not to sleepe or take rest Afterward
protector and aboue all others fearing the Persians determined with himselfe vpon aduice to cōmit the charge thereof by his last Will in writing vnto Indisgertes king of Persia and to set his Faith as a shield against his force and to tie his hands with the holy band of Protectorship praieng him to keepe and preserue the empire for his sonne Indisgertes taking the protectorship vpon him executed it so faithfully that he preserued both the life and empire of Theodosius Don Philip of Austrich king of Castile and lord of the Low countries considering how he left his sonne Charles not aboue eleuen yeres old that afore he should be of ful age the king of France might inuest himselfe in the Low-countries to preuent this inconuenience did by his testament ordaine king Lewis the twelfth to be his protector Wherupon the king by consent of the country appointed the lord of Chieures to be gouernor there and neuer made any warre vpon him notwithstanding that Maximilian gaue him sufficient causes to haue done it Licurgus being counselled therto by his countrymen and also by his sister in law the queene to take vpon him the kingdome of Lacedemon after the death of his brother would not hearken vnto it but kept it faithfullie for his nephew Charilaus who was borne after his fathers decease chusing rather to be a faithfull protector than an vnfaithfull king cleane contrarie to Lewis Sfortia who of a Gardian made himselfe duke of Millan dispossessing his nephew Iohn Galeas and his posteritie thereof But he kept it not any long time In all the doings of these good princes there was neither oth nor promise but only a good and sincere will to keep touch with such as had relied vpon the trust of their faithfulnesse For whersoeuer there hath passed either oath or single promise good men haue neuer doubt but it was to be kept as the forealleaged examples may witnesse vnto vs. And Cicero in one of his orations saith That the Gods immortall do punish a periured person and a liar both with one punishment because they be offended at the trecherie and malice wherby men be beguiled rather than at the prescript forme of words and couenants wherin the oth is comprised But whensoeuer an oth was added vnto it they held it and kept it whatsoeuer it cost them as we see in the Poets concerning the vow of Agamemnon the which is like inough to haue beene counterfaited out of the historie of Ieptha In the xxiij and xxx of Deut. it is written thus If a man be bound by oth he shall performe whatsoeuer he hath promised And Cicero in his bookes of Duties saith That we ought in any wise to keepe the promise wherein we call God to witnesse And as Sophocles saith He that that sweareth ought to be sore afraid that he sinne not against God The Aegyptians did punish periured persons with death because they sinned double as well in violating religion towards God as in taking away faithfulnesse from among men the greatest and straightest bond of humane societie After the battell of Cannas Scipio being aduertised that certaine senators held a counsell in secret how to forsake the citie of Rome went suddenly in among them with his naked sword in his hand and made them to sweare that they should not for any cause forsake the citie which thing they durst not but performe for feare of their oath As likewise did a certaine Tribune who for feare of death had promised Torquatus to withdraw his accusation which he had exhibited against his father for hee withdrew it indeed for his oath sake notwithstanding that Torquatus had compelled him thereto by force in holding his swords point to his throat So great reuerence did the men of old time yeeld vnto an aoth The Samnits hauing warred long time with the Romans and being almost vtterly destroied would needs for their last refuge put thēselues once more to the trial of fortune whome they had found so contrarie vnto them and hazard all in one battell And for the better executing of their determination they sware by great oathes euerichone of them that they would neuer retire out of the battel but follow their captaine whether soeuer he led them and if any of them all recoiled they sware all to kill him This oath had such force that neuer any people were seene to fight so desperatly and valeantly as they fought at that time Neuerthelesse the valiancie good gouernment of the Romanes was of more force than their stoutnesse The thing that made the people of Rome beleeue that Romulus was not slaine but conueied vp into heauen vvas the great oth that Proculus sware vnto them that he saw him deified and had spoken vvith him For the people were of opinion that Proculus whom they esteemed to be a good man and a friend to Romulus would not haue taken such an oth except he had bene sure that the thing was as he affirmed Lycurgus to the intent his countrimen should not disanull the lawes which he had newly stablished among them although he had gotten them ratified by the oracle of Apollo yet would needs take an oth of the people and caused them to sweare that they should not infringe them vntill his return to the end that the reuerence of the oth which they had taken might restraine them from altering any thing After the example of whome christian princes ought to bee well ware that they violat not their faith nor see light by the oth which they take for performance of their promises Wherof we haue a notable example in the fourteenth chapter of the first booke of Samuel where God is very sore angrie for that Ionathas the sonne of king Saul in chasing his enemies had tasted a little honie which was in respect of the oath which Saul had made that neither he nor any of his people should eat any thing before night and afore hee had bene fully reuenged of his enemies In so much that although Ionathas was not present at the making of the vow yet had Saul put him to death if the people had not saued him And in the one and twentith of the second booke of Samuel because Saul being moued with a good zeale had slaine certaine of the Amorrhits contrarie to the promise made vnto them by the Israelits of old time that they would not hurt them God sent a famine among the Israelits which ceassed not vntill they had deliuered seuen of Saules children to the Amorrhits to take vengeance of them These examples shew how greatly our God abhorreth periurie to the intent no man should excuse himselfe vnder pretence that no touch is to be kept with him that breaketh his promise or that one cōpanion is to keepe touch with another but not the master with his seruant nor the christian with the infidel For an oath ought to be so holy and so had in reuerence that it should not
be falsified for all the goods in the world For as saint Ambrose sayth in his third booke of Duties Promise is to bee kept euen with deceiuers and forsworne persons and wee ought to set that before our eyes which Ioshua did to the Gabaonits who being afrayd of the Israelits that did put all to the sword pretended to be strangers come from a farre countrie of purpose to ioine in league with them and Ioshua beleeuing them to haue said truth made a league with them And by and by after when their frawd was detected the people would haue serued them as they serued the rest but Ioshua would not for his oths sake but chose rather to keepe promise with the fraudulent to let the mis-beleeuing infidels liue notwithstanding that God had commanded him to root them out than to violat his promise giuen in reuenge of their frawd Whosoeuer deceiueth his brother saith the sonne of Syrach his sin shall be vpon him and if he dissemble he sinneth double and if he sweare in vaine he shall not bee iustified but his house shall be full of tribulation And in another place Cursed saith he is he that is double-minded And in the 59 Psalme Dauid praieth God to shew no mercie or fauour to such as deale maliciously of deceitfull purpose Also the best reputation that a Prince can haue and best beseeming his maiestie is to keepe his promise yea though hee haue not sworne vnto it For good princes said Traian are more bound to performe their promises than to accomplish the things that they themselues desire And therefore a prince ought not to falsifie his promise vnder pretence of profit nor to say that his counsell willeth it or his estate requireth it For he ought not to do any euill for the maintainance of his state And hee that hath so discredited himselfe shall not often recouer it because he shall be taken and esteemed as a faithlesse prince and if hee fortune to bee driuen to make any accord or league it will be hard for him to be admitted into it for the opinion that shall go of him for as sayth Cicero When a man is once periured he may sweare by all the Gods and no man will beleeue him And Guichiardine sayth there is little sinceritie and faithfull dealing to be hoped for at that Princes hand of whome men haue conceiued opinion that he is a double and deceitfull person Whereby it may come to passe that hee shall lose more by shewing himselfe to be a periurer than he can gaine by any profit whatsoeuer it seeme to be Besides that it falleth out that oftentimes the deceiuer himselfe is deceiued and that as saith Hesiodus euill counsell turneth to the hurt of him that giueth it Lewis the eleuenth was a deepe dissembler and of great forecast but his dissimulation was like to haue cost him his life For the Duke of Burgoine detecting his trains tooke him prisoner at Perone and compelled him to graunt him whatsoeuer he required Charles the seuenth who draue the Englishmen victoriously out of France auailed more by his plaine dealing than his sonne did by all his sleights and subtilties Therefore whosoeuer will leaue a good and commendable remembrance of himselfe to posteritie will rather forgoe some piece of wealth than willinglie be counted a notable deceiuer periurer and liar And yet such doth Machiauell tearme the princes of his time that compassed their affaires well But yet for all that he shall find the foundations which this cunning cosener and wilie beguiler laid of his house by his subtill sleights were such as ouerthrew it immediatly after his death Neither is it for a man when he hath sworne or promised a thing to excuse himselfe or to shift it off with captiousnesse of words whereby he may seeme to haue accomplished his promise when he hath not For as Cicero saith Not what a man saith but what he intendeth and pretendeth to doe is to bee regarded As for example when a prisoner that is let goe vpon promise to returne againe faineth himselfe by and by to haue forgotten somewhat behind him and thereupon comes backe againe and after being cleane gone returneth no more to his maister saying that he had performed his promise in that he had returned afore Or as he that hauing made a truce with his enemies for eight daies did war vpon them in the nights Herodotus reporteth a foule shameful kind of dealing of one Amasis the colonel of king Darius footmē against the Barceans who perceiuing himselfe vnable to ouercome them by force caused a great pit to be made in the night the which he ouerlayd with timber well seasoned and couered it ouer with earth in such sort as no man could suspect any trench vnderneath it The next day hee came to treat with the Barceans vpon the sayd pit where the Barceans on their part promised to pay tribute to Darius and Amasis promised on the other part to vse them as friends and not to make any warre vpon them so long as the earth whereupon they then stood continued Vpon the concluding of the league in this maner the Barceans came to the campe of the Persians and the Persians went into the citie the gates wherof were set open vnto them But suddenly he caused the timber to be pulled away and so the earth sunke downe to the bottome of the pit wherupon the Persians fell immediatly to sacking of the cittie as who would say they were discharged of their promise because the earth there was not in like case as it was at the time that the peace was sworne The Flemings vsed the like cautell to couer their periurie for at such time as the king of England dealt with Iaques of Arteuil to get the Flemings to take his part whereunto they would haue condescended but for the oth which they had made to the king of France To shift off this oath and to cloke their periurie Iaques aduised the king of England to proclaime himselfe king of France and to beare the arms of France quartered with the arms of England to the intent it might be said that their bearing of armes was in the behalfe of the king of France Which thing when the king of England had done they turned to his side without making any stay And wee must not thinke it strange that some to maintaine their errour doe very vnaduisedly alleage this Prouerbe spoken in Latine by Lewis the eleuenth That he which can no skill to dissemble can no skill to reigne as who would say that all dissimulation were deceit but there is a great deale of difference betwixt them for dissimulation commeth of Wisedome but deceit sauoureth of Reinard the Fox To dissemble in time and place is great wisdome It is as much to say as that a man must strike saile and apply himselfe to the wind like a good pilot take good heed to the seasons For sometimes it behooueth a man to
ordained that the moneth of Iune should be called the second May. Likewise when a certaine Pope might not make his enterance into Paris vpon a Thursday because of the vnconueniencie of the next day following whereby the rost-meat of the Persians should haue bin spared he ordained that the next day being Friday should bee called Thursday to wherevpon it came to passe that that weeke hath euer since bene called the weeke with the two Thursdaies Dion forbare not for all the eclipse of the moone to weigh vp his Anchors presently and to depart forthwith from Zacinth to goe to make warre vpon Dennis the tyrant of Sicill whome he draue out of Syracuse immediatly vpon his arriuall there Nothwithstanding to put away the superstition of his souldiers he brought them a soothsaier who said vnto theÌ„ My fellowes be of good chere and assure your selues that all shall goe very well with vs. For the God head sheweth vs to our sight that some one of the things which are now most glorious cleare bright shal be eclipsed and darkened now there is not at this time any thing more resplendant than the tyrannie of Dennis and therefore ye may well thinke that as soone as you be arriued in Sicilie ye shall deface the brightnes thereof When Pericles was readie to saile with fiftie vessels it happened that the sonne was eclipsed the which thing did put all his coÌ„panie in feare yea the pilot himselfe to wherefore Pericles seeing the Pilot sore dismaid did spread out his cloke and couer his eies with it demaunding of him whether he thought it did him any harme or no. The Pilot answered him no. Then sayd Pericles there is no difference betweene this and yonder eclips sauing that the body or thing that darkeneth the sunne is greater than my cloke that couereth thine eies The Arabian guides that had beguiled Crassus by leading him into a place where he and the greater part of all his armie were slaine intending to haue done as much to Cassius who had gotten himselfe into the citie of Carras and was purposed to depart thence the next morrow did what they could to persuade him to tarrie vntil the moone were passed out of the signe of the Scorpion which they affirmed to bee an vnluckie signe hoping to stay him by that superstition But he answered them that he feared much rather the signe of Sagittarius that is to say of the Bow-man or Archer because the Romans had lately afore ben curstly galled by the archers of the king of Parthia When Timoleon was readie to giue battell to the Carthaginenses by chance there came into his host certaine mulets loden with smallage the which thing the souldiers tooke for a foretoken of ill luck because it was the custom of those daies to bestrow the graues of dead folks with that hearbe But Timoleon inteÌ„ding to draw them from that superstition made his armie to stand still hauing declared diuers things to them according to the time he told them that the garland of honor offered it selfe vnto them afore victorie For among the Corinthians qd he such as win the prise at the gaming 's of Ischmus that are kept in their countrie are crowned with garlands of smallage And therwithal himself tooke of it and made him a garland the which he did put vpon his head and after him all the rest of the captains yea and euen the priuat souldiers also As Marcellus was about to shock with the Gauls of Lumbardie that were on the coast of Genoa his horse turned back for feare carried him away whether he would or no which thing helfearing least the Romans should take for a signe of ill lucke â—emed his horse to the left hand suddenly made him to turne head towards the enemie and euen presently therewithall worshipped the sunne as who would say his turning backe had not bene by chaunce but purposely to that intent because the Romanes vvere vvoont too make such returns when they worshipped their gods When Iulius Caesar was arriued in Affrike as he went out of his boat he fel to the grouÌ„d which thing some that vvere about him tooke for an euill signe But to turne it to the cleane contrarie I hold thee O Affrike quoth he as if he had done it of set purpose Edward king of England being landed in Constantine at a place called the Hogue S. Wast did no sooner set foot on ground but he fell downe and that so forcibly that his nose gushed out a bleeding vvhereat his lords that vvere about him counselled him to retire againe into his ship because of the euill signe But king Edward very nobly and readily answered It is a very good signe for mee for the land is desirous of me The soothsaiers counselled Iulius Caesar not to passe into Affrike afore vvinter yet letted he not to do it yea and vvith very happie successe When he pursued Scipio in Affrike because there vvas a brute in his camp that the Scipios could not be vanquished in that countrie he in derision of that superstitious opinion had in his armie a Scipio neither of vvealth not offâ—me nor of experience in fears of vvar to the end that his souldiers should be of the better courage knowing that Caesar had a Scipio as vvell as his enemies When Paulus Aemilius vvas readie to giue battell to Perses king of Macedonie the soothsaiers told him thâ—t by defending he should get the victorie and not otherwise To rid his armie of this feare he made an vnbrideled horse to be driuen towards the enemies sent certain Romans after him to catch him againe Anon the enemies ran out vpon the Romans and so began a fray Paulus Aemilius sent forth his men to defend them and thereupon began a skirmish whereupon ensued a battell wherein he wan the victorie according to the foresaieng of the soothsaiers The Romans kept a huge masse of gold and siluer in their treasurie and whensoeuer any was put in they cursed the man with very great ceremonies that should touch it saue only for maintainance of wars against the Gauls But yet for all that Iulius Caesar wanting monie to pay his men of war made no conscience to lay hand on it And to take away the superstition of the people and the feare of any curse that should come vpon the citie he told them he might iustly take it seeing he came from conquering the Gauls Sylla in a like case shewed himselfe to be neither superstitious nor yet religious For vpon a time when he wanted monie he tooke all that was in the temple of Apollo at Delphos and for the doing thereof hee sent a friend of his name Caphis but he was afraid to enter vpon the consecrated things and protested with salt tears that he did it against his will And when some of the standers by told him that they heard the sound of Apollos viall within the temple whether it were that he beleeued it to be
of neuer so meane degree doth commonly take example at that which he seeth done by his superiours and especially by the prince who is a looking-glasse to all his subiects And in deed we see how the Aegyptians gaue themselues to the Mathematicall sciences because the most part of their kings loued those sciences Because the kings of Asia gaue themselues to all delicacies the people of that countrie were verie delicat and effeminate Because Nero loued plaiers of enterludes singing-men and plaiers vpon instruments there was not that Senator whose child studied not those arts In the time of Marcus Aurelius his house was ful of wise and modest seruants In the time of his sonne Commodus the palace was full of naughty-packs folk of lewd conuersation And the said good emperor Marcus Aurelius was wont to say That such as the prince is such will his houshold be such as his houshold is such will his court be and such as his court is such will his kingdome be We see in France how the people haue euermore followed their prince King Francis loued learning and his people gaue themselues wholy therevnto He was sumptuous in apparell and much more they that came after him At this day there is not any thing omitted for the well and rich attiring of folk and for the delicate entertaining of them with all sorts of the choisest meats Lewis the eleuenth and the emperour Charles the fift went modestly apparelled and mocked such as decked themselues in rich attire and their subiects did the like That example of theirs did more in their time than all the statutes of apparell could do that haue bin made since And that good time coÌ„tinued vnto the reigne of king Francis who begun to tread out the way to the inordinate and excessiue chargablenesse which ouerwhelmeth vs at this day The booke entituled the Courtier maketh mention of a Spaniard that held his necke awry as Alfons king of Aragon did who setting that aside was a prince of very good grace of purpose to follow the kings fashion and to counterfait him in all that he could For this cause Plato in his Lawes will haue old men who ought to giue example to yoong men to behaue themselues discreetly when they be in the companie of yoong folke and to take good heed that no young man see them doe or heare them speake any vnhonest thing For the best counsell that can be giuen to yoong or old is not to taunt or checke them but to shew and expresse the same thing in a mans whole life which he would haue said in checking and blaming them Which order Cicero following in his Duties doth vtterly forbid an old man to giue himselfe to excesse beause it bringeth double harme first in that it procureth him shame and secondly in that it maketh the loosenesse of yong folk more impudent For yoong folks should be gouerned by the discretion of the old And euen so is it between subiects and their princes For if princes giue them not good example it wil be hard to amend them afterward Which thing euen the wickeddest princes perceiuing haue pretended to make account of vertue as I haue shewed in Tiberius in Nero and in Denis who entertained the Sophists 〈◊〉 win the peoples fauour But in the end the truth bewraied it seâ—fe as indeed nothing is so secret which shall not be reuealed â—nd they fell into the disfauour contempt and hatred of their people Wherefore there is nothing to be compared to open walking without any maner of counterfaiting and to the giuing of good example throughout that a prince may be the better followed and the more beloued and esteemed of his people As for example Piscennius Niger Caracalla Maximine Alexander Seuerus and many other emperors that were warriors did eate of the same bread that their souldiers did which thing made them beloued of all and gaue example to euery man to doe as they did For there is not a better exortation nor a more effectual way to persuade than when a prince doth the same things himselfe which he would haue other men to doe Agesilaus commaunded not his souldiers to doe any worke to the which he himselfe did not first set his hand And to giue example to yoong men to endure cold hee was seene to goe all the winter without a cloake therby to allure the yoong men to do the like when they saw that their prince being old and readie to passe out of the world was not afraid of the cold Xenophon in his first booke of the Education of Cirus bringeth in Cambises telling Cirus that to be first at worke himselfe serued greatly to win his souldiers therunto Is it your meaning then quoth Cirus that a prince ought in all things to endue more than his subiects Yea surely quoth Cambises but plucke vp a good heart and consider with your selfe that the prince and the subiect take not pains both with one mind For the honor that a great lord receiueth assuageth his paine for so much as all that euer he doth is knowne Plutarch saith in the life of Cato of Vtica That his souldiers honoured him exceedingly and loued him singularly because he was wont to be the first that did set hand to any worke that he commaunded and in his fare apparell and going abroad made himselfe equall rather to the meanest souldiers than to the captaines and yet in greatnesse of courage surmounted the best captains of all Alexander in pursuing his victorie against Darius became verie thiâ—stie and when one of his souldiers offered him watâ—â— in a Morion he refused it saying That he would not by â—â—s drinking increase the thirst of others Whervpon his men seeing the noblenesse of his courage cried out aloud vnto him that he should hardily lead them on still saying that their owne wearinesse and thirst was quite and cleane gone and that they thought not themselues to be mortall any more so long as they had such a king The like befell to Cato of Vtica in Affrik who being almost at the point to die for thirst as likewise all his armie was being then in the middest of the sands of Lybia when as the small quantitie of water which was in his host was all offered vnto him not only refused it but also spilt it on the ground to the end that by his example all the souldiers in his armie might learne to indure the thirst Albeit that Dauid longed to drinke of the water of a certaine well that was in the possession of his enemies and three of his armie brought therof vnto him with great danger of their liues yet would he not drinke therof when it was brought vnto him but vowed it vnto God for the safety of the three that had gotten it for him On a time when Alfons king of Aragon and Sicilie was in a place where he could get no victuals and a souldier of his brought him a morsell of bread and
