Machiavelli, Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 456 pages of information about Machiavelli, Volume I.

Machiavelli, Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 456 pages of information about Machiavelli, Volume I.
and mindyng that like battailes in soche cace, maie have their proporcion, as above is declared, it is necessarie, that thei have the Pikes on thesame flancke, that ought to be hedde, and the Peticapitaines, Centurions, and Conestables, to resorte accordyngly to their places.  Therefore to mynde to dooe this, in plasyng them together, you must ordeine the fower skore rankes, of five in a ranke, thus:  Set all the Pikes in the first twentie rankes, and place the Peticapitaines thereof, five in the first places, and five in the last:  the other three score rankes, whiche come after, bee all of Targaettes, whiche come to bee three Centuries.  Therefore, the first and the laste ranke of every Centurion, would be Peticapitaines, the Conestable with the Ansigne, and with the Drumme, muste stande in the middest of the first Centurie of Targaettes, and the Centurions in the hed of every Centurie.  The bande thus ordained, when you would have the Pikes to come on the left flancke, you must redouble Centurie by Centurie, on the right flancke:  if you would have them to come on the right flancke, you must redouble theim on the lefte.  And so this battaile tourneth with the Pikes upon a flancke, and the Conestable in the middeste:  the whiche facion it hath marchyng:  but the enemie commyng, and the tyme that it would make of flancke hedde, it nedeth not but to make every man to tourne his face, towardes thesame flancke, where the Pikes be, and then the battaile tourneth with the rankes, and with the heddes in thesame maner, as is aforesaied:  for that every man is in his place, excepte the Centurions, and the Centurions straight waie, and without difficultie, place themselves:  But when thei in marchyng, should bee driven to faight on the backe, it is convenient to ordein the rankes after soch sorte, that settyng theim in battaile, the Pikes maie come behinde, and to doe this, there is to bee kepte no other order, then where in orderyng the battaile, by the ordinarie, every Centurie hath five rankes of Pikes before, to cause that thei maie have them behind, and in all the other partes to observe thorder, whiche I declared firste.

COSIMO.  You have tolde (if I dooe well remember me) that this maner of exercise, is to bee able to bryng these battailes together into an armie, and that this practise, serveth to be able to order theim selves in the same:  But if it should happen, that these CCCCL. men, should have to doe an acte seperate, how would you order them?

[Sidenote:  How a battaile is made with twoo hornes; The orderyng of a battaile with a voide space in the middeste.]

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Machiavelli, Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.