COSIMO.  Yet ther hath ben seen many tounes that have ben sacked within this xxv. yeres, and lost their dominions, whose insample, ought to teache other how to live, and to take again some of those old orders.

FABRICIO.  You saie true:  but if you note what tounes have gone to sacke, you shall not finde that thei have been the heddes of states, but of the members; as was seen sacked Tortona, and not Milaine:  Capua, and not Napelles, Brescia, and not Venice, Ravenna, and not Roome:  the whiche insamples maketh those that governe, not to chaunge their purposes, but rather maketh them to stande more in their opinion, to be able to redeme again all thynges with taskes, and for this, thei will not submit theim selves to the troubles of thexercises of warre, semyng unto them partly not necessarie, partly, an intrinsicate matter, whiche thei understande not:  Those other, whiche bee subjectes to them, whom soche insamples ought to make afraied, have no power to remedie it:  and those Princes, that have ones loste their estates, are no more able, and those which as yet kept them, know not, nor wil not.  Bicause thei will without any disease rain by fortune, and not by their vertue:  for that in the worlde beyng but little vertue, thei see fortune governeth all thynges.  And thei will have it to rule theim, not thei to rule it.  And to prove this that I have discoursed to bee true, consider Almaine, in the whiche, bicause there is many Princedomes, and common weales, there is moche vertue, and all thesame, whiche in the present service of warre is good, dependeth of the insamples of those people:  who beyng all gellious of their states, fearing servitude, the which in other places is not feared, thei all maintaine theim selves Lordes, and honourable:  this that I have saied, shall suffice to shewe the occacions of the presente utilitie, accordyng to my opinion:  I cannot tell, whether it seeme thesame unto you, or whether there be growen in you any doubtyng.

COSIMO.  None, but rather I understande all verie well:  onely I desire, tournyng to our principall matter, to understande of you, how you would ordein the horses with these battailes, and how many, and how thei should be governed, and how armed.

[Sidenote:  The armyng of horsemen; The weapons that light horsmenne should have; The nombre of horsmen requisite for a maine bataille of six thousand men; The nombre of carrages that men of armes and light horsmen ought to have.]

FABRICIO.  You thinke peraventure, that I have left it behinde:  whereat doe not marvell, for that I purpose for twoo causes, to speake therof little, the one is, for that the strengthe, and the importaunce of an armie, is the