Plutarch in his Protagoras there is a difference betweene prowesse and boldnes For ordinarily euery man of prowesse is bold but euery bold man is not valeant and ful of prowesse For boldnesse may come by art by furie or by choler but prowesse commeth of good education and of a certaine inworking secret force and goodnes of nature Cato seeing his sword salne among his enemies tooke it vp againe as boldly and constantly as if his enemies had not ben there We call this a Boldnes howbeit not simply a boldnes but rather a prowesse because it had ben a shaine for him to haue lest his sword to his enemie So then there was a cause of this boldnes otherwise it had ben but rashnes Likewise the deed that Robert de la March did at the iournie of Nouara was full of vertuous Boldnes accompanied with prowesse and naturall kindnes for his fatherly affection made him to enter bareheaded but with one squadron of horsemen into the thickest or the Suitzers that had 〈◊〉 die gotten the victorie to saue his two sonnes Florange and Iamais captains of the Lanceknights who lay sore wounded vpon the ground where he fought with such furie that the Suitzers themselues maruelled greatly that hee could recouer them aliue out of so great danger Iulius Caesar perceiuing the Neruians that is to say the people of Turney to haue the better hand caught a buckler out of a souldiers hand that began to quaile and taking his place did such feats of arms that all his armie tooke courage againe and got the victorie The same Caesar seeing his standard-bearer readie to flie caught him by the throte and shewed him the enemies saieng Whether wilt thou Behold these bee the enemies with whome we haue to deale And he did so well by his Boldnesse valeantnesse and words that he woon the victorie And in that case boldnesse was needfull When Cirus the yoonger was about to giue battell Clearchus counselled him to hold himselfe behind the Macedonians What say you Clearchus qd Cyrus would you haue me to seeke a kingdome and to make my selfe vnworthie of it To put a mans selfe in perill to no purpose is rash boldnesse but if need require a man must not be afraid and he that is not so afraid is deemed both bold and valiant And as Plato sayd in his defence of Socrates the man that is valeant and full of prowesse is without feare So that they are in an error which say that prowesse is a moderating of feare As for Magnanimitie it is the selfe same valiantnesse which hath respect to nothing but vertue as shall be declared hereafter As touching Confidence it is annexed to valeantnes and victorie doth often depend theron For the beginning of conquest is an assuring of a mans selfe that he shal conquer as Plutarch saith in the life of Themistocles Wee haue seene with what confidence Alexander went to make war against Darius hauing but a handfull of men in comparison of him Agesilaus hauing but ten thousand men nor only defended the Lacedemonians but also willingly made war vpon the king of Persia. As Hanniball stood looking vpon the great and braue armie of the Romanes at the battell of Cannas one Gisco said vnto him That it was a wonderous thing to see so many men It is yet much more woonderfull answered Hanniball that in all that great host there is not one like vnto thee This confidentnesse made the Carthaginenses the more assured when they saw their Generall take so great skorne and so little regard of the Romane armie Therefore it is neither rashnesse to bee confident nor prowesse to thrust a mans selfe into perill without cause after the manner of that Lacedemonian which had leuer to ouerthrow his armie through his rash boldnesse and vain-glorie than to shun the battell not considering that in loosing himselfe he lost a great number of his countrimen whom Scipio would haue held so deere that hee would rather haue saued one of them than haue discomfited a thousand enemies Paulus Emilius being readie to giue battell to Perseus retired his people without doing any thing and lodged them in his campe the which he had fortified And when Scipio Nasica and other yoong noble men of Rome desired him to make no delay I would make none quoth he if I were of your age but the victories that I haue gotten in time past by deliberation haue taught me the faults that are committed by such as are vanquished and doe forbid me to goe so hotly to assaile an host readie ranged and set in order of battell afore I haue rested my people that are but newly arriued Pericles neuer hazarded armie where he saw great doubt or apparent likelihod of danger And he thought them no good capteins which had gotten great victories by aduenturing ouer-far but was wont to say That if none other than he did lead them to the slaughter they should abide immortall Vpon a time when he saw the Athenians desirous to fight with the Lacedemonians whatsoeuer perill came of it for wasting their territorie When trees quoth he be cropped or cut downe they grow again within a while after but when men are once lost it is vnpossible to recouer them Also in prowesse there is Sufferance and as Epaminondas said To beare with things in matters of state is a spice of prowesse For it behoueth oftentimes to put vp iniuries and to heare mis-speeches of himselfe without making account of them which is the propertie of Magnanimitie as I shall declare hereafter Insomuch that the goodly precept of Epictetus which commaundeth to beare and forbeare is to be vnderstood of nothing else than Valiantnesse meaning that men must beare aduersities with a constant mind and princely courage not suffering themselues to be dismaied by them or to be corrupted by prosperitie And for as much as this vertue doth ordinarily follow difficult things because great things will not bee had without great danger as saith Herodotus and the daunger of war is greatest we attribute Valiantnesse chiefly to chiualrie and warre as wherin the conceit of death is greatest For commonly we conceiue not death so much when we be sick because the mischiefe is hidden nor when we be in peril on the sea because by the touching of the water we feele not the inconuenience that commeth by the touch of the sword in the maiming of our members which causeth vs to conceiue the violentnesse of death so much the more as it lieth in vs to auoid it by flight Werevpon it commeth to passe that few men resolue themselues to die the death that lieth in them to eschew But such as resolue themselues to it do get themselues great honor and reputation among men When one dâ—maunded of Agesilaus What was the way to atchieue honour hee answered To make no reckoning of death For he that is afraid to die can doe nothing worthie of praise This vertue is the
things by keeping it self occupied with diuers wars We see ordinarily that such as haue giuen ouer themselues in idlenes haue had ill successe in their affairs of which sort was Galba who said that no man was to yeeld account of his idlenes contrarie to the christian doctrine which teacheth vs that we must yeeld account of all our idle words and that we must put forth our talent to profit vnder paine of punishmeÌ„t also coÌ„trarie to the law of Draco which punished idle folke with death For as the men of old time said in doing nothing men learne to doe euill And as Ecclesiasticus saith Idlenes teacheth manie euill things And therefore Amasis king of Aegipt commanded all men to giue a reckoning dailie of their daies labors And Solon ordained that the high court of Areopagus should haue authoritie and charge to enquire whereof euery man liued and to punish those whom they found idle and vn-occupied And Cambyses forbad Cyrus aboue all things to suffer his armie to be idle Vpon a time one asked Dâ—onisius whether he were at leisure and had nothing to do God forbid quoth he that euer that should befall me thinking it to be a foule and shameful thing to be vnoccupied And Scipio said he was neuer lesse alone than when he was alone because that when he was alone he busied himselfe as well as when he was in the senat Among the great affairs wherewith Alexander was occupied he would now and then take some recreation but during those weightie affairs there was neither feast nor banket nor play nor marriage nor any other pastime that he would stay vpon Iulius Caesar obtained many victories by his diligence in such wise that he amased the Carnuts that had reuolted from him For he passed the mountaines with such speed that hee was in their countrie with his armie in shorter time than a messenger could haue bin and began to waste the countrie out of hand afore they had any tidings of his comming Wherewith and with some losse that they had receiued in a battell his enemies were so dismaid that in the end they submitted themselues to his will And as he was diligent in war so was he not idle in the citie but was occupied in pleasuring his freinds in doing iustice to euery man and in ordering the affairs of the stare with great speed and skill in so much that hee did bring the yeare into that order which we haue at this day and was about to haue set the ciuill law in order of art Albeit that the lord of Chaulmont had but few men yet if he had gone speedily to the besieging of Bolonia according to his former deliberation hee had brought the Pope to such a pinch that he had driuen him to make peace because there were but few people within the town But by his ouerslow setting forth to the siege he lost the oportunitie for in the mean time there came in sufficient force to encounter him CoÌ„trariwise Monsieur de Foix by his hardines and diligence did within fifteene dayes compell the armie of the Churchmen and of the Spaniards to dislodge from before Bolona discomfited Iohn Paule Baillon with part of the Venetian companies in Campaine and recouered Bresse by force of armes where eight thousand men were put to the sword and the rest were made prisoners Hanniball was not onelie diligent but also a despiser of all pleasures Traian and Adrian were so diligent and skilfull in warre matters that they knew the account of their legions and called the most part of their men of warre by their names the which they did so precisely least vagabund strangers should intermeddle themselues with them that were Romans born And they permitted not any man which could not good skill to handle his weapon and to fight Epaminondas neuer gaue himselfe any respit from dealing in matters of the state saying that he watched for his countrimens sakes to the intent that they might make good cheare at their ease while he trauelled for them Homer sayth That it becommeth not a man of gouernment and such a one as is to commaund manie to sleepe the whole night For too much sleeping is a spice of idlenesse according to this saying of Salomon in his Prouerbes Slouthfulnesse causeth sleepe to come Whereof Plato speaketh after this maner Ouermuch sleepe is not good neither for the bodie nor for the minde nor for the doing of any businesse and that he that is a sleepe is as a dead man Wherefore whosoeuer will bee wise and well aduised must wake as much as he can and take no more sleepe than is requisit for his health For ouermuch sleeping feedeth vice as Cato sayth in his paires of verses Salomon in the twentith of his Prouerbs sayth Delight not in sleepe least thou become poore but open thine eyes that thou mayest haue foyzon of food And in the 23. chap. he saith That ouermuch sleeping maketh a man to goe in ragged clothes For these considerations the king of Persia caused a groome of his chamber to waken him euerie day and to bid him arise and intend to the affaires of his realme as I haue said heretofore Therefore the Prince that is wel aduised will not giue himselfe to ouermuch sleeping nor shut vp himselfe in a corner to do nothing like to Domitian who tooke pleasure in pricking flies to death nor cast off all affairs to thrust out the time by the shoulders For they that will disburden themselues of their affairs haue commonly more to do than they would haue And as the Greekes said in their common prouerbe Adoxia that is to say The life that is without honour or rather the life that is elendge and solitarie is all one with the painfull life because that they which thinke to liue without paine alone by themselues are more troubled to defend themselues from the wicked which be not afraid of them and therefore do vex them than those which folowing some trade do trauel for the common weale And as saith Thucidides The rest that a man taketh through negligence is more hurtful to a man than laborsome toile That was the cause why Darius would needs plunge the Babylonians into all maner of idlenesse that they might not haue the heart to rebell afterward The same policie vsed Cimon to diminish the force and power of his allies by granting them whatsoeuer they required After that the Persians were driuen out of Greece the allies of the Athenians ceased not to contribut both men and mony towards the making of new warres and the maintenance of an armie on the sea wherof in the end they waxed wearie coÌ„sidering with themselues that the Persians troubled them not would not furnish them any longer with men and ships well were they contented to pay monie for their fines but the Athenian captaines inforced them thereunto and condemned them at great fines if they failed The which dealing made the
larger discouery therof to such as deale with arms Wherin if I keepe some order and fashion of precepts it is but to treat of those things in some method which are dispersed in the histories and not to giue any certaine iudgment what is to be done in that behalfe For I hope that when the matter is once set downe a prince may vpon this discourse chuse what he thinketh good as bees do vpon flowers I know that the most part of the stratagemes that were found good in time past are now out of vse and that as Cambyses said vnto Cyrus like as in musick the newest songs such as were neuer heard afore do like men best so in warre the policies that haue not earst ben practised haue best successe because the enemie doth least suspect them But we may also say that many times old songs are renewed and song for new and likewise in warre old policies may be renewed and taken for new For there is not any thing done which hath not ben done afore By means wherof I haue gathered and compacted together a part of the old policies of time past to the intent that among many the prince may chuse that which he shall find best or at leastwise not be ignorant to keepe himselfe from them For the knowledge of the policies of times past together with those which he hath seene by experience wil giue him a great iudgment in the feat of war and will make him to call to mind againe and bethinke him of the things that he hath seene at other times Wherfore to keepe the order that I began with it is to be vnderstood that to raigne happily and to maintaine himselfe and his subiects in peace and tranquility it is not inough for a prince to stablish good laws and ordinances if he do not likewise set good order for matters of war which may light vpon his armie whether he will or no and sometime the wrong that shall be offered him shall compell him to warre vpon his neighbour So that it is hard for a prince to raigne long without some warre either in assailing or in defending whereof it commeth to passe that he increaseth and diminisheth his state and reputation according to his fortunate or vnfortunate successe And to make himselfe the stronger he maketh leagues with his freinds and allies or else his enemie preuenteth him who hauing made an offensiue league with his associats commeth with great power to enter into his countrie For the which a prince must prouide afore hand as it shall be easie for him to doe in time if he haue strength howbeit that it be a terrible thing to see so many nations against him alone Neuerthelesse we haue seene almost continually that he which hath stood vpon his defence hath had the skill to vntwist such knots well inough And the reason is â—or that the princes or common-weales that are neighbours do neuer yeeld mutuall loue one to another and that which they do is for their owne peculiar profit fearing nothing so much as the aduauncement of 〈…〉 By reason wherof such leagues are easie to be broken by a prince that hath courage and some small meane to prolong time and a little skill to sway with the time Wherfore when a prince is assailed by a puisaÌ„t army he must oppose another against him he must furnish well his holds and he must incampe himselfe in a place of such aduantage as his enemie may not be so bold as to aduenture vpon him And in the meane while he must attempt by all means to disioine the whole league or at leastwise to get some one out of the league which is so easie a thing to be done that as many as haue bent themselues vnto it haue almost neuer failed King Lois the eleuenth was very excellent in this feat Euery man knows how he accorded with the countie of Charolois at Constans so that when he was once taken out of the play it was of necessitie that the dukes of Berry and Bretaine should be comprised in the accord because they were not of sufficient power to encounter the king of France without the helpe of the Burgonions Another time hauing to doe with two mightie neighbours the king of England and the duke of Burgoine when he saw that the duke of Burgoine was not yet knit to the king of England he made peace with the king of England so as hee had no mo to deale with but the duke of Burgoine King Francis the first was assailed by the emperour and by the king of England in the yeare 1544. By reason whereof he opposed against the emperour a strong host and against the king of England towns well fortified And in the mean while he found means to agree with the emperour without calling the king of England therto and by that means it was the easier for him to agree with the Englishmen afterward The emperor was sore combred in hauing to deale with two mightie armies at once to wit king Henrie the second and the Protestants By reason whereof he aduised himselfe to graunt the Protestants their demands that he might afterward bend himselfe vpoÌ„ the king Which thing maketh me to thinke that in leagues there is somewhat to be feared and that there is danger in entring into them the which it standeth a prince greatly on hand to prouide for But it is not hard to vndo them because the leguers looke more to their owne peculiar profit than to the common profit of them all and the societie which all of them do make is lion-like as they terme it for euerie of them respecteth his owne peculiar profit And if ye set that aside by and by all is laid a water But if there befall too happie successe to any one that is in league and the prince see that fortune smileth vpon his companion he must not by and by giue him ouer there and make league against him as the Pope and the duke of Millan and all Italie did for king Francis the first vpon his taking of the emperour Charles prisoner with whom they had bene lincked in league afore against the king The Leontines and Rhegines hauing entered into armes against the Syracusanes made a league with the Athenians by whose ayd they maintained the warre along time But in the end when they vnderstood by the report that Hermocrates made vnto all the Sicilians in generall that all that the Athenians did was to make themselues lords of Sicilie they gaue ouer the league and made peace among themselues Moreouer in most of these leagues there is alwayes some one that draweth backward and commeth lagging behind as the emperour Maximilian did when he was allied with king Lois the twelfth against the Venetians For king Lois was in the field at the day appointed and had spoyled the Venetians of the places that should haue faln to his share by agreemeÌ„t of the league afore the
