in thesame maner, and with thesame order juste, as
a little afore I have shewed you. The Veliti
muste stande a long, by the flankes of thesame, accordyng
as is disposed in the first waie, whiche waie is called
redoublyng by right line, this is called redoublyng
by flanke: the first waie is more easie, this
is with better order, and commeth better to passe,
and you maie better correcte it, after your owne maner,
for that in redoublyng by righte line, you muste bee
ruled by the nomber, bicause five maketh ten, ten
twentie, twentie fourtie, so that with redoublyng
by right line, you cannot make a hedde of fiftene,
nor of five and twentie, nor of thirtie, nor of five
and thirtie, but you must go where thesame nomber
will leade you. And yet it happeneth every daie
in particulare affaires, that it is convenient to
make the forwarde with sixe hundred, or eight hundred
men, so that to redouble by right line, should disorder
you: therefore this liketh me better: that
difficultie that is, ought moste with practise, and
with exercise to bee made easie. Therefore I
saie unto you, how it importeth more then any thyng,
to have the souldiours to know how to set themselves
in araie quickly, and it is necessarie to keepe theim
in this battaile, to exercise theim therin, and to
make them to go apace, either forward or backward,
to passe through difficulte places, without troublyng
thorder: for asmoche as the souldiours, whiche
can doe this well, be expert souldiours, and although
thei have never seen enemies in the face, thei maie
be called old souldiours, and contrariwise, those
whiche cannot keepe these orders, though thei have
been in a thousande warres, thei ought alwaies to be
reputed new souldiours. This is, concernyng setting
them together, when thei are marching in small rankes:
but beyng set, and after beyng broken by some accident
or chaunce, whiche groweth either of the situacion,
or of the enemie, to make that in a sodaine, thei
maie come into order againe, this is the importaunce
and the difficultie, and where is nedefull moche exercise,
and moche practise, and wherin the antiquitie bestowed
moche studie. Therefore it is necessarie to doe
twoo thynges, firste to have this battaile full of
countersignes, the other, to keepe alwaies this order,
that those same men maie stand alwaies in the ranke,
which thei were firste placed in: as for insample,
if one have begon to stande in the seconde, that he
stande after alwaie in that, and not onely in that
self same rancke, but in that self same place:
for the observyng whereof (as I have saied) bee necessarie
many countersignes. In especially it is requisite,
that the Ansigne bee after soche sorte countersigned,
that companyng with the other battailes, it maie be
knowen from theim, accordyng as the Conestable, and
the Centurions have plumes of fethers in their heddes
differente, and easie to be knowen, and that whiche
importeth moste, is to ordaine that the peticapitaines
bee knowen. Whereunto the antiquitie had so moche