the one to the other, thei make the armie thinne:  if thei put the one behind the other, havyng no waie to receive the one the other, thei doe it confusedly, and apt to be easly troubled:  and although thei give three names to their armies, and devide them into thre companies, vaward, battaile, and rereward, notwithstandyng it serveth to no other purpose, then to marche, and to distinguis the lodgynges:  but in the daie of battaile, thei binde them all to the first brunte, and to the first fortune.

LUIGI.  I have noted also in the faightyng of your fielde, how your horsemen were repulced of the enemies horsemen:  for whiche cause thei retired to the extraordinaire Pikes:  whereby grewe, that with the aide of theim, thei withstode, and drave the enemies backe?  I beleve that the Pikes maie withstande the horses, as you saie, but in a grosse and thicke maine battaile, as the Suizzers make:  but you in your army, have for the hedde five rankes of Pikes, and for the flancke seven, so that I cannot tell how thei maie bee able to withstande them.

[Sidenote:  A Battaile how greate so ever it bee, cannot atones occupy above v. rankes of Pikes.]

FABRICIO.  Yet I have told you, how sixe rankes of pikes wer occupied at ones, in the Macedonicall Falangi, albeit you ought to understande, that a maine battaile of Suizzers, if it were made of a thousande rankes, it cannot occupie more then fower, or at the most five:  bicause the Pikes be sixe yardes and three quarters longe, one yarde and halfe a quarter, is occupied of the handes, wherefore to the firste ranke, there remaineth free five yardes and a half, and a halfe quarter of Pike:  the seconde ranke besides that whiche is occupied with the hande, consumeth a yarde and half a quarter in the space, whiche remaineth betwene the one ranke and thother:  so that there is not left of pike profitable, more then fower yardes and a halfe:  to the thirde ranke, by this verie same reason, there remaineth three yardes and a quarter and a halfe:  to the fowerth, twoo yardes and a quarter:  to the fift one yard and halfe a quarter:  the other rankes, for to hurte, be unprofitable, but thei serve to restore these firste rankes, as we have declared, and to bee a fortificacion to those v.  Then if five of their rankes can withstande the horse, why cannot five of ours withstande theim? to the whiche also there lacketh not rankes behinde, that doeth sustain and make them the very same staie, although thei have no pikes as the other.  And when the rankes of thextraordinarie pikes, which are placed on the flanckes, should seme unto you thinne, thei maie bee brought into a quadrante, and put on the flancke nere the twoo battailes, whiche I set in the laste companie of the armie:  From the whiche place, thei maie easely altogether succour the fronte, and the backe of the armie, and minister helpe to the horses, accordyng as nede shall require.

LUIGI.  Would you alwaies use this forme of order, when you would pitche a fielde.