one for if one alone haue the execution of that charge no man shall controll him whereas mo doing their dutie well may do more faithfull and trustie seruice by striuing who shall do best And this maner did the Athenians vse who for a time held the dominion of the Easterne seas and so did the Romans who subdued the whole world The Athenians in their warres of Sicilie which were of great importance sent thither Niceas and Alcibiades And ordinarilie they had two at the least and sometimes ten together that commaunded The Romans most commonly sent the two consuls to the warres who ruled the armie with equall power But they that did so found not themselues euer best at ease We haue an example therof in three Tribnnes of Rome sent to Fidene with authoritie of consuls who through their disagreement mistaking one anorher were like to haue brought the Roman host to ruine Also they vsed but light wars For in times of danger they made a Dictator that one might absolutely command alone being of opinion that one alone might better gouerne an armie than many could because it is hard to find two or three excellent captains in a whole countrie as Philip of Macedonie said He maruelled how the Athenians could euery yeare appoint ten captains to commaund their armie whereas he could find but one in all his realme And in good sooth had the captaines whom the Athenians appointed bene no wiser than they that appointed them their common-weale had smarted for it In a certaine dangerous warre they had appointed many companions to Miltiades among whom was Aristides who as wise as he was yelded vnto Miltiades the authoritie of commanding the which thing the rest of his companions did likewise being constrained to do it by his exāple which was the cause that al things went well He did as much to Themistocles his enemie whereby the Athenians receiued maruellous profit For ye shall neuer find two men of one self-ssame humor And if it were so yet the one is so thrust forward with ambition enuie and iealousie against his fellow that they faile not to marre all If Niceas and Alcibiades had beene neuer so long togither they would neuer haue agreed For the one was too slow and the other too quicke after the same maner that Fabius and Minucius Paulus Aemilius and Varro were for if the one did well one day the other mard all the next day the harme whereof the Romans felt a long time after In our ciuill warres we had two princes in our armies of whom the one tooke vpon him to commaund and the other would giue no place to him And in hope to content them both vnto the one was committed the vauntgard with the tokens of battell and vnto the other was committed the battell rather in name that in effect whereat the other disdaining was a cause that a good part of the armie was broken Therefore the best is to haue but one generall And we must not here take example at common-weales for their vpholding of themselues is dearer vnto them than the ouerthrowing of their enemies And because the ouergreat mightines of a citizen is daungerous to their state they had rather faile in the other point than to giue too great authoritie to one alone for feare least he should fall to vsurping or that his greatnesse should cause some sedition in the citie But a king who cannot be deposed by any one alone how excellent and valiant a captain so euer he be is neuer in that doubt nor in the distrust wherein common-weals are And therefore he ought not but vpon some necessitie to commit the charge of his armie to any mo than one Aso he must beware that with his gouernor he send not other captains that esteeme themselues as great or greater than the generall For that were the way to set all out of order Olympius thought she did well in sending the Siluershields to the succor of Eumenes but she mard all by it for their captains made so great account of themselues that they would not obey him no nor scarcely accept him for their companion By reason wherof they betraid him and deliuered him to his enemie The ruine of the common-weale of Rome came of two citizens well neere of equall power of whom the one would abide none greater than himselfe and the other would haue no peere And because either of them was of great credit with the Senate they set the whole citie togither by the eares But the king who carieth his coūsel with him and hath neither tribunes not consuls disposeth of his state at his owne will and no man dareth intermeddle with the gouernment further-forth than is to his liking CHAP. IIII. Whether the chiefe of an armie should be gentle or rigorous HEre is offered a question which is no small one that is to wit Whether the chief of an armie be he prince king or lieutenant to a king ought to vse rigor rather than gentlenes as well towards his souldiers as also towards the countrie which he intendeth to conquer For there haue beene which by their rigor haue beene obeied reuerenced both of their souldiers and of the countrie where they warred and by that means haue compassed their affairs verie well And othersome haue gotten so great good will by their gentlenesse that they haue woon more by their courtesie than the others haue done by their crueltie They that preferre gentlenes alledge Pericles who was very mild and patient and was wont to say That there should neuer be any cause why any man should were a black gowne by his means Yet notwithstanding as gentle and patient as he was he gouerned that insolent people without any rebellion specially at the beginning of the wars of Peloponnesus where the people of Athens saw their goods spoiled from out of their windowes whom notwithstanding their eager desire to go out against the Lacedemonians he kept still at home by his gentle and honourable persuasions Xenophon maketh Cyrus gentle courteous familiar and void of all pride roughnes and crueltie Scipio was meeld and gentle to his men of warre and vsed his enemies with so great courtesie that he woon the hearts of the Spaniards by such means ouercame them rather with honorable dealing than with force Plutarch saith as much of Lucullus Infinit other examples may we alledge of such as haue ben obaied by their men of war and ben loued of all their countries On the contrarie part we haue some that haue kept their people in order by austeritie as Manlius Torquatus and many others Hanniball was cruell and stoure as well to his men of warre as to his enemies And yet had he an armie of sundrie sorts of strangers all obedient and well ordered and besides that he drue to his side many of the allies of the Romans And they that hold this opinion haue for their ground a sure and vndoubted reason namely that
according to the law Tamerlane hanged a souldier of his for stealing a cheese This rigour was was very needfull For else he should haue had no vittels in his campe which was alway followed with infinit vitellers And by being so rough towards his souldiers he got the good will of whole countries in executing iustice vpon his men of warre according to the law He was gentle to such as submitted themselues vnto him but sharpe and cruell to such as resisted him which was the way to winne much people And no man withstood him Wherfore I conclude that whether it be the prince himselfe or whether it be his lieutenant he must not be so gentle to his souldiers as to beare with all their faults nor so courteous to the plaine countrie-men but that he must shew them all some examples of his seuerity that they may stand in aw of him But he must reserue his austerity for the wicked and stubborn sort and he must vse gentlenes meeldnes and louingnes towards his good souldiers and such as hold out their hands to yeeld themselues vnto him whom he ought to intreat well not for a day or twaine a some do but for euer to the end that the people which are his neighbors may be allured to do the like when they find that this his good dealing proceedeth not of dissimulation but of the very loue meeldnes and good nature of the prince CHAP. V. Whether it be better to haue a good army and an euill chieftaine or a good chieftaine and an euill army THe prince that hath to deale with arms ought to be prouided of two things namely of valeant and well experienced captaines and of good and well trained souldiers For little booteth it to haue a good chieftaine that hath not good men of war or good men of war that haue not a good captaine to lead them But the question is in case that both meet not togither whether it were better to haue an euill army and a good captaine or a good armie and a bad captaine This question seemeth to be doubtles Notwithstanding forasmuch as Machiauell putteth it in ballance although he resolue it after the common maner yet am I to say a word or twaine of it by the way to confirme it the better In this discoursing vpon the historie of Titus Liuius he saith The valeantnes of the souldiers hath wrought wonders and that they haue done better after the death of their captaine than afore as it befell in the armie which the Romans had in Spain vnder the conduct of the Scipios the which hauing lost those two generals did neuerthelesse ouercome their enemies Moreouer he alleageth Lucullus who being vntrained to the wars himselfe was made a good captaine by the good peticaptains of the bands that were in his armie But his reasons are not sufficient to incounter the opinion of those that vphold That an army of stags hauing a lion to their leader is much better than an army of lions that haue a stag to their captaine And in very deed if euer battell were won the winning thereof is to be attributed to the captaine It is well knowen that so long as the Volses had Coriolane to their captain they had alwaies the vpper hand against the Romans But as soone as he was dead they went by the worse When the Romans had cowardly captains they were continually beaten by the Numantines but when Scipio was once chosen generall they did so well ouerset their enemies that in the end they rased Numance itselfe And as I haue said in this discourse when one vpbraided the Numantines that they suffered themselues to be beaten by those whom they had so often beaten afore they answered That in very deed they were the same sheep whom they had encountered afore but they had another shepherd This sheweth sufficiently how greatly some one man may auaile in an armie Antiochus not regarding the multitude of his enemies asked a captain How many meÌ„ he thought his presence to be worth making account that he himself alone should supply the number which the captain desired Eumenes had not an host so wel trained as his enemies and yet he guided it in such sort as he could neuer be ouercome When Antigonus supposing this Eumenes to haue bin extreamly sick was purposed not to haue lost the faire occasion of discomfiting his army as soone as he saw the good gouernance therof iudged incontinently that it was a good chieftaine that had the ordering thereof And when he perceiued the horslitter of Eumeneâ— a farre off by and by he caused the retreit to bee sounded fearing more that which was within the litter than he feared fiue and twentie or thirty thousand men The bondmen of the Romans had not beaten them so oft vnlesse it had ben by the good guidance of Spartacus Sertorius had the whole force of Rome against him and yet could neuer be ouercome Epaminondas and Pelopidas did by their good gouernment traine people that had no skill of warre and vanquished the greatest warriors of all Greece For it is a hard matter that any army be it neuer so well practised in wars should be able to maintaine it selfe against a politick and valeant enemie I say not but that they may fight valeantly but the skilfulnes of the captaine of their enemies may be such as to disorder them by vsing some cunning deuice the disappointing and preuenting whereof belongs to the captaine and not to the souldiers As for that which is alledged of the Scipios it will not serue For inasmuch as the battell was well ordered afore the Romans might well obtaine the victory though both the consuls were there slain Likewise notwithstanding the death of the duke of Burbon yet was Rome taken by his army because the souldiers that had aduentured vpon the assault knew not of the death of their captaine And the Thebans failed not to get the victory though Eâ—aminondas was wounded to death Againe the emperors armie which was sent against the marques of Brandenbrough gat the victorie notwithstanding that duke Moris the generall of the field lost his life there And as touching that which is said of Lucullus who had little experience of war that is very true Neuerthelesse he behaued himselfe so discretly in the warre wherein he was imploied that he was nothing beholden to Pompey which bereft him of the honour of conquering the whole East And to shew that he was not led by the aduice of his army but by his own skill being at the siege of Tigranocerta being counselled by some to raise his siege and to go meet his enemy who was coÌ„ming towards him with great forces and not to stay about the city he beleeued his own wit and vndertook a ieoperdous aduenture For with the one halfe of his armie he went to encounter his enemie whom he ouercame and left the other halfe afore the citie the which he tooke at his returne Also
Plutarch commendeth him highly for gouerning himselfe so well considering his small experience I know that an armie without a head may fight so valeantly as no fault may be found in them but a very small ouersight may put them out of array And heâ—unto the saying of Machiauell That a good army without a captaine becommeth rebellious and vnweeldy to be delt with as it befell to the array of Macedonie after the death of Alexander Therfore we must conclude that as the members haue no function without a head no more hath an army without a good chieftaine CHAP. VI. Of the order which the men of old time did vse in setting their people in batel-ray SIth we haue giuen a head to an army now we must come to the heart and prouide it of that which is requisit for it within which is nothing else but the good order that is to be vsed in ranging the men of war in battel-ray For in this order consisteth the welfare and life of the host This in mine opinion should be handled by a man that had followed the wars the most part of his life the which thing I cannot do for want of experience Wherfore I leaue this chapter as a blanke paper to be filled with good and goodly discourses by some valeant and wel-experienced captaine I wil but only set down the maner vsed in old time shewing how they ordered their battels The Greeks had a great battaile compacted and closed togither of many ranks which they named a Phalanx When a souldier of a former ranke happened to be slaine or beaten downe he of the next ranke stept into his place and he of the third ranke into the place of the second and so consequently al the rest as the Suissers also do at this day so as no ranke was disfurnished but only the hindermost the former were alwaies kept whole and vnbroken by reason of their great number so thronged and close couched as they were hard to be opened And albeit that the Romans were most expert in warre yet could they not tell how to haue disâ—orced the Phalanx of Perseus except Paulus Aemilius had bethought him to chuse a place where they could not march so linked together And when he discouered any part of their battell opened he made some small troope of his men to enter into it and so by fighting in small companies in places where he perceiued any default he brake their aray and discomfited them But the Romans had another order which might hold theÌ„ tack in fight a whole day after such maner as I wil tel you presupposing that they deuided their people into many sorts of companies One was of a Camarada of ten men the which they termed a Maniple a word wherby they betokened that which we call a band And setting aside many degrees like vnto ours they had their cohorts of six hundred men a peece or there abouts Then was the legion which was of six thousand footmen comprehending with it three hundred horsmen and was compacted of ten cohorts Wherein were two sorts of armour the one light and they that wore those were named Velites which serued to skirmish as our harquebusirs our forlorne hopes and our light horsmen do now adaies And they that wore the heauier armour were called Cataphracti Now hauing their battell compacted of a legion or making many battels of euery legion they ordered them to battell not in the forme of the Phalangs to supply the places as they failed from ranke to ranke but by receiuing one ranke into another after which manner they would continue the fight stoutly a whole day togither And to that end they parted their legion into three maner of men that is to wit Pikemen Principals Triaries The Pikemen being the formost and of least valeancie and experience fought thicke set and had many mo men in their battell than were in the second which was of the Principals who were of more practise and experience than the pikemen For these had their ranks clearer thaÌ„ the former to the intent that if the first battell were foyled they might retire without disorder within the battell of the Principals and there begin the fight againe And if it happened by mischance that the battell of the Principals was foiled also which happened not oft then they were receiued by the Triaries who had their ranks looser than the Principals that they might receiue into them the souldiers of the other two battels Now these Triaries were the valiantest and best experienced of all the armie Therfore by the orderly retyring of the Pikemen and Principals into the ranks of the Triaries who were old souldiers the fight was maintained more than afore So then the Pikemen who made the foresront had their battell well stuffed and furnished with men The Principals had their battell somewhat thinner that they might without disorder receiue into them the former ranks And the Triaries were twice as thin as they And after that maner they fought stoutly without disorder all the day long And it may be that the same order being brought in vse againe might be found good and profitable CHAP. VII What he ought do which setteth himselfe to defence IT behooueth him that is assayled in his owne countrie to set himselfe in defence and to do what hee can as well to preuent as to breake the force of his enemie This is to bee doone diuerse wayes either by laying aforehand to stoppe the passages where hee must come or by suffering him to come into the plaine fields to fight or by fortifying the townes and by setting of good garrisons in conuenient places without respect of spoiling and wasting the countrie where he is to passe or by maintaining an army not to fight with the enemie but to keep him at the staues end and to cope with him in a narrow room and to cut him off from all commodities that he might haue if he were at large to the intent to comber him or to make him retire or else to draw him to some combate to his great disaduantage As touching the keeping of a passage to stop the enemie it is misliked by William Bellay in his second book of Warlike discipline and by Machiauell in his discourse because that seldome or neuer hath it beene found that an enemie hath been letted to make himselfe free passage if he had a great armie The Swissers as the aforeledged authors witnesse in the yeare 1515 did ceise the common passages of the mountains to stop king Francis from going downe into Italie But yet for all that he failed not to passe another way whereof they no whit doubted insomuch that he was seene in the plain of Lombardie afore the Swissers were come down from their rocks The Spaniards that kept the passage of Suze notwithstanding that they were many and had fortified themselues were broken neuertheles by the constable of France The same Spaniards being
incamped by the riuer Behamby and strong inough to stop our armie from passing did neuerthelesse abandon the place when they saw the duke of Guise with launce in hand and his armie following him enter into the water to encounter with them The king of Castile had caused the riuer of Derne to be well garded and yet the duke of Lancaster and the king of Portugall found the foord and passed ouer it No man could stop Hannibâ—l from passing the mountains Pyren and the Alpes to come downe into Lumbardie Marius encountered the Cimbrians not in their passage but on the hitherside of the mountains afore they had gotten to the passages of the Alpes And the residue hauing passed the mountains were met withall in Lumbardie King Philip of Valois had appointed Godmardu Faâ— to keepe the passage of Blanche take in the riuer of Some with a thousand men of armes besides crossebowes of Genoa and six thousand men on foot And yet was he forced from the passage and the king of England passed with all his host hauing but six houres to passe them in which was the time betweene the ebbe and the tide The Flemings tooke stoutly vpon them to stop the passage of the Frenchmen ouer the riuer Alis which was both deepe and maddie and although it was about the feast of Saint Martin yet notwithstanding a part of the vauntgard passed about a league from the bridge of Comines in two or three boats whereof the greatest carried not aboue nine men at once who after they were arriued did hide themselues in an Aldercarre right ouer against the place where they tooke boat And when they were all togither they marched against the Flemmings and woon the bridge of Comines When the marshall of Hesse sent the Reisters into Fraunce by the conduct of Monsieur D' Andelot the late earle of Neuers and the marshall of Saint Andrew were sent to stop their passage because the riuers began to swell being in the end of October Yet for all that they letted not to passe euen in the sight of our men and so they went ouer to Orleance without gainsaying In the yeare 1567. they came againe vnder the leading of Casimire the countie Palatines sonne To stop whose passage because it was not meant to hasard a pitcht field a part of the kings power was sent vnder the leading of the duke of Neuers that now is who spared not the pioners to make trenches nor to set lets in places that might bee waded nor to enterlace trees to stop the passage and yet all this could not let them but that they passed at their ease Afterward the king to stay the meetings of those whom he meant to punish ceised all the bridges and passages and set good gards at them and yet for all that they ceassed not to passe in two places of the riuer Loir to Bonnie and Rosyers where the Monsier d' Andelot leading great companies passed his men both on hors-backe and on foote at a foord though he had some of them drowned Charles Mâ—rtilâ— waited not for the Sarzins at the passage of Loir but went to meet them on the further side of the riuer and gaue them battell neare vnto Towers Actius taried not for Attila at the straits of the Alpes but with the helpe of the Frenchmen encountered him in Fraunce Monsieur d' Aumalle had a faire and great armie vpon the borders of Germanie and there he taried for the duke of Bipount but he spared not to passe on and to get the towne and bridge of Charitie Liuian captaine of the Venetians had ceised all the wayes that lead to Brent hoping thereby to keepe backe Cardon captaine of the Spaniards or else to giue him battell to his disaduauntage But Cardon found a foord somewhat higher and passed his armie in silence afore Liuian had any inckling thereof The duke of Saxonie staied with a few men at the riuage of the riuer Elbe thinking to stop the passage of the Emperour Charles the fifth But he found another shallow where he passed his armie to the duke of Saxonies confusion The mountains of Italie neuer made the Hunnes or Herules afraid for they leauing those high rockes behind them got the passage of Aquileia and passed all their people there Although the Greekes bare themselues in hand that they could defend the straits of Thermopyle against the Persians yet could they not quit themselues so well but that in the end they were inuironed and the Persians found a path that one Epialtes shewed vnto them whereat they passed and made the Greekes abandon the place which they kept But Themistocles gaue aduice neither to gard the enterances of Greece because he knew it was vnpossible nor to hold anie fort in the citie of Athens seeing they were to deale with millions of men but he chose a place of aduauntage vpon the sea to encounter the Persians to his aduauntage who were nothing neere so expert in sea-matters as the Athenians were And whereas they should haue encountered at the passage Machiauel is of opinion that they should haue encountered there with all their forces For it is hard to keepe a passage against a puissant armie without great force And if an armie happen to be defeated at the passage which they take to keepe it is an vtter discouragement to the whole countrie as it beâ—ell at the comming of king Francis into Italie For as soone as the cities of Lumbardie which had put their trust in the Swissers saw the French armie they were so wholy discouraged that they wist not to what Saint to vow themselues ne could take any other counsell of themselues than to yeeld to the Frenchmen As touching the fortifying of a citie and the planting of a garrison there Pericles vsed that fashion against the Lacedemonians For albeit that they had burned all the territorie of Athens yet would he not suffer one man to go out to skirmish with them but thought it better to keepe still his forces than to hazard them because he knew well he was not of strength to match them Another maner of defending is to haue an armie not of purpose to encounter but to wearie the enemie as Fabius had against Hannibal as king Francis and vnder the conduct of the Constable in Auignion against the Emperour Charles the fifth as the duke of Alua had at Naples against the duke of Guise and as the same duke had in Flaunders against the prince of Orenge And this maner of encountering is most sure and least daungerous so it be not in way of defence as I will shew anon For in case of assailing a man must alwaies be resolute to encounter and thinke that great enterprises are not without some hazard In which behalfe Niceas did greatly amisse For hauing a great power in Sicilie hee did nothing but turne to and fro and lose his time in consulting so long till the courage and hope of his
people were quite quailed On the contrarie part the feare which his enemies had conceiued at the first brunt when they saw so great a power by little and little vanished away And he was to blame for that by too long lingring vpon desire to do his things too surely he let slip the occasions of doing manie good and â—aite exploits notwithstanding that he vndertooke them well and executed them with speed but he was slow in resoluing and cowardly in aduenturing The fourth maner of defending is to haue an armie readie within the countrie and there to wait to giue him battell as Thomyris did against Cyrus For she tarried for him with a quiet foot and her Massagets about her within her countrie of Scythia And as Basiil duke of Moscouia did who did the like on the further side of the deepe and swift riuer Boristhenes But therein he did amisse for that whereas by encountering with Constantine the chieftaine of the Polonians as he was passing the riuer he might haue made the victorie certaine by his fighting with him in the plain field without aduauntage he lost the battell And so did the Aetolians against the Romans for want of prohibiting them the passage of Naupact So did the Venetians vnder the conduct of Lalmian at the riuer Dade against king Lewis the twelfth So did the viceroy of Naples and Prosper Columna against the Frenchmen And so haue many others done who verie seldome haue found good speed For the courage and lustinesse of a conqueror must be broken by taking him at some aduantage as when he is incountered at some passage afore he haue set his men in aray or haue passed them all ouer or by delaying and driuing off the time if he cannot be stopped otherwise But if necessitie require then must he be fought withall as Themistocles did vnto Xerxes Hanniball vnto Scipio and Charles Martell vnto the Sarzins CHAP. VIII Whether it be better to driue off the time in ones owne countrie or to giue battell out of hand IOhn Iaques of Trivulce marshall of France said That a prince must neuer attempt the fortune of a battell except he be allured by some great aduantage or compelled by some vrgent necessitie It is to grosse a kind of play to hazard a battell when a man stands vpon his gard Gasely one of the great captains of Egypt said That the warres of greatest importance which at the beginning haue vehement and sodaine swayes are woont to asswage of themselues by intermission and space of delay and that on the contrarie part man cannot assay a battell in his owne countrie without great daunger because there is no way to amend a fault that is done in battel For if the battell be lost the countrie is in great perill to be lost too as befell to the Romans at the battell of Cannas against Hanniball To Campson and Tomombey against Selim and vnto the last king of Hungarie who chose rather to bid the Turke battel than to winne time of him for he lost both his life and his kingdome Xerxes by loosing the battell against the Greeks lost but his men because he was the assailant But Darius by giuing battell in his owne countrie lost his whole kingdome And to say the truth it was to grosse a kind of play against one that had so small a rest And he shewed himselfe too negligent in his own defence and too hastie in bidding battell Too negligent in that he being so great a lord and hauing wherewith to set out a million of men he tooke not order to haue three armies in a readinesse one to enter into the countrie of Greece therby to turne their forces backe againe another to watch at the passage into his owne countrie and the third to be about him in his realme to gather vp those againe togither which had not beene able to defend the passage and to haue encamped himselfe in a sure place of aduauntage to follow the taile of Alexanders host as Fabius did the host of Hannibal that he might not be compelled to come to a battell But in stead of bethinking him what he had to do as commonly they do which vpon an ouerweening of their owne greatnes do despise their enemies he let Alexander come in so farre that it gaue him courage to trie his fortune And when Darius saw him well forward in his countrie he made verie great hast with an inâ—init number of men to find the new conquerour and he was sore afraid least he should scape his hands and returne without battell But Alexander eased him well of that feare for he came to meet Darius in the face and with a well ordered armie gaue him battell and discomfited him Wherin Darius did greatly amisse for he might haue held him play with his great number of men haue wearied him with some of his light horsemen as the Parthians could well skill to do afterward to the Romans without hazarding the substance of his armie And the thing that vndid him was his ouerweening opinion that he should ouercome Alexander with ease which is the thing that ouerthroweth all such as vpon disdain to their enemies do set no good order in their affairs and in the leading of their armies This dispising of enemies caused the losse of the battell at Poyctiers where king Iohn was taken prisoner And of the battell of the Moscouits at the riuer Boristhenes which also did put the citie of Semoleuch in daunger of taking if the winter comming on had not foreclosed the Polonians from besieging it Caesar being in penurie of all things went to seeke Pompey with intent to giue him battell Pompey being wise would not tarie for him there because he was sure that ere long he should haue him by famin Neuerthelesse being ouercome with the suit of his captaines that desired battell vpon trust of their power which without all comparison was â—arre greater than Caesars he gaue him battell and lost it by putting the assured victorie togither with the time in hazard of a battell to the ruine of the Senate and of the whole common-weale Now then it is a great fault to put that in hazard at one houre which is sure in tarying the time And they that haue so hazarded themselues haue commonly beene vndone Contrariwise they that haue hazarded theÌ„selues vpon necessitie haue had the vpper hand The Spaniards being entred a good way into the lands of the Venetians with a power well armed were sodainly abashed to see a mightie armie readie at hand and to auoid the daunger wherein they saw themselues they fled before the host of the Venetians and took the way to Trent but yet in order of battell howbeit with small hope to escape them But Lalnian and Loridam suffering not the faire occasion that was offered them to slip away did thrust themselues forward in such headlong hast that the viceroy of Naples and Prosper Colonne chose rather to trie the
vncertaine chance of battell than to trust to the small hope of sauing themselues by flight and so standing resolute vpon that point they caried away the victorie The duke of Guelders finding a great power of the Brabanders comming vpon him was sore astonied for he saw that he must either fight thirtie to one or else shut vp himselfe in a citie To shut vp himselfe he was loth and therefore fully resoluing himselfe to abide the battell he fell to giuing charge vpon his enemies vnprouided who being taken with a lunatike feare fled away without striking a stroke Stillico went and charged suddenly vpon the Gothes as they were going into Gallia At the first they were astonished at the sudden and vnprouided onset but at length resoluing to abide the battel they not onely ouercame him but also returned into Italie by the countrie of Genes When Manfride gaue battell to the duke of Aniou the duke of Anious armie began to want food as well for the men as for their horses And in driuing off the time a while longer and in tarying for his men that were dispersed in diuerse places of his realme he had both made himselfe the stronger and also brought his enemie to extreme necessitie But in chusing rather to set vpon his enemies while they were wearie and ill at ease of the long iourney that they had made he found by experience that nothing is vnpossible to a conquerour for he lost the battell and died Carafa the countie of Mathalon would not beleeue the counsell of them that would haue had him to follow the French-men that drew toward Salerne and to haue cut off their vittails without fighting with them vnlesse they could take them in some place of aduauntage or to get betweene Salerne and their campe to keep them froÌ„ entring into the town to make them returne into the Basilicat because they waÌ„ted both vittels artillery But of a brauerie he would needs giue them battell because they were but few in number and for his labour he lost the field For the lord of Perfie attending him with resolution discomfited him Had he beene trained in the schoole of king Lewis the eleuenth he would haue learned that he which hath the profit of a warre hath also the honour therof When Ferdinand king of Naples began to reconquer the realme of Naples he was so ioyfull of his good fortune that in a brauerie he would needs giue battell to the Frenchmen contrarie to the aduice of a great captaine who counselled him to hold himselfe close within Seminara vntill he were more certainly aduertised of the intent and power of the Frenchmen telling him that the counsels which promise suretie in all things are honourable inough and that they which by a fond ouerlustinesse of courage do hinder the means whereby a matter should come to good issue are void of honour shamefull and miserable But this good counsell was ouercome by the worser so that he gaue the Frenchmen battell who woon the day to the great confusion of Ferdinand and of the Arragonians The Frisons being aduertised of the great preparations that the countie of Ostreuant made for warre against them met in counsell to consider what was best for them to do many gaue counsell to bid him battell at his first arriuall but Iues Iouire a man of personage as big as a giant and wonderfull valiant withall counselled them to watch the time and not to hazard their forces against stroÌ„ger than themselues saying That they had many good ditches and trenches which would disappoint horsmen wherein their enemies ouermatched them and that their footmen should soone be wearied and tired with the combersomnesse of their iourney and with the small store of vittails which they should find abrode in the country so as they might be rid of them for the burning of a dozen villages Yet notwithstanding they forbare not to giue battell and lost it The men of Liege would needs fight with the duke of Burgoins men who was entred with an armed host into their countrie and they did it against the counsell of the lord of Pâ—erandes who would haue them to win time of them and to put their men in garrison But he could not persuade the common people to do so and therfore they were all discomfited and left eight and twenty thousand men dead vpon the field Now must we a little see how we in France haue sped in that behalfe King Philip of Valois gaue battell to the Englishmen in his owne realme at a place called Cressye and was there ouercome King Iohn trusting in his own force chose rather to giue the Englishmen battel at Poictiers than to subdue them by famin and vnrest and he â—or his labour was taken prisoner but Charles the fift hauing taken another course and helping himselfe with the counsell of Fabius would neuer hazard his state vpon a battell by means wherof he ouermatched the Englishmen and did so much by his countenances that he tooke from them almost all Guien euen from vnder their nose and seazed vpon the towns and cities of the duke of Bretaine And when any man spake to the king of giuing battell his counsell would say thus vnto him Sir let them go they can neuer get your inheritance for smoke For when a storme commeth into a countrie it must in the end needs depart againe King Edward was wont to say of him That neuer any king did lesse put on armour nor euer any king did worke him more incuÌ„beraÌ„ce for he coÌ„quered Guien without battel And the king of England with two puissant armies leuied both at one time could do no more but wast and burne the country without winning so much as any one citie of account At the beginning of the wars of Peloponnesus Pericles chose rather to see the forraying and burning of the territorie of Athens than to go out of Athens to hazard a battel persuading himselfe that the delay of time would quaile the force of the Lacedemonians Fabius Maximus ouerthrew Hanniball more by not fighting than other captains had done by fighting with him At the first encounter of Trebia because Sempronius had giuen a foile to the Affricanes he was so puffed vp with that first skirmish that he thought al was wonne and that the want of a little hardinesse was the onely let that the warre was not brought to a full end contrarie to the opinion of Scipio his fellowcommissioner And so he lost the field Flaminius being vnmindfull of this losse would needs do the like and he also was serued with the same sauce Minutius striuing to follow their steps had ben vndone if Fabius had not ben as Varro was who by like headines was the death of fiftie thousand Romans at Cannaâ— A man may say that Marcellus wearied Hanniball in so many combats that he feit himselfe discomfited by winning but yet in the end Marcellus abode by it And although fortune began to turne her back
vpon Hanniball yet notwithstanding had not the foresight of Fabius ben the valeancy of Marcellus had serued the Romans to small purpose But Hanniball hauing two valeant captains vpon him at once of two diuerse humours was sore incumbered how to deale with them For when Marcellus had lost a battell Fabius was readie at hand to stop Hanniball from passing any further And in this case seeing the Romans were able to maintaine two armies and it stoode them on hand to conquer or at leastwise to recouer that which they had lost at the iourny of Cannas they were not misaduised in their counsell to chuse these two braue captains of so differing humors to the intent that the continuall fighting of the one might wearie Hanniball and the lingering of Fabius might ouerthrow him But this is not easie for all men to do and specially for theÌ„ that haue not their people trained to the wars as the Romans had who sent them out of Rome as it were by swarms After whose example the prince that is able to leuie store of men and well trained needeth not to be afraid to giue battell to vncumber himselfe of a noisome enemie that cannot be driuen away but by fight The Romans did so against the Gaules and Germaines against Pyrrhus and against Hanniball So did Charles Martell against the Sarzins and Philip of Valois against king Eâ—ward But when a prince sees that fortune is against him then must he alter his manner of dealing as Charles the fifth did against the Englishmen For the former victories that they had obtained against the Frenchmen had taught him to seeke the oportunitie of time For sith the former way auailed him not it behoued him to try another The Gaules were valeant and furious in fight and therfore Cneus Sulpicius did well to protract time with them Hanniball was inuincible in Italie and therefore Fabius did wisely in trying another way and Scipio did boldly and valeantly in making warre in Affricke to turne him away from Italie If Manfred had taken the aduauntage of time at Naples he had done wel for he had cut the combes of the Fenchmen who are furious and almost vnpregnable at the first brunt and had in short time brought Charles to vtter want of vittels and monie Contrariwise it stood Conradine on hand to giue battell to Charles duke of Aniou as he did For he was to reconquer the countrie And Charles of Aniou being but a new conquerour and as yet scarce well assured of his kingdome was not to haue refused him neither did he For there are times and seasons which permit not delay but require of necessitie the hazarding of a battel In our ciuill warres we haue seene two captains that haue vsed means cleane contrarie one to another and yet the purpose and resolution of either of them was commendable and had come afterward to a good end if it had been ripe The duke of Guise a braue and valeant captaine if euer any were sought battell by all the means he couâ—d and could not away with lingering delaies the which he did not without great reason For first he ment to alay the fire which he saw increasing in such sort as it would be hard to quench if it were once throughly kindled in all parts Againe he feared least the prolonging of time would increase the contrary side and that many would incline that way if it were not preuented by destroying the chiefe leaders of that part by a bloody battel And as for winning therof he thought himselfe sure of it For although the contrary party had the choise of the souldiers of the old bands yet had he not such a number of horsmen as the duke of Guise led the which alone might be a cause of victorie for the footmen do nothing without horsmen Moreouer he had a great number of Suislers and a goodly bâ—nd of French harquebuzers store of ordnance seeld peeces and whatsoeuer else is requisit in an army roiall whereas the other side was but an army patched vp howbeit that there were some good and well practised captains and valiant souldiers Contrariwise Monsieur de Tauanes perceiuing that there behoued many battels to be giuen for the vtter defeating of the contrary side though it be better to delay the time and that the king should by length of time bereaue them of the countrie that they had conquered forasmuch as he had sufficient wherewith to hold out the war at length which abilitie they had not who oftentimes wanted monie and men of war to be at commandement of the ring leader because the most part serued of good will and could not enforce vs to hazard a battell but to their owne great disaduantage And if that maner had continued any longer than it did they had ben brought to a great afterdeale CHAP. IX Whether it be possible for two armies lodged one neere another to keepe themselues from being inforced to fight whether they will or no. WE haue seene the profit that commeth of waiting to take the oportunity of time and of ouermatching the enemy by long delay and protracting of time but yet there remaineth a doubt concerning the possibilitie thereof whether it lie in a mans power to refuse to come to battell when he is neere his enemie and marcheth side by side with him They that hold the opinion that a man cannot be enforced to battell alledge the examples of Cneus Sulpicius against the Gaules of Fabius Maximus against Hannibal of Pericles against the Lacedemonians of Charles the fifth against Edward king of England of the constable of France at Auignion of the duke of Alua at Naples against the duke of Guise and of diuers others who by delay of time brought the enterprises of their enemies to nothing and were neuer enforced to come to handstrokes On the contrarie part they that haue hazarded a battell in their owne countrie haue found themselues ill apaid as Craesus against Cyrus Darius against Alexander Philip of Valois against king Edward and many others aforealledged whom we forbeare to speake of to auoid tediousnes But these examples are not able to proue that a captaine cannot be compelled to fight whether he will or no. For when a conquering enemie commeth strongly into a countrie he may compell you to come to battell or else to flee or else to shut vp your selfe in some citie which are dishonourable points and of dangerous consequence The duke of Saxonie meant to haue wone time of the emperour Charles the fifth after that maner vpon trust of the great riuer Albis that was betweene the two camps but the emperour found a foord the which was shewed him by a miller whereat he passed some of the troops of his horsmen and the residue did so much by swimming and by boats that they got land on the side where their enemies lay Philip king of Macedonie the father and Perses his son encamped themselues vpon a mountaine wherunto there
was but one onely accesse very difficult But the Romans at length caused them to dislodge and the said Perses who feared nothing so much as to come to baâ—tel was compelled to come to handstrokes Ye know how the late prince of Condie trusting to the riuer Charent came before Newcastle thinking it vnpossible for vs to haue enforced him to battell but to our disaduantage and yet was he driuen therto without any difficulty And therfore I say with Machiauell in his discourses that a very small army may well wearie and vexa conqueror but in the end they shal not keepe themselues from battell vnlesse they will leaue the field free to their enemies As for the examples that I haue alledged of Pericles and of king Charles the fift they will not serue the turne in this case For they had no armies and therefore were contented to hold themselues close and in couert For the one knew well inough that the Lacedemonians were not of power to besiege Athens nor to do any more than burn the countrie and the other hauing well prouided his towns and set good garrisons in euery of them wist well that the Englishmen being wont to ouercome the countrie could do him no harme in wasting it but were as a flash of lightening that passeth away For the king of England was not able to maintaine a continual army as the Romans were But if king Charles had had an armie he could not haue followed the Englishmen but he must haue ben driuen to fight with them some one time or other And therefore he suffered them to cast their â—ite and to trauell a hundred leagues without any profit during all which time king Charles spared his men and mony But they that maâ—ch neere their enemie cannot exempt themselues from comming to a battell would they neuer so faine Neueâ—â—â—elesse i◠〈◊〉 â—â—ue a conuenient nu0mber of men and well trained they may fight to their aduauntage Such was the resolution of Fabius who would not â—aue refused battell if he had seene himselfe forced therto because he knew he should haue the aduantage as he well shewed in the succour that he gaue to Minutius For he left the hillgrounds and came downe into the plaines and the let was in Hanniball that the matter was not tried by battell But Hanniball thought it better to sound the retreit than to hazard himselfe against so mighty an enemy that could not be deceiued by his slights as other captains had ben whom he had sought withall As touching that which the constable did at Auinion it proued him to be of good discretion For being vnable to make head against so mightie an enemy he was faine to fortifie and strengthen himselfe in a place where he might not be forced And in the while that hee staied the emperour and quailed the luslines of his army men came to him from all parts whereby his owne armie became so increased and strenghned that it was sufficient to encounter the emperours power And it is not to be doubted but that if sickenesse had not cast downe the constable he would haue followed the emperour as Fabius followed Hanniball encamping himselfe in places of aduauntage and in that case if he had been forced to battel it would haue bin to his aduantage and to the emperors losâ—e As for example The Spaniards could not exempt themselues from encountering aâ— Bicocke but that was to the Frenchmens losse As touching the fact of the duke of Alua holding fast continually this principle Not to come to battell in his owne country without necessitie when he saw that the duke of Guise had not yet taken sooting in the kingdome of Naples but rather that he was stopped at a litle town which he could not obtain the protracting of time was needful for him And if the duke of Guise would haue passed on further he should haue wanted vittels hauing so great an armie attending vpon him at hand to cut them off not one towne wherein to make his storehouse So that the duke of Aluaes protracting of time hauing lodged his camp in a strong sure place was profitable to himselfe and preiudiciall to the duke of Guise who sought nothing so much as to come to hand strokes whereby he might haue opened vnto himself a way into the realme of Naples if he had had the lucke to win the battell but he could neuer come vnto it The emperour Charles and the king of France plaid at the barriers one against another in Picardie and Arthois For as soone as the one did put off armes the other entered by and by into his countrie with an armed power And all the fruit of their salies one against another in al a whole summer was but the taking of som litle towne so they skirmished one with another at handie strokes And in this case although there was a light armie against the assailant onely to cumber him and to cut off vittels from him yet was it wisely done to shun the combat For it was well knowne that the winter would cause the armie to break vp there was no need to put any one man in ieopardy But when a puissant enemie is in a countrie whence he intendeth not to depart the prince thereof must oppose against him as strong an armie as his or at leastwise an armie sufficient to encounter his if he will not lose his estate and yet notwithstanding to the intent he tempt not fortune the wisest counsell is to abstaine from encounter For at length if he haue not gotten manie townes ye shall ouermatch him But yet for all this a good occasion must not be ouerpassed nor the winning of a battell be refused which is made sure vnto you by hauing a place of aduauntage the which is easier for him to chuse that standeth vpon his guard than for him that is to make the conquest as you may see by Fabius who vsed it wisely For although he had an armie well trained yet would he not without purpose aduenture against another more trained to the wartes and against so braue a captaine seeing it was more for his owne profite to make delay than to fight out of hand But if his enemie would haue enforced him to forsake his ground he would haue answered him without refusing the battell because he could not but be sure to haue woon it hauing a good and strong army and the aduauntage of the place Paulus Eâ—nilius was determined to haue followed the same counsell had it not beene â—or the headines of his fellow And that maner of dealing would in the end haue compelled Hanniball to abandon Italie without stroke striking and without the hazarding of any one mans life CHAP. X. Whether the daunger be greater to fight a battell in a mans owne countrie or in a straunge countrie THis principle being well obserued not to fight at home but vpon necessitie or vpon some good occasion of assured victorie offered
the assailant For when the assailant departeth out of his countrie he leaueth garrisons and men of warre behind him to defend it against sudden troubles that might ensue of insurrections by absence of the prince or by some sodaine inuasion of some neighbor that would take him vnprouided as Iames king of Scots did to his owne vndoing against the king of England at such time as he was passed to Calice with a great force and was occupied about the siege of Tirwin and Turney So that no well aduised prince setteth vp all his rest vpon the hazard of one battell but doth euer reserue a store for after-claps And if a prince chance to be taken prisoner in a forraine countrie he shall be discharged vpon his raunsome and vpon such conditions as the conquerour listeth to giue him but if he be taken in his owne countrie it is hard but that diuerse weake and il-furnished rownes wil yeeld themselues to the conqueror vpon report of his victorie which townes shall not be admitted in account when they come to treat of peace And oftentimes fortune is so fauourable to the vanquisher that after a victorie he maketh himselfe lord of the whole realme and needeth not to make any other agreement with his prisoner than to grant or take away his life at his own pleasure It is commonly said that fortune furthereth the aduenterous and we see it so by experience Ninâ—â— Semyramis and Alexander were fortunate in their conquests Pyrrhus was fortunate in getting but vnfortunate in keeping And they that go forth with that intent do seldome faile of their purpose Charles the eight conquered Naples in short time and brought backe his armie through the midst of Italie passing vpon the bellies of his enemies Edward king of England comming into France with resolute purpose to conquer the realme gaue battell to Philip of Valois and ouercame him both by sea and by land notwithstanding that Philip of Valois did what could be done by a well-aduised prince For he encountered him vpon the sea afore he tooke land but it booted him not For God made fortune to turne against him in which case it is better to strike saile than to hazard a battell as Charles the fifth could well skill to do being taught by the aduersities of his grandfather and father William duke of Normandie after one battell made himselfe souereigne lord of the realme of England being fully resolued either to conquer or else to die I will not say therefore that an inuader shall alwayes be sure of victory for sometimes it falleth out cleane contrarie as it did with Cyrus who was defeated by the Massagets in their own countrie with the Swissers who were discomfited in Prouince by Iulius Caesar with the Sarzins which were discomfited by Charles Martell who caused Euâ—o duke of Gascoyne to turne against them To be short He that looseth a field in a strange countrie loseth but his men but he that loseth it in his owne countrie loseth both men and goods and sees his land dayly wasted and his subiects pilled CHAP. XI Of the pitching of a Campe. NOw seeing it is so that in both sorts of warre aswell of assailing as of defending men must be brought to march togither either to receiue or to follow the enemie we must needs speake of the seating of a campe as vpon the which alone dependeth the winning of the battell as Pyrrâ—us shewed full well who in that point was esteemed the excellentest of all captains The campe that is well planted ought to be nere a riuer that they may haue the commoditie of water which cannot be forborne and also for the fortifying of themselues and for the doing of their enterprises For a riuer doth wonderfully strengthen a camp because the enemy cannot passe it without danger But a captaine must also be maister of the riuer and not coope vp himselfe betweene two riuers except he haue means to get out againe at his pleasure least it disappoint him of the commoditie of vittels and of succours as it befell to Iulius Caesar in Spaine against Affraenius and Petreius But that happeneth commonly by some extraordinarie ouerflowing wherof notwithstanding a man shal discharge himselfe so well that he shall ouercome them afterward Secondly woods serue for another fortification and yeeld means of goodly enterprises Thirdly mountains giue great aduantage to them that are incamped in them For they that are faine to mount vp to their assault are wearied afore they come to handstroks Contrariwise they that come downward go with the greater force vpon their enemies Hanniball vanquished the Romans at Trebia by hauing his campe planted neere to a wood He had lodged himselfe neere a riuer and neere thicke copses full of brush wood and thornes taking occasion to beguile the Romans by that seating of his camp for when they should com to encouÌ„ter him he sent his brother Mago into that place ouernight accompanied with a thousand horsmen and a thousand footmen to lie in ambush there And the next morning he caused his light horsmen of Numidie to passe the riuer and to skirmish with the Romans and to draw them into the stale The which thing was done so cunningly that when the Romans were in the heat of the fight they were assailed behind by Mago who lay in ambush there so as they could notwithstand the Carthaginenses but were constrained to giue back with great losse of their men As for to passe a riuer to assaile the enemy the danger therof is very great as appeareth in Manlius who would needs passe a riuer that had but only one foord to passe at to encounter with Asdruball contrary to the aduice of Scipio who warned him of the perill wherinto he did put himselfe Neuertheles he passed the riuer and assailed Asdruball who suffered the Romans to do as they listed without offering them battell vntill he saw them incumbred in passing the foord And then with all his force he set vpon the taile of them and made so great a slaughter that all their army was at the point to haue ben discomfited had not Scipios forecast bin who made the enemies to recoile by the helpe of his men of arms Timoleon seeing the army of the Carthaginenses sore troubled and put out of order in passing a riuer with great peril and therby deeming that he might take them at aduantage ere they were halfe passed shewed his men of war with his finger how the battel of his enemies was parted in two halues by the riuer the one halfe of them being on the one side and the other half on the other and commanded Demaratus to take his horsmen and to goe and charge vpon the formost of them to keep them from ranging themselues in battelray And therewithall he caused his footmen to go downe into the plaine by means wherof togither with a storm that fel suddainly against the Carthaginenses he gat the battel As
made certain light skirmishes and so returned into their holds againe This fight was commended of men of warre who should but haue lingered there if they had not now and then led foorth their bands and come downe into the plaine Sometimes it is needfull to make skirmishes to assure and to traine your men as Pelopidas and Epaminondas did agaynst the Lacedemonians These two captaines were valiant in their owne persons and had men of good courage for they fought for their libertie But they were but meanlie trayned to the warres and had to do with the Lacedemonians who had not their peeres in all Greece Therefore to encourage their men the said captaines did erewhiles let them loose to the Lacedemonians at aduantage as men do yong hounds to a hare And as they were somewhat fleshed they drew them backe of purpose and would not hazard them too much afore battell to the intent that tasting the sweetnesse of victorie they might learne to shake off the feare of their enemie which was thought to be inuincible and contrariwise that the beholding of him and the often victories had of him to their aduauntage might cause them to set light by him Therefore it was needfull to assure them by such skirmishes afore they should come to battell Valerius Goruinus did the like against the Samnites for feare as Titus Liuius saith least the new kind of warre and the new enemie should dismay them But such skirmishes must be made with discretion and not vpon a head neither must the generall of an armie permit them except he perceiue some verie great aduauntage on his owne part to be had without losse or danger Sometime skirmishes are made to begin battels and those may and must be for it is the entrance into the battel But for as much as some do but onely sustaine such skirmishes without breaking out vpon their enemies I will speake a word thereof afore I speake of the battell CHAP. XIIII Whether it be better to beare the brunt of the enemies or to drowne it at the first dash THis would not deserue a chapter no nor to be once spoken of but that Machiauel in his discourses hath made a pretie small chapter of it with a short resolution therevpon And forasmuch as in mine opinion his resolution seemeth not to agree with Iulius Caesars I will speake a word of it by the way Now then he saith that when Decius and Fabius consuls of Rome made war against the Samnits and Tuscanes Decius went with his whole power to assaile his enemies and Fabius did but only ward him deeming the lingering assault to be the more for his behoof by reseruing his force to the vpshot when the enemy should haue forgone his first heat and therfore that the dealings of Fabius had better successe than the doings of Decius For Deciussis legions were all discomfited and himselfe slaine wheras Fabius went away with the victory by reseruing his forces vnto such necessities Of which example he gathereth his resolution that the doing of Fabius is more sure than the others But this resolution cannot satisfie me For it is vnpossible to keepe ones selfe from fighting when the enemy commeth with full purpose to assaile Well may ye do so when you be well intrenched for the enemy cannot assaile you but to his owne losse But when a day of battell is set either you must forsake the place or else fight And in this case the running together and the shouting of the hostes giueth the greater cheerfulnesse and force to the men of war It is another thing that Fabius did in reseruing his forces for battell while the enemie did spit out his fire in another place And this policie was practised by the late duke of Guise at the battell of Dreux for how much soeuer he was intreated to giue battell he would neuer come to it vntill he saw that his enemies had spit out all their fire and that persuading themselues to be sure of the victorie afore hand they fell to pillage For then he set vpon them with all his forces fresh and vndiminished and gaue them the foile By the way it had not ben in the power of the constable to refuse battell nor in the duke of Guisis power neither if he had ben set vpon For then had it behoued him of necessitie to fight and to that intent came they thether But it was a great point of wisdome in the duke of Guise that seeing his enemies had left him behind he reserued his power for such a need And therein he did as Fabius and as Charles of Aniou did against Conradine But to know whether in a battell men ought to sustaine the assault of the enemie without running vpon him or to daunt him at the first push the case is to be ruled by the resolution that Caesar maketh therof in his Commentaries where he findeth fault with Pompey for causing his armie to stay at the battell of Pharsalie when they were going forward to the encounter and readie to shocke with their enemies Wherein he saith he did a notable fault because the shoutings and the running together increaseth the force of the souldiers who go therewith the more cheerfully and fiercely to the battell If such a captaine found that fashion of encountering to be best surely we ought not to reiect it we Frenchmen I say which haue a certain firy fury at the first greater than other nations the which being restrained would wex so cold afterward that we should become too slow when we needed to vse our hands CHAP. XV. Of a Battell and of diuerse policies to be practised therin SIth the end of war consisteth chiefly in giuing battell I must now speake therof and of the policies that are practised in that behalfe Now there are two sorts of giuing battell either in tarying for the enemy or in assailing him He that tarieth hath the choise of the place and the mean to cut off himselfe at leisure if he list to fight to his owne aduantage But he that assaileth hath many things to looke vnto Sometimes he must be faine to passe a water to find his enemy and for that purpose to make a bridge ouer the riuer the which may be impeached by his enemie that is on the further side of the riuer And for the prouiding therof Philâ—p duke of Cleueland sayth that great diligence is to be vsed and artillerie is to be placed on the riuers side to shoot at such as aduenture to come neere the other banke in the time that the bridge is a laying And when the bridge is made well and dilligently he must passe ouer foure faucons and fiue or six hundred men on foot and some cariages with speed to stop them and also some pioners to make trenches at need For fiue hundred or a thousand men inclosed within their cariages wil alwaies hold four thousand tack vntill the rest of the army may come forward and then shall
them come neere The Suissers vsed the like policie against the Frenchmen when they had raised the siege of Pauâ—e taking them suddainlie vnprouided and not intrenched But as I haue said this maner of dealing is verie daungerous if a man be not sure that he shall find his enemies out of order It was one of the faults that the Frenchmen committed at the battell of Cressie in that they hauing trauelled six leagues did giue battell to the Englishmen that were fresh and lodged at aduauntage For the Frenchmen were tired and weary and had the sunne vpon their faces and had marched in great disorder In respect whereof they should haue intrenched themselues as Paulus Emilius did to the end they might haue had leisure to take breath and gather their strength againe and to vnderstand of their enemies behauior and to take aduauntage as well as they and to tary for the rest of their power that was comming after For the next day after the battell they also were discomfited and a seuen thousand of them were slaine which had the battell ben delaied till the next morrow would haue ben a maruellous succour to the rest of the armie and haue helped at need to re-unite the armie when they were broken as the souldiers of the earle of Mountfort did after that the Frenchmen had discomfited them before Roche Darien For by and by they gathered themselues togither againe to the lord of Cadudall who comming then newly with a hundred men of armes and certaine footmen went by the sunne rising to the campe of Charles du Bloys who doubting nothing because hee had gotten the victory slept tooke his rest and finding him in that disorder did put his men to the vtterance and caried him away prisoner to Hannibout Sometime in fighting a battell a man hath the sunne full in his eyes To auoid this danger Paulus Emylius was so long a raunging his men in battell that by the time that the battels should ioine he had the sun vpon his backe Marius vsed the like policie against the Cimbrians and Philip Augustus against the Flemmings At the battell of Cannas Hanniball helped himselfe both with the sunne and the wind and thereby chiefly wan he the battell There blew a mightie strong and boistrous wind like a tempest of thunder and lightning which raised the parched dust from the sandie plaine as hote as fire and driuing it through the battell of the Carthaginenses strake it ful into the faces and eyes of the Romans with such violence that they were enforced to cast their heads backe and to disorder their ranks Themistocles being determined to fight with Xerxes king of Persia vpon the sea chose a strait and narrow place that hee might the better reuenge himselfe agaynst the multitude of the kings shippes and moreouer waited the time most fit and fauourable for his purpose For hee raunged not his shippes in order of battell afore a certaine houre when a great wind was woont to rise vppon the sea-coast which raised great waâ—es in the channell Now this wind did no displeasure to the Greeke gallies because they were low but it did great annoyance to the Persian ships which had their hatches high and their foredecks raised high for it made their flankes to lie open continually to the Greekes who went and dashed lightly against them The Athenians did the like vnder the leading of Phormio against the Peloponnesians The Athenians â—ad but twentie shippes to keepe Naâ—â—â—ct and those were but ill furnished to fight vpon the sea and the Peloponnesians has seuen and fortie well furnished by reason whereof they sticked not to make their vagaries all alongst the coast of Epyrus to passe ouer into Acarnania Neuerthelesse they were pursued by the Athenians who compelled them to raunge themselues in battell and to fight in the middest of a strait where for the better fortifying of themselues and to stoppe the Athenians from issuing out they raunged their ships in a ring wiâ—h their noses outward and their sternes inward and in the middes of the ring they placed their small and light vessels to set them out vpon their enemies when time should require As for the Athenians they set their ships all in a row enuironing the ships of their enemies and pretending yet more But Phormio had charged them not to fight vntill he had giuen them a token assuring himselfe that when the land-wind arose which began to blow in the morning the ships of the Peloponnesians would dash one against another Now as soone as the wind began to blow the ships fell to iustling in deed and specially those that were in the middest being the light or sort did great anoyance to the rest insomuch that they were al occupied in setting planks before their ships for feare of dâ—shing And there was so great a crie and disorder among the Peloponnesians that they could not heare the commaundement of their captaines Which thing when Phormio saw he gaue a token of battell to the Athenians who charging lustily vpon them baâ—â—ered and sunke the first that they encountered and put the residue to flight Sometimes a companie of men are kept out of the battel and are commaunded to set vpon the enemies behind in the heat of the battell to put them in feare and to make them breake their array When Toâ—â—us was to giue battell to the Romans he drew aside three hundred men of his armie and gaue them commaundement that in the fiercest of the battell they should charge vpon the Romans behind Which thing they did so fitly that the Romans thinking them to be a faâ—re greater number than they were betooke themselues to flight Aignas a Roman captaine seeing Bellisarius readie to giue battell to the Persians bestowed himselfe with his men couertly in a valley and when they were well forward at the battell he mounted vp a little hill and taking the Persians vnawares behind did easily put them to flight When Marius was about to fight with the Dutchmen he sent Claudius Marcellus out of the way with three thousand footmen willing him to keepe himselfe close vntill he saw the Dutchmen tied to the fight with him and then in the chiefest of the battell to go charge vpon them behind The which he did so fitly that the Dutchmen feeling themselues assailed behind were forced to turne head and by that means falling in disorder were all vanquished Iohn duke of Burgoine in the battel of Tongres sent a thousand footmen and fiue hundred horsemen to assaile his enemies on their backes in the chiefe of the fight Which thing when Pieranes would haue prouided for aforehand by sending a companie of chosen men to encounter them the common people would not permit him and so they felt the smart of their wilfulnesse As touching the ordering of an armie it is done by the eie according to the aduertisments that are had of the enemie and aâ—ter as he is seene to be disposed Now
to giue a certaine rule thereof it is vnpossible neither is it my intent but onely to put in practise the auncient histories and to put in writing the policies that haue beene vsed by men of old time Hanniball that captain of singular experience ordered his battell in such wise at Cannas that he set the best men of their hands on the two sides and filled vp the middest with the worser The which two wings he caused to shoot themselues forth in a point inioyning them that as soone as the Romans had broken the forefront and pursued them as they retired backe so as the middle of the battell came shrinking in and bowing in compasse like a new moone and that the Romans were come within it then they should fall vpon them on either side and inclose theÌ„ in behind Insomuch that the battel which at the beginning was informe of a wedge was at length in forme of a Cressant which was a cause of the great slaughter The constable of Clisson vsed almost the same fashion at the battell of Rosebecke He led his host diuided in three parts a vauntgard a maine-battell and a rereward and all three neere one another But when they began to approch they stepped forth into wings so as the middleward was somwhat shrunke in and drawne backer but the men of armes that were in the wings fell to it so furiously that the Flemmings were not able to follow them that were in the battell insomuch that it set it selfe in strength againe and the Flemmings being cooped in betweene the three battels lost almost fiue and twentie thousand of their men Amurâ—t did the like at Nicopolis For he caused his two wings to aduance forward wherein hee had almost threescore thousand men and set himselfe well closed in the bulcke of the battell sending eight thousand men afore to skirmish and to keepe his armie from being discouered whom he commaunded that when they were assailed by the Christians they should tetire to the bodie of the battell The which thing they did so fitly that the Frenchmen which were in the vaward were inclosed on all sides and the most part of them slaine or taken and the rest were driuen to flee to their great losse But he that doth this must haue a great number of men For it is a daungerous matter to enlarge the ranks when a man hath but few men because that thereby he maketh them the thinner and consequently the easier to be broken For there is no force like to the force of them that fight close set for they giue the lesse scope to enter into their ranks Paulus Emylius woon the battel against Perseus by this policie He saw it was not possible for him to worke any thing against the maine battel of the Macedonians In this despaire he fell to viewing wistly the seat of the enemies campe And perceiuing that the field where they fought was not plaine ne lay whole togither he considered that the battell which was lodged formost could not alwaies maintaine that hedge of piâ—es and of targets ioyning together but that by fine force they should be compelled â—o open in many places as it falleth out in all great battels according to the inforcement of them that fight against them so as in one place they thrust themselues forward and in another they be driuen backe Wherefore Emylius taking suddenly this occasion diuided his men into small troopes appointing them to take vp the places which they found emptie at the front of the battel of their enemies and so to ioine themselues vnto theÌ„ not by maintaining a continual charge vpon theÌ„ but by setting vpon them here and there in diuers places at once by diuers companies According to this commaundement deliuered to the captains from hand to hand the Romans slipped immediatly into places which they found emptie or ill garded and being entered in assailed the Macedonians some vpon the sides where they were naked and bare and othersome behind in such sort that the strength of the whole bodie of their battell which consisted in holding themselues close togither was by and by defeated by being opened after that maner But to come backe againe to our purpose When a generall hath but few men he must choose narrow places that he may be able to resist many and not be inclosed about by a great number For to do so with a great number of men is vnauailable yea and sometimes noysome It was the first mischiefe that Darius receaued at the hand of Alexander His wisest men councelled him to tarrie for Alexander in a plaine and open countrie seeing he had a desire to fight with him and not to go seeke him in Cilicia in strait and narrow places where if he tooke him in the straits his armie would stand him in no stead to fight so pent vp But he not crediting that wholesome counsell found too late that a great armie ought alwayes to choose a large place where a man may with his great number enclose his enemie which he cannot do in a narrow roome And so shall the horsemen fight at their ease whereas in a narrow countrie full of hedges they can do no good at all This was a lesson that Xantippus a captaine of the Lacedemonians taught to the Carthagenenses Although the Carthagenenses had a goodly great armie good footmen great store of horsemen yet were they euer vanquished by the Romans At length they tooke this Xantippus to be their generall that had the report to be a good captaine Who hauing considered their warlike furniture maruelled that they encamped in the mountains hauing so many elephants and horsemen and that they did not rather keepe the plaines which without comparison was most for their aduauntage seeing that the force of the Romans consisted in footmen and not in horsmen Therefore he made them to come downe into the plaines where he fought with the Romans and ouercame them vnder their consull Attilius Regulus who was there taken A battell oft times is so well ordered on all sides that there is no way to enter into it In such case a man must seeke the weakest places as I haue said alreadie or else vse the policie of captaine Pelinian who to make his men the forwarder in assailing the Macedonians tooke the Antsigne of his band and threw it into the thickest of his enemies whereupon his men pressed with great violence after it because they esteemed it a great dishonour to abandon and forsake their Antsigne But yet notwithstanding all was in vaine and to their losse because the Macedonians were so fast linked togither and held their piâ—es so steddie that it was vnpossible to remoue them When an armie goeth by the worse or is readie to breake their array the presence of the generall is maruellously behooffull to make them returne to the fight againe by his encouragement or by fighting afore them in his own person For when they
see their generall in daunger they be ashamed to leaue him without fighting for him So did Sylla against Mâ—thridates For when he saw his armie almost defeated he cast himselfe a crosse them that fled vntill he found his enemies crying Ye souldiers of Rome miâ—e honour willeth me to die here And therefore whensoeuer ye shall be asked where ye haue abandoned your captaine remember that ye answer ye forsooke him in Orchomene Whereat they were so ashamed that suddenly they turned their faces again and wan the field Iulius Caesar being in the like perill in Spaine against the Pompeyes said vnto his men Seeing ye forsake me thus deliuer me by and by into the hands of Pompeyes sonnes The which saying made them for verie shame to returne into the battell the which they woon in the end At another time he caught the standard out of the standard bearers hand that fled and made him to returne saying It is here my souldier it is here that we must fight Iulian the emperour seeing certain men flâ—e at the beginning of a battel caused ten of them that first fled to be put to death to the intent that the residue for feare of the daunger that was behind should fight valiantly seeing the perill was greater in fleeing than in fighting Charles Martell did the like against the Sarzins for he appointed certaine men to do nothing else but to kill such as fled backe And besides that he did them to vnderstand that the gates of Towers were shut and that they should not be opened for any misfortune that befell Sometimes to tempt and allure souldiers men offer them a prey or bootie that by being eagre of it they may breake their aray as Charles the eight did at Foronouo by the counsell of Triuulce For he made all the baggage of the campe to march on the left hand where were all the kings costly iewels The which thing wheÌ„ the Albanois espied by and by they flang out to that part killing and ouerthrowing the muleters and pages that made countenance of defence The footmen perceiuing how the Albanois made spoile ran thither also so as it put the armie of the Italians quite out of order and ministred the more occasion to king Charles to compasse his matters well To remedie the matter that a man be not surprised behind whether it be in assaulting a town or in giuing battel he must leaue some men of purpose to abide that brunt which must intend to that and nothing else or else he must do as Demetrius or Sertorius did When Sertorius had laid siege to the towne of Lauron Pompey went thither in great hast to succour it Neere vnto the citie was a little hill to lodge a campe in and to annoy the towns-men By means whereof the one hasted thither to win it and the other hasted to keepe it But Sertorius came thither first and tooke it And anon after Pompey came thitoo who was well apaid that it had so come to passe thinking to hold Sertorius pent vp betweene the citie and his armie But hee was greatly astonished when he saw the six thousand of men well armed whom Sertorius had left in the campe whence he departed to the intent that if Pâ—mpey came to assaile him they should sit vpon his skirts Which thing Pompey perceyuing durst not offer battell but was constrained to see the towne destroyed before his eyes and was not able to rescue it Ptolomie was deceiued after the like maner For when he had his armie on the sea readie to encounter Demetrius he gaue his brother Meneleus charge that when he saw them grappled to come to hand-strokes and that they were busiest in fight he should set out of the hauen of Salamis and come set vpon Demetrius shippes behind to scatter them and to breake their aray with threescore gallies whereof he had the leading But Demetrius hauing prouided for it aforehand had appointed ten gallies to stop him thinking them enow to shut vp the mouth of the hauen that was small and narrow so as none that were within it could get out By reason whereof being sure behind he charged so stoutly vpon Ptolomie that he discomfited him When the enemie knoweth that a captaine vseth an ordinarie maner of ordering his battels after one fashion he ordereth his owne after the same maner But to beguile him he must do as Cornelius Scipio did in Spaine against Hasdruball who knowing that his enemie was aduertised that he was woont to place his best souldiers in the middest of the frunt of his battels and the worst behind and doubting least Hasdruball would do the like altered his order in the day of the battell For he set his best souldiers in the corners of his armie and the worser sort in the middest And when it came to the onset Scipio caused the souldiers of the middle part to march sostly and the two wings to aduaunce forwarder who encountering with men of lesse experience did easily ouermatch them In the which time those of the two middlewards which on Asdrubals side were the chiefest men and on Scipiâ—s side the woorst of his armie were but beholders of the others By means whereof Asdruball was easilie defeated by the Romans At the battell of Tongres when the lord of Pieranes saw the duke of Burgoyne send fifteene hundred men on his back he altered the forme of his battell which was pointed triangle-wise and brought it into a square setting his horsemen and shot hindermost to withstand them that were comming behind and fencing the sides with cariages by reason whereof he had gone away that day with the victorie if he had had men that had beene good warriours and well trayned But the want of them both made him to lose both the battell and his life When the generall of an armie hath too few horsmen he must set some company of pikemen behind them and now we may set harquebuzers that are accustomed to fight with horsmen as Iulius Caesar did at the battell of Pharsalie agaist Pompey For hauing set forth the best and most practised legionarie souldiers that he had he was suddenly assailed with a great companie of yong Roman gentlemen on horsebacke To whom when his horsemen had giuen place they came vpon those old fellowes who flung their iauelings full in their faces Whereat the yong gentlemen being astonied turned themselues by and by to flight Sometime to beguile the enemie a captaine makes his armie to seeme lesse than it is that the enemie may be the bolder to fight or else he causeth a brute to be raised that he hath sent a part of his armie abrode which he hath not done in deed by either of which waies manie haue beene deceiued One armie was sent afore against Asdruball who was come downe into Italie with a great puissance and in an other part Nero the consull had another armie neer vnto Hanniball and to his seeming well rampired and
fortified Nero departed secretly with the most part of his power and went to ioine in campe with his fellow consull without increasing the number of Antsignes so as the campe appeared not to be any greater than it was woont to be This beguiled the Carthagenenses who finding greater force than they looked for were all vanquished As much befell to Curio in Affricke against Iuba king of Mauritania For the king made a report to be blowne abroad that he was sore encombered in his owne countrie and that he had sent but some small number of his men thither and yet in deed he marched himselfe with his whole armie But he had sent the said former band a good while afore and he himselfe came speedily after with his whole power Whereby Curio being deceiued gaue him battell Then was he greatly abashed to see his enemies continually succoured with fresh men and their armie still increasing to the eie so that in the end he was ouercome Ferdinand king of Naples being aduertised that the lord of Aâ—bâ—ey was but feeble gaue him battell vpon a iolitie of courage without further enquiring and was as brauely receiued by the lord Awbney who had ioyned vnto his owne the forces of the lord of Precie and so with those forces togither encountered king Ferdinand While Cato was in Spaine ambassadors were sent vnto him from a citie that was besieged to demaund succour of him Cato graunted them their demaund causing the third part of his armie to be imbarked in their sight dispatched them away with charge that they shouid giue notice what succours were sent to them But as soone as the ambassadors were gone he secretly caused his imbarked men to come backe againe The Spaniards thereupon thinking they should haue had to do but with a few Romans came boldly to bid them battall but they were ouercome for their labour Diuerse times when a captaine hath but few men in comparison of his enemie he will pretend a feare to make his enemie the more carelesse And when he perceiueth him to be so then aduentureth he to take him vnpurueied as Lisander did the Athenians Who perceiuing himselfe vnable to match them in strength rode at anchor in a streit neere to the citie Lampsacum after he had taken it by assault The Athenians on the other side came with great speed into the bay of Sestros and when they had refreshed themselues with food they presented themselues to the gallies of Lacedemon wherof Lisander had the gouernment who on his side ranged his men in order of battel but he forbad them to fight or to row out against the Athenians Who retiring themselues towards night went a land wherof Lisander was informed by such as he had sent after them to marke their demeanor The next day they did as much and so the third and fourth daies insomuch that the Athenians conceiued a great confidence in themselues and a great disdain of the Lacedemonians thinking that their keeping of themselues so pent vp was for very feare The fift day when the Athenians hauing made the like offer of a battell to their enemies were retired towards the euening in disorder Lisander sent certain Galiots after them to note their behauiour commanding the captains of them that as soone as they saw the Athenians out of their gallies they should returne to him with all speed possible and that when they were in the middest of the streit they should heaue vp a copper shield a high into the aire vpon the point of a pike as a token to make the whole fleet to come rowing in battelray By reason whereof as soone as the shield was lifted vp Lisander hauing all his men in a readines and being not past one league off from the Athenians made saile so swistly in the smooth sea that the Athenians had no leisure to take their weapons and to put themselues into their gallies because their souldiers were scattered abroad some gone to buy vittels some to supper some to walking in the fields and some to sleepe no man doubting that which happened insomuch that of nine and twenty gallies only nine escaped the which Conon saued by swiftnes when he perceiued the disorder and of this vnfortunat aduenture ensued the vtter ruine of the Athenians Iulius Caesar being come but with seuen thousand men in great hast to rescue Quintus Cicero that was besieged by threescore thousand Gaules was greatly abashed when he saw all the Gaules vpon him who had left their siege to come against him By reason whereof he was faine to retire and to put himselfe into a place fit for a captaine which with a few men was to fight against a great number of enemies forbidding his souldiers to go out to skirmish in any case and compelling them to heighthen the rampires of their camp and to fortifie their ports as men that were afraid to the intent that their enemies should haue them in the more disdaine vntill such time as one day he spied a fit occasion by their disorderly comming to assaile the trenches of his campe and then he made a salie out vpon them and put them all to flight with the slaughter of a very great number of their men Sometime to deceiue the enemie a captaine makes his army to seeme greater than it is As when he raungeth his souldiers his pioners and all other sorts of people in battell vpon the side of a hill and on the other side setteth his varlets and lackeies on horsbacke with the men of arms so as it maketh a long and terrible hedge to looke on King Ferdinand vsed that policie to keepe the lord of Presy from winning the rock of Naples For he chose a place by the which the French men must needs passe and there did set his army and fortifie his campe For he ment not to put any thing in hazard because he had twice alreadie had proofe of the valeantnes of the Frenchmen to his very great disaduauntage and the losse of his men And as he was a making his trenches the Frenchmen shewed themselues to his Arragonians which thing made them to leaue their worke and to put themselues in aray ready to giue battel And therwith he caused the pezants to be armed so that all the hils glistered of the troopes of them And below the host of the Arragonians was imparked in a strong place vneasie to be approched which thing caused the French army to stop short and not to hazard the battell least they should be too few in respect of their enemies Antonie fearing least Octauian that was comming against him with his army by sea should seaze vpon his ships which were vtterly vnfurnished of men of war if he came to the encounter made the gallislaues to arriue there and set theÌ„ in order of battell vpon the hatches of his ships and afterward caused all the rowes of oares to be pitched vp an end and set vpright into the aire on either side
of the gallies with their prowes bent against Octauians gallies at the enterance of the gulfe that beginneth at the point of Actium And he held them so in order of battel as if they had ben furnished as well with men of war to haue abidden battell as with rowers Wherfore Caesar being deceiued by that sleight of war retired Hugh of Moncada viceroy of Naples and Gobby an expert and famous captaine of seamatters intending to giue battell on the sea to the Frenchmen that were at Naples vnder the conduct of Phillippin Doree caused many fisherboats to be added to their gallies to amase their enemies withall But yet this trick was no impediment but that Phillippin wan the battell Agesilaus to hide the flight of such as had robbed him in his camp to go with the Thebans and to keep his men from being discouraged therat concealed them as much as he could and for the doing thereoâ— ordained that euery morning when they went to visit the straw beds of the soldiers they should hide the stuffe of them that were gone thether CHAP. XVI Of the pursuing of victorie WHen the enemie is put to flight the chiefe thing that the generall hath to do is to pursue his enemy with all speed that he may astonish him the more and not to giue him respit to resolue himselfe what to do Iulius Caesar excelled in that point for he neuer woon battell but he toooke his enemies campe the same day Alexander neuer left to pursue Darius vntill he saw him quiet in his owne country On the contrary part this only fault is noted in Hannibal that he pursued not his victory after the battel of Cannas by going to besiege Rome then vtterly dismaied with the present losâ—e Insomuch that one said vnto him He could well skill to get the victory but not to vse it Aetius was reproued for doing the like fault when he would not proceed to make a cleane dispatch of Attila as he might easily haue done But he feared least if Attila were dispatched he should haue to do with the Goths when they once perceiued themselues to be rid of such a common enemie Lewis of Aniou won a battell in the realme of Naples wherin he discomfited his competitor Ladislaus And it is said that if he had pursued that victorie without suffering Ladislaus to take breath he had continued lord of the realme the which he forwent for want of doing so The which thing Ladislaus himselfe confessed saying that the first day of the battell his enemies had ben maisters both of his person and of his kingdome if they had done their dutie that the second day they had ben maisters of his kingdome but not of his person if they had pursued the victory and that the 3 day they had not any power either ouer his person or ouer his kingdom Also in chasing the enemy a man must be well ware that he cast not himselfe into danger as it befell to Monsieur de Foys at Rauenna The Achaians hauing ouerthrowne the Lacedemonians in battell would needs follow the victory And among others Lysiadas pursued the chase among the men of armes contrarie to the counsell of Aratus generall of the Achaians who would not permit his men to passe further because of a great and deepe bog which they were to passe and for that the way foorth on was vneuen and ill ioined togither which thing Lysiadas found true to his owne harme For when he was come thither he found himselfe in a place full of vines wals and ditches where he was constrained to disseuer his people whence he could not get out again The which gaue occasion to Cleomenes king of the Lacedemonians to charge vpon him to kill him to discoÌ„fit all his men And this victorie made the Lacedemonians to take such courage again vnto them that returning back they gaue a fresh charge vpon the Achaians whom it was easie to defeat because the one halfe of their power was gone from them Demetrius hauing discomfited a wing of his enemies chased them so far that he could not ioin again with his footmen by reason wherof they being destitut of their horsmen were all discomfited Philopemen perceiuing that Machauidas the tirant of the Lacedemonians had put his archers to slight at the beginning of the battell determined to let him passe on without resisting him And when he saw that the horsmen of Machauidas were far inough off from his footmen he made his men to march against the Lacedemonians whose flanks were then bare of horsmen and charging vpon the side of them did put them to flight with a very great slaughter The which being done he met suddainly with Machauidas comming back from the chase and thinking to win all and slue him as he would haue leaped a ditch The same Philopemen did much better when he had put the army of the tirant Nabis to slight For when he saw his enemies sled not all on a heape towards the citie but scattered themselues here and there abrod in the fields he sounded the retreit forbidding his men to chase them any further because the countrie thereabouts was full of couert waies and vneasie for horsemen by reason of brookes vallies and quagmires which it be houed them to passe But suspecting that towards the euentide when it began to wex dim they would retire into the citie one by one he sent a number of archers to lie in ambush alongst the coasts and hils that are about the citie who made a great slaughter of Nabisis men because they retired not in troope but one by one and went to put themselues into the hands of the archers like silie birds that flee into the foulers net Iulius Caesar regarded not to chase the horsmen whom he had put to slight in the battell of Pharsalie but went on to charge vpon the battell of footmen as more easie to compasse about and to inclose who being assayled on the flanke by thosâ— that had foiled the horsemen and on the frunt by the tenth legion could not long stand and make head but cleane contrary to all their hopes saw that by seeking to intangle their enemies they brought themselues into the briers Sometimes it is neither good nor expedient to pursue the enemie too much but rather to make them a bridge of siluer to passe away apace least despaire driue them to aduenture to get the victory For as Iornand saith Easily doth he resolue himselfe to fight which hath no means to flie away as befell to the Goths against Stillico and to the prince of Wales against king Iohn who would not admit any reasonable composition For there is not so dangerous a thing as the driuing of a man into despaire That was the cause that Themistocles after he had gotten the victorie against Xerxes in the battell vpon the sea at Salamis would not trie his power any further in fighting with him any more but rather sent one of the
â—urther off from them whereat they were all afraid But Eumenes appeased this great feare by and by in promising them that he would stop and stay that sodaine surprise so as their enemies should be three dayes later in comming than they were looked for Thereupon he commaunded his captains to assemble their souldiers into a place certaine and in the meane while he himselfe went to choose a place meet to encampe in that might be plainly seene vpon the top of a mountaine where his enemie should passe in comming on the side of the wildernesse Then fortified hee his trenches and departed them in foure quarters wherein he made good store of fires in such distance one from another as are woont to be made in a campe This was no sooner done but Antigonus came vnder the hill who perceiuing the fires all along was greatly displeased thereat thinking that his enemies had been aduertised of his comming long afore and that they were come to meet him Wherefore fearing least he should be compelled to come to battell with them being fresh well rested wheras his men were wearie and halfe tired he returned home an easier way In the meane while Eumenes gathered his men togither at his leisure Sometime a generall of a campe dissembleth his flight and dislodgeth so secretly in the night that his enemies are not ware of it till it be too late as king Francis the first did after he had vittailed Laundersey And in this case he must make fires after the accustomed maner and in such sort as they may not go out of a long time he must set vp men of straw in the treÌ„ches with some motions he must lay trunchioÌ„s and bats of wood along the rampire leaue matches burning as the marshall of Fois did at Parma to the end it may be thought a far off that they be harquebusses such like conceits as a maÌ„ may deuise But the thing that may most deceiue the enemy is the leauing of some horsmen to come last away to occupie the vauntcurrors in case that any be sent out to follow the taile of the host But if the retreit be made by day the daunger is far the greater as saith Bellay in his Warlike discipline because that when a generall retireth without fighting he abateth the courage of his owne men and giueth hâ—art to his enemies For they that haue determined with themselues not to fight and see their enemies charging vpon them are in extreame feare and do not any thing of value as befell to the Frenchmen at Saint Quintins and to the Spaniards at Zerbes in the yeare a thousand fiue hundred and seuen and fiftie For in either of those discomfitures were mo men vndone for not resoluing themselues to fight than had beene if they had beene resolutely bent vnto it The like hapned to Cleon chieftaine of the Athenians against Brasidas chieftain of the Lacedemonians Cleon went to view Amphipolis how to besiege it not supposing that Brasidas would haue encountered him neither had Cleon any desire that he should because he had not his whole power with him without the which he would not fight with him But when he saw his enemies come vpon him to bid him battell contrarie to his expectation he gaue his men a token to retire and so they did with al the hast they could But when Brasidas saw his enemies begin to shrink he had the more courage to presse vpoÌ„ him The which he did with such speed that he ouercame him got the victorie He that will read the 11. chapter of the fift booke of Thucidides shall find there a retreit much resembling the retreit of the Frenchmen at Saint Quintins and well neare a like discomfiture Therfore a captaine must conceale from his souldiers what feare he hath to fight and giue them to vnderstand that his retiring is not to eschue battell but to draw his enemies into a more commodious place and of more aduauntage and he must leaue some horsemen in the face of his enemies as wel to hide the departure of his footmen as also to stay such as come to skirmish with them and in any wise he must take the places of aduauntage and straits whereat his armie is to passe as Hanniball did by the policie aforementioned to the intent that the strait be not an impediment of the passing of his armie and that it may serue to stop the enemies that would thrust into it to pursue him Philopemen seeing himselfe too weake made his retreit after that maner in the sight of his â—â—â—â—ies and put himselfe among the hindermost to make head against the enemies that his armie might march away thâ— more safely And turning often his face vpon his enemies he made them play so oft that at last being farre disseuered from his troope he was astonished to see himselfe alone intangled on all sides among a great number of his enemies and in the end after long fighting was taken prisoner The Romans hauing beene well curried by the Parthians and considering that they were not strong inough for them resolued to retire But they retired in good order and leasurely and fought valiantly when the Parthians came to trouble them alwaies making head vpon the enemie But when they came to the discending of any hils and mountains that were rough and steepe they were distressed by the Parthians with the shot of their arrows and with their darts because the Romans could not come downe but slowly step by step Wherefore to saue themselues from those hail-stormes they deuised this shift The legionarie souldiers caried ordinarily great pauesses to couer those that were lightly armed These they made to be set by them and then kneeling downe on the ground with the one knee they cast their pauisses before theÌ„ and they of the second ranke couered the former sort with theirs and the third ranke likewise couered the second and so forth through out the rest so as this maner of pauissing and couering one another was made like the rowes of tiles on the side of a house roofe and to see to resembled the greeces of a Theatre so as the shot of the arrowes did but glaunce ouer them The Parthians seeing this behauiour of the Roman legionaries thought they had been tired with trauell and therupon couching their launces approched euen to handstrokes Then the Romans stept quickly vpon foot and with their Iaueliâ—s slue the formost of them and put the rest to slight When a battell is lost the retreit is verie difficult vnlesse there remaine a great surplusage of horsmen For then may they retire making head as the Swartrutters did at the battell of Mouncounter and the Spaniards at Rauenna But commonly in a chase euery man shifts for himselfe And in this case the generall may vse dissimulation when he knoweth that there is yet another power readie as Sertorius did who to procure meane of safe retire to his men that were disperpled
went thither with the rest of his armie and gaue a great assault to haue driuen away those that defended the hill Then Hanniball perceiuing that his enemie had cast himselfe into his nets gaue the watchword to his men that were in ambush who brake out with a great noyse vpon the taile of the Romans of whom they slue a great number at the first dash and had put the rest out of aray but for the readie succour of Fabius who aided him at need and wrested the victorie out of Hannibals hand Insomuch that Hanniball sounding the retreit said smiling to his friends concerning Fabius Did not I tell you that yonder cloud which we see houering vpon the top of the hils would one day breake out into a stormie tempest that should light vpon vs Also Flaminius the Roman consul was discomfited by a like policie For Hanniball suffered him to win the passage that was in the hils aboue the lake of Trasimenus but yet higher aboue theÌ„ he had laid his men in ambush Now beyond the passage that was kept by the Romans there was a faire plain where Hannibals armie was so as the Romans being cooped vp in a place where they had their enemies both before and behind lost the battell The same Hanniball perceiuing that Marcellus neither by vanquishing nor by being vanquished could hold himselfe from troubling him vsed this policie when he saw him nie him Betweene the two camps was a certain peece of ground of strong situation couered round about with bushes therin were high places where a man might discouer them far of towards both the camps and at the foot of it ran mâ—ny springs and brookes insomuch that the Romans marueled that Hanniball who was come first had not seazed it But his so doing was for that it seemed to him a very fit place to lay â—tâ—les in to which purpose he chose rather to reserue it Therefore he 〈◊〉 the woods the watersprings and the valley throughout with a good number of men of armes of all sorts assuring himselfe that the place it selfe would draw the Romans thither wh◠〈◊〉 was not deceiued For the two consuls Marcellus and Criâ—pâ—â—â— went both thether with two hundred and twentie horses to view the place Which thing when the Carthaginenses perceiued they suffered them to come on vntil they were ful against them and then suddainly stepping vp and winding Marcellus in began to draw to him both with shot and with handblowes so long til he lay dead vpon the ground and his fellow being wounded to death recouered to his campe by the swiftnesse of his horse where he died by and by after The countie of Anguien was discomfited almost after the same manner as he would needs giue battell almost hard at the bars of Gaunt For the men of Gaunt being desirous to intrap him because he was valeant in battell laid a hundred men in ambush for him without the towne who hemmed him in so close when he was come a litle too forward that there was no meane to saue him and so fighting valeantly he died vpon the field and all his men with him Sometime a stale is made by occasion of a preteÌ„ded feare As for examâ—â—e Hanniball taking occasion to flee vpon the discomfiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 ten or twelue hundred of his men withdrew himselfe be 〈◊〉 the hils as a man dismaid leauing in his campâ— from whence he was dâ—lodged great abundance of riches and vitteâ—â— and dâ—pâ—rting in the night left the burning fires in his campe as 〈◊〉 his meaning had ben to conceale his departure fâ—om the Romans But this trick was discouered by 〈…〉 it stood him in no stead Thomyri queene of the Mâ—ssagets aâ—ter the destruction of hir army wherwith she lost hir sonne had great reason to flee and to 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 that flight she made a bait to draw Cyrus forth into the mountains from whence it was not easie for him to get back againe and so it came to passe For Cyrus courageously pursuing the Queene found himselfe hemmed in on all sides in the mountains where he lost an armie of two hundred thousand men and his owne life with them The emperour Aurelian seeing his enemies too strong for him in horsemen and better weaponed and armed than his prohibited the Romane knights to abide the battell and willed them to flee as soone as they were charged vpon vntill they saw their enemies horses wearie and tired with the pursute and then to turne head The which thing they did so handsomely that the emperour wan the victorie Paulus Vitellius hauing beene troubled two whole daies together by the pesants on the coast of Genes who flang stones and darts and shot arrowes at him from the hils yea and some of them were so bold as to come downe into the plaine and to fight with him bethought himselfe to pretend as though he would saue himselfe by flight and retired so farre that he was chased in full race by infinit pezants But when he saw his game at the best he made all his troopes to mount on horsebacke and to turne their faces insomuch that all at once they charged vpon the pezants of the mountaines and discomfited them Secco a Florentine beeing desirous to draw Monfronk captaine of the Pisanes to battell who of his owne nature was forward enough to it laid an ambush betweene Bientina and Pisa commanding them not to stir vntill he gaue them their watchword Then sent he foorth certaine light horsemen into the fields euen into the view of the citie Pisa who a long while pursued the forragers of Pisa. When Monfronk out of the higher part of the towne saw these forragers and theÌ„ that did coÌ„uoy them to be pressed by the ouergreat number of them he also made certaine of his light horsemen to go foorth and anon he himselfe followed them with his men of armes and footmen Secco did the like on his part so as the fight was full and well foughten At length Secco of set pupose began to recoile and turne his backe as it had ben for feare Monfronk folowed after him liuely not giuing him any respit to assemble his men together againe vntill he came to the stale where issued out men both on horsebacke and on foot which so inclosed the Venetians and Pisanes on al sides that hauing hemmed them in euery way in the end they ouerthrew a great number of them Malâ—testa Balion to make his enemies that were in garrison at Veron to fal into his snare commanded his Albans to go into the marches of Veron and to gather all the cattell that they found and to driue them towards the stale which he had laid a good way off from thence The which the Albans did with such noise that the garrison of Veron vnderstood it out of hand Wherupon some of them mounted vpon their horses to pursue those robbers The Albans to conceale their craft the better did fiâ—st shock themselues on a heape
and begin to turn their backs and to driue the cattel afore them a full trot Which thing when Succar who made the salie out perceiued he made no nicenes to pursue with al the hast he could Then Malatesta who waited for them vnder the couert of certain trees did suddainly giue a watchword to assaile them and therwith all running ouerthwart in an open path assailed his enemies behind as they pursued his men exceeding whotly and enuironing them on all sides did put them to the foile Bertram of Guesclin perceiuing the Englishmen were come to succor the men of Sireth and doubting least the townsmen would make some salie out by reason of their comming held himselfe still in his camp forbidding any man to stir without his commandement In the mean while he laid an ambush of two hundred men and then went to pull down the pales that were about the towne that the townesmen might the easlier issue out which disappointed not his hope at all For there issued out about a threescore of them hoping that they which were without would haue set vpon the Frenchmen behind as soone as they heard the bickering but it was quite otherwise For being enuironed by them that lay in the ambush they were all either slaine or taken asore the Englishmen wist it The maior of Rochell intending to put the citie into the kings hand bethought him of this policie He told the captaine of the campe that he had receiued letters from the king of England wherby he was commanded to take musters both of the townesmen and of the garrison This letter well sealed was shewed to the captain of the castle who knew the kings seale but could not read The maior made semblance to read the letter which contained no such thing as he spake and yet neuertheles he red it as boldly as if it had ben written clean contrary to the tenor of the writing According to this commandement the next morrow euery man was readie with his armor and weapon in the place appointed and the captain of the castle sent thither threescore men well furnished reseruing not past a dosen or fifteene men to keepe the castle Now the maire had aforehand laid two hundred men in ambush behind the old wals houses of the town which were not far from the castle When they of the garrison were a little gone forth they found themselues inclosed by the townsmen wel armed and in great number before and by them that lay in the ambush behind so as they could not return into the castle and the captain who with so few men was not able to resist them was faine to yeeld himselfe Constantine being imbarked at Pirey to giue battel to Licinius that was at Adrianople pretended to make a bridg ouer the riuer Ebron and to that end prepared a great quantitie of timber to busie his enemies about the keeping of that passage while he bestowed fiue thousand men secretly in ambush in a wood As soone as they were passed he himselfe also passed the riuer with a few men at a shallow foord causing al the rest of his army to march leisurely after him and he with those few men that he had assailed his enemies vpon the suddain vnprouided by which taking of them vnawares he did maruelously astonish them But when they that lay in ambush shewed themâ—elues then was there nothing but running away insomuch that all the host of Licinius was ouerthrowne and foure and thirtie thousand of his men were slain in the field The Enthalits seeing themselues ouerlaid by the Persians made countenance to flee to the mountains among the which there was a faire large way that had no way out but was enuironed with hils Now the Enthalites in small number fled continually before the Persians towards the greater part of their armie the which they had laid in ambush in those hils where shewing themselues suddainly on all sides they made the Persians to agree to what conditions they listed Charles of Aniou being greatly incumbered in resisting Conradine who was entred with great power into the realme of Naples found in very good season an old French knight named Alard that came froÌ„ Hierusalem By whose counsel Charles ordered his army in such sort that he made three squadrons wherof the first two were led in the plaine by the Palentine the one marching a mile before the other and therof was chieftaine Philip of Mountfort marshall to Charles of Aniou apparelled and attired like a king with the standards of Charles And in the second squadron was the said Philip of Mounfort In the third squadron which was of the men of most valor marched Charles himselfe and this squadron lodged in a little valley vnderneath the enemies Alard did set himselfe vpon the hill of Alba betweene the valley and the plaine to giue order to all euents as need should require Conradine on his side had two squadrons much stronger than the squadrons of Charles wherby the formost squadron of Charles was so well handled that Philip of Mountfort was fain to aduance his squadron forward to the rescue therof and by that means was driuen to sustain the battell three houres without stirring out of that place and yet in the end was discomfited and slaine Vpon the brute of whose death it was beleeued that king Charles himself had ben dead insomuch that his men taking it to haue bin so betook themselues to flight By reason wherof Conradines souldiers fell to rifling out of order insomuch that euen his guard ran to the spoile and left him all alone accompanied with a few pages and other people vnfit for war Alard seeing from the hill this fit occasion to do some good exploit caused Charles to go out of his little valley well and close set in battelray and with great violence to charge vpon his enemies loden with preies and in great disorder whom he had no great ado to break asunder insomuch that they were all slain taken or wounded and by that good counsell Charles abode maister of the field The duke of Guise did the like at the battell of Dreux as I haue said afore For when he saw that the prince of Condie was rushed into the battell where the constable was who was taken he stood still and would neuer stir to rescue the others but waited still to see them in some greater disorder vntill they fell to the spoile as if they had won all And then he rushed vpon them so boistously that within a while he was maister of the field Metellus finding himselfe short of vittels at the siege of the Lagobrits sent Aquiniâ—â— with six thousand men to recouer some vittels Sertorius being aduertised therof laid an ambush for his returne in a valley couered with wood where he bestowed three thousand men in wait to set vpon him on the back while he himselfe assailed him on the face By this means he put him to flight and tooke the most
part of his men prisoners so as Metellus was driuen to leuie his siege with dishonor The Spaniards being within Pauie made a salie out vpon Iohn Medices and foiled his guard To haue reuenge herof Iohn Medices laid a double ambush the one in ditches neere the town and the other further of The Spaniards spared not to make another saly out and when they had chased those good fellows a good way they perceiued the ambush a far off wherwith they began to retire But their way was cut off by the other ambush that was laid neerer the town insomuch that finding themselues assailed both waies at once they had no meane to saue themselues but were all put to the sword CHAP. XIX Of the taking of Towns THere are diuerse manners of taking of towns either by force or by policy We will treat here of policies and onely of some such policies as the men of old time haue vsed For new be daily deuised the which I ouerpasse with silence because it were vnmeet for me to giue counsell to such as haue bin at them and seene them and haue inuented and practised them Sometime great speed and suddain comming vnlooked for giue occasion of the taking of a towne as it did to Demetrius at the citie of Athens which had receiued the garrison of Ptolomie whom Demetrius was desirous to expulse to the intent that Ptolomie shuld not pruaile against him in so great a citie Wherfore he rowed thither so swiftly with his gallies that he was seene there ere his comming was heard of Insomuch that Ptolomies garison supposing they had bin Ptolomies gallies went out to receiue them But perceiuing too late what they were they had no way to defend thēselues for Demetrus was come within the hauen the entrance whereof he had found wide open And to bring his enterprise the easilier to passe he made proclamation by the sound of a trumpet that his father Antigonus had sent him to deliuer the Athenians from all garrisons and to set them free the which thing caused the Athenians to turn vnto him to yeeld him the town so as the garrison was put away and they were set at libertie Nicias intending to lay siege to Siracuse sent a man of Catana thither as a spie to tell them that if they would take the campe of the Athenians vnawares they should come with all their power towards Catana at a certain day that he appointed because the Athenians would for the most part of the time be within the citie wherein there were a number of natural citizens which fauoring the affairs of Siracuse were determined to seaze the gates of the citie as soone as they perceiued the Siracusanes to approch and at the same time to set fire vpon the ships of the Athenians and there were a great sort of the towns men of that confederacie who did but wait for the day houre of their comming By this policie he made the Siracusanes to come out into the fields with al their power so as they left their citie vtterly empty he in the mean season departing frō Catana with al their fleet took the hauen of Siracuse at his ease and chose a place to plant his camp in where his enemies could not indomage him The Athenians hauing secret conference with some of the citie Megara ceised one of the gates afore dailight by the which the citisens were woont to take in a Brigantine which they sent a nights to scoure the sea afore day brought it in again vpō a chariot within the inclosure of the wals which went frō the city to Nisey where was their hauē which was the cause that the gate could not be shut so soone but that the Athenians ceised it and mounted vpon their wals giuing a push to take their citie But the garrison of the Peloponnesians arriued there in that instant who had beene a sufficient impediment to the Athenians if the Athenians had not bethought them to make proclamation by the sound of a trumpet That al the Megarians which would yeeld themselues to the Athenians and lay away their weapons should be saued Which thing whē the Peloponnesians heard fearing least all the townesmen had bin of that confederacie they forthwith forsooke the sea and saued themselues at Nisey Alcibiades tooke the citie Celibrie in Hellespont by intelligence with some of the citizens but not without some perill of his owne person yea and to his confusion if he had not remedied the matter quickly He should haue bin neere the citie by a certaine houre and for his watchword a burning cresset should haue bin put vp about midnight But they that were within were constrained to put vp their token afore the houre for feare of one of the confederacie who repented him of his doing Which token when Alcibiades perceiued although he had not his troopes readie yet would he not let slip the occasion but taking with him thirtie men and appointing his troopes to follow him with all speed possible ran streight to the walles There was he receiued and the gate opened vnto him whereinto he entered with his 30. men and 20. others that came by chance But they were no sooner entred but they heard the townsmen cōming in arms against them so as there was no likelihood that he should haue escaped if he taried there On the otherside he was loth to flee and leaue the taking of the towne Wherfore he aduised himself vpon the sudden to cause silence to be made by the sound of a trumpet and when the noise was appeased he made it to be proclaimed that the Celibramians should not take weapon against the Athenians This did somewhat cool those that were desirous to fight because they doubted least all the armie of the Athenians had bin alreadie within the citie And so as they were parlying the rest of his armie came in by means whereof he became master of the towne Also he vsed another policie to get Bizance which is now called Constantinople For lying in siege afore the citie he had secret intelligence with two of the towne which had promised to betray it vnto him To bring this enterprise to passe he made a shew to leuie his siege and to go his way into Ionie with great diligence for some that had made an insurrection there And in verie deed he departed in the open day with all his gallies but the same night he returned back againe and comming on land with his men that were best armed approched near the wals without making any noise And he had appointed the rest of his men that were in the ships that in the meane while they should with all speed row into the hauen and there make as great noise as they could to the intent that the Bizantines should draw thitherward In which meane time he himselfe by the helpe of his intelligencers entred the citie and woon it howbeit not without fighting As Robert of Artois besieged Vannes
of Athens that they might the sooner be famished and so it came to passe For whereas he was not able to ouercome them by force he suffered them to rest a while and afterward when he knew that vittails began to wax scant he besieged them so narrowly that they were faine to yeeld the citie to the Lacedemonians To attempt the taking of the rocke of Vandois which was impregnable the vicount of Meaus laid a stale of 1200 men in a caue neare the fort and sent others to skirmish with them at their bars charging them that if any came out of the towne against them they should retire softly vntill they came to the stale The Frenchmen failed not to make countenaÌ„ce but went slowly to the skirmish as if they had beene men vnwilling and smally trained which thing gaue courage to Guion du sel who had the gouernment of the fort in the absence of Amerigoll Marcell to sallie out with certaine of the garrison And he chased the Frenchmen so farre that he was inclosed betweene their ambush and their campe so as he could not saue himselfe nor any of his companie Whereupon the Frenchmen approched nearer the castell and told him that he and all his companions should die if the â—ortresse were not yeelded and that if it were yeelded they should all be saued They that were within perceiuing that they were like to lose the best men of all their companie yeelded themselues at his persuasion The earle of Arminak was discomfited almost after the same sort by Iaques of Berne before Alexandria which was the cause that the siege of Alexandria was broken vp CHAP. XX. Of the defending of Townes THere is not so great a mischief but there is a remedie for it And as the common saying is Well assailed well defended For when he that is within a towne knoweth that another would haue it then by good watch and carefull diligence he keepeth himselfe from being taken on the sudden And if he be aduertised of his enemies comming he doth what he can to keepe them from comming neere the ditches vntill the greatnesse of their number enforce him to retire The like is done when a citie is to be assailed by sea and by land For he that is within doth either by force or by policie impeach their landing as much as he can as did that gallant pyrat named Franday at Port Venerie The Arragonians intending to haue taken that place vpon the gate toward the sea approched with the prowes of their gallies to the hauen to haue set their soldiers a land But Franday had caused the great stones whereupon they were to leape in comming downe from their gallies to be besmeared with greace so as the most part of them fell downe through the slippernesse of their footing and the cumbersomnesse of their armor among the stones which were verie high Sometimes a citie is in hard case for that they cannot certifie their state by reason of the straitnesse of the siege In this case they must do as the Gothes did who being straitly besieged by Bellisariu and not able to giue intelligence of their distresse to Vitigis made a great noise one midnight whereat Belâ—â—sarius wondring and fearing some ambush or treason commanded that euery man should stand vpon his guard without remouing out of his place While Bellisarius was thus musing more to gard himselfe than to looke to the wals of his enemies the Goths sent out two men to giue knowledge to Vitigis in what state they stood But Bellisarius did yet much better when he himselfe was besieged in Rome For vvhen he vnderstood that succors were comming to him fearing least the Goths should set vpon them by the vvay he caused a certaine vvall vvherwith one of the gates of the citie vvas dammed vp to be beaten downe in the night and set a good number of men of vvar at it causing a thousand horsemen to issue out at one of the other gates whom he coÌ„manded to returne to the same gate againe vvhen they vvere charged by their enemies Now vvhile they vvere in hand vvith their enemies Bellisarius vvent out vvith a great power at the gate that vvas towards the sea vvhereof his enemies had no mistrust and easily putting those to flight that encountered him on that part he vvent on till he came right against the other gate vvhere he assailed his enemies behind as they vvere fighting vvith his men that had issued out first in vvhich conflict many of his enemies vvere slaine vvho being sufficiently occupied in defending themselues gaue leisure to the Greekes to ioine vvith the armie of Bellisarius vvithout any let Sometimes there is scarcetie of vittels in a towne so as it needeth to be vittelled And therfore he that hath the charge therof seeketh by all means to get some in vvithout the enemies priuitie Bellisarius intending to vittell the citie of Rome which was streitlie besieged by the Gothes vnder the leading of Totilas deuised this shift Totilas had made two towers of timber to be builded vpon a bridge ouer the riuer Tiber to keepe men from comming to Rome by water And without the ouerthrowing of these towers there was no way to passe To do it by plaine force it was not possible for him for he had too few men Wherfore he took two lighters and ioined them togither with rafters vpon the which he builded a tower of timber of equall heigth to the other two vpon the top wherof he had a little boate full of pitch and brimstone After this tower boat followed two hundred other boats couered ouer with boord and made full of loope holes that his men standing surely fenced in them might shoot at their enemies Within those boats he put great abundance of vittels garded by the choisest of his souldiers by whom vpon either banke of the riuer as neere as might be he sent of his souldiers both on horsebacke and on foot When he came at the towers of the bridge he cast vpon them the said little boat that was full of brimstone which immediatly burned vp the towers and the two hundred men that were within them In the meane while the Romans brake downe the bridge and made way for the litters that conueied the vittels the which had out of all doubt gone forth to the citie had it not ben for the fault of Isaces one of Bellisarius captains who by his rash going out of the hauen towne of Ostia contrarie to Bellisarius appointment was discomfited and taken prisoner by the Goths For Bellisarius being abashed therat and thinking that the towne it selfe had ben taken wherin was his wife and all his mouables returned suddainly back thither without accomplishing his enterprise Sometimes either men or monie be to be conueyed into a towne in whch behalfe example may be taken at the doings of Bellisarius who bearing that monie was brought him from Constantinople to the intent that the bringer thereof
outweareth so soone as a good turne In gouerning of a multitude punishment auaileth more than pitie That captaine is to be punished which holdeth a place vnable to be defended against an armie roiall Som time it is needfull to vse crueltie Machiauels distinction It is good that a prince should haue his army affectionated to him alone Whether a liuetenant general should be gentle or rigorous The generall ought to be familiar in behauior and rigorous in discipline Austerity abateth not the loue of men of war The winning of a battel depâ—â—leth vpon the sufficiency of the captaine Some one maÌ„ is of great value in an host The skâ—lfulnes of a captaine may disorder his enemies battell which want a good chieftaine Of the Phalanx The policie of Paulus Aemilâ—us The order oâ— the Roman legions Pikemen â—he Principals The Triarie The keeping of a passage The wholsom counsell of Themistocles A passage is not to be kept but with great forces Of the plaÌ„â—ing of garrisons in cities An armie to pursue the enemie without giuing him battell The fault of Niceas An army to bid the enemy battell The fortune of a batell is not to be hazarded vnles some great aduantage be offered A prince can not aduenture a battell in his owne country without great daunger The despising of their enemies is the ouerthrow of great princes They that hazard theÌ„selues vpon necessitie haue coÌ„monly good successe A notable fault of Manfred Charles the fift ouermatched the Englishmen by taking opportunity of time There are times that admit no delay A mighty enemy may compel vs to come to handstroks An army may be compelled to come to handstroks Preuâ—â—â—â—ng is to bâ—â—â—ght 〈…〉 and not by refusing tâ— fight Protracting of time is profitable when an armie may lodge at aduauntage When a man hath the aduantage of the ground he is not to let sâ—p the occasion of coÌ„bat Why the Sophie inuaded not the Turks dominion while Selim was in Egypt The losse of goods turneth not away the hearts of subiects Tyrannie giueth great cause of rebellion The dâ—fendâ—nt may soone repairâ— his power Arguments against Langeyes opinion Tâ—â— Romaâ—s 〈…〉 countrie The Romans could not vaÌ„quish Hanniball in Italie An â—nswer â—o Bellays first argument An answer to Bâ—lâ—ays second argument An answer to the third argument An answer to the fourth argument An answer to the fifth argument An answer to the sixt argument An answer to the seuenth argument An answer to the eight argument Fortune furthereth the aduenterous He that loseth a bâ—â—â—ell in a strange countrie loseth but his men â—â—rrâ—us excelled in pitâ—â—ung a camp Of woods Of hils The danger of passing aâ—uer The aduaÌ„tage of a hill The policy of Salomon Of Sylla Of Lucullus Of Flaminius How a small band may defend themselues against a great army A policy of the Entalits The policy of Cabaon Of Orations Of the countenance of a captaine The assuredâ—eâ— of Hanniball Of Lisander Quintius Marius Of the often beholding of the enemie afore battell The strangenesse of things maketh them more terrible than they be in deed Pelopidas and Epaminondas The policie of Iugurth Of Necessitie Of Despaire The policie of Themistocles The policie of Zabdas The countie Petilians policie The sowing of a report of succours at hand To keep souldiers from knowing the enemie to whom the generall suspecteth to be betraied by his owne men Skirmishes are so neare both to good and euill that it is easie to take the one for the other The sorts of skirmishes Skirmishes made to aduantage do make the enemie despised We must then reserue our forces for battel when the enemy letteth vs alone Pompeyes fault at the battell of Pharsalie To passe a waâ—â—r safely The policie of Iulian in passing his army ouer a riuer The policy of Marius The policy of Bertram of Guesclin A policy to pretend battell and yet not to do it A policy to taâ—e the enemy vnprâ—uided The daunger 〈…〉 too much to giue battell The seeâ—ing of aduauntage to fight 〈◊〉 To come vpon the enemie behind while he is fighting Diuers maners of ordering an armie The ranks must not be inlarged where is but few men A meane to open a battel What is to be done when a general hath but few men A great armie must not chuse a hill-ground but a plain champion The policie of captaine Pelinian To reassemble an armie that goeth by the worst To tempt an armie with dâ—sirâ— of prey To let or impeaâ—h the assailing of an army behind To beguile the enemie in ordering of ones battel When a man hath few horsmen To beguile the enemie by pretending weaknesse Catos policie A false pretence of feare To make an army seeme greater than it is Men must not be too what in following a chase How victory is to be vsed The danger of fighting with folk in despaire The policie of Hanniball The policie of Qâ—intius The policie of Artaxerxes The policie of Eumenes Of the coÌ„cealing of a mans feare The â—etiâ—ing 〈◊〉 day is dâ—â—gerous The policie of the Romans How to saue ones self when a battel is lost The policie of Agesilaus to scape out of a towne at the comming of his enemies A cawsey may serue for a retreat Hanniball wan his victories by his wel laying of ambushes The policy of Bertâ—am of Guesclin The ambush of Constantine The good counsell of Alard to Charles duke of Aniou A policy of Sertorius The policie oâ— Demetrius The policie of Alcibiades The policie of Robert of Artois The earle of Derbies pâ—pâ—licie A policie of Lucullus A policie of Frederick Barbarossa A policie of Sertorius A policie of Bellisarius A policie of the lord of Estourneâ— The policie Lysander A polâ—â—ie of the Gothes The policy oâ— Bellisarius To get vittels or mony into a citie A sally of the Englishmen Nothing is so dangerous as an enemy vndistrusted The policie oâ— Spartacus
Iustine led the one part and Martin the other Martin to encourage his people and to sow a false report among his enemies That Iustinian the emperor had sent succors vnto them assembled the whole armie as it had beene to consult what was to be done And as they were so all assembled suddenly comes in a post whom he had procured as coÌ„ming from Constantinople with letters which he presented wherein the emperour sent them word that he had sent them another armie as great or greater than that they had alreadie The post was asked whether the armie was farre off or no and he answered that the armie was not much abone foure and twentie furlongs off Then captaine Martin as if he had bin throughly angrie said He had not to do with it and that it was no reason that they should reape the honour and profit of his trauel Whereupon he demaunded of his people whether they thought his saying good or no and they all answered yea In the meane while the report of fresh succours was blowne abrode into the enemies campe who thereupon disposed some of their men to the straits to stop the new armie from passing to ioyne with the other and at the same instant brought their whole power before the citie to giue assault vnto it Now it fortuned that the same day captaine Iustine had a fâ—ncie to go make his praiers in a certaine church of the Christians that was neare the towne and for his conuey caried with him fiue thousand horses vnperceiued of the enemies who by chaunce tooke another way to come to the campe before the towne When Iustine vnderstood by the noise that his enemies were afore the towne setting vp scaling ladders digging and making a great assault to enter in immediatly he turned head and with his horsemen went and charged vpon his enemies that were at the point to haue woon the towne Whereas they being greatly amazed and thinking that it had beene the fresh succours which they had heard of tooke themselues to sight and being pursued by the men of the citie were almost all put to the sword Eumenes vsing dissimulation wisely got the victorie against Craterus For when he vnderstood that Neoptolemus and Craterus came against him in hope to cause his souldiers to turne to their part by the onely brute of their comming and also to take them vnawares as they were making good cheare becaue they came then freshly from the discomfiting of Neoptolemus he held his armie in good order and readie to fight and therewithall caused a report to run abrode that it was Neoptolemus and Pigres that came backe vpon him a fresh with certaine horsemen gathered at aduenture out of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia And to keepe his countrimen from knowing Craterus he set not one Macedonian against him in the forefront but placed there two companies of straungers that were men of armes commaunding them expresly to run vpon their enemies as soone as they saw them and to charge vpon them immediatly without giuing them leysure to parlie or to retire and without giuing any eare to the heraults and trumpetters that should be sent vnto them because he feared least the Macedonians would turne against him if they once knew that Craterus was there Wherefore as soone as Eumenes men espied their enemies they failed not to run against them a full gallop as they had beene commaunded At the sight wherof Craterus was greatly abashed for he thought that the Macedonians should haue turned on his side as Neoptolemus had promised him Neuerthelesse dealing like a man of valor he also spurred his horse against his enemies and did so well that the battel was fought a long time with doubtful ballance but in the end Eumenes woon the field and Craterus and Neoptolemus the chieftanes of his enemies were both slaine Sometime a valiant captaine that hath the report to be fortunat and a great taker of towns doth euen by his menaces strike a feare into the hearts of soldiers that are inclosed in a place make theÌ„ to yeeld it vp as Glesclin did who sent word to the men of Hannibout that he would sup within their towne that night and that if there were any of them that threw but a stone whereby any of the least of his pages were hurt it should cost them their liues With the which menace the townsmen were so scared that they stirred not out of their houses and the Englishmen being too few to abide the assault were ouerlaid with force and put all to the sword The countie of Fois intending to go from Bolonia to Bresse the nearest way to recouer it tooke his iourney through the duke of Mantuas territorie And because he was to passe by certaine sluces which were fast shut vp and well garded he sent to the duke of Mantua to desire passage who notwithstanding that he was against the Frenchmen yet being abashed at his so sudden comming was faine to open him the passage the which he would haue denied him if he had not seene his power CHAP. XIII Of Skirmishes WHen two armies come within sight one of another they caÌ„not be kept from skirmishing the which is somtime necessary and somtime verie daungerous And this poynt as saith Machiauell is one of that number wherein the euill is so neare vnto the good that the one is easily taken for the other I haue often heard this fashion of making skirmishes blamed by Monsieur Tauannes who would not put any thing in perill but all to profit For he would either fight in good earnest or hold himselfe quiet without fighting and reserue his forces to some good occasion Some will say that such skirmishes giue the more courage to men of war and make them as it were to record their lessons and the things that are to be done in battell It is a making of theÌ„ to look vpon the wolf that by beholding of him throughly they should not be afraid of him But on the contrarie part also if the wolfe bite them it is to be doubted least they will become the colder in hunting him Three dayes afore the battell of Moncounter the armie of the Monsieur and the armie of the princes skirmished vpon the banke of the riuer Dine but that skirmish was so rough for them that they began that day to despair of the victorie to be shie of the encounter which they had anon after But now to make some resolution vpon the discourse of the hystorie which is the thing that I pretend I say that skirmishes are of two or three sorts Sometimes when men lie in garrison and warres are prolonged they skirmish with a few men to giue a stroke with the speare or to make some gallant enterprise as was done at Bolloyne against the Englishmen For they that were in the great fort and in the fort of the Chastilion did often times issue out against the Englishmen that lay in garrison in Bolloyne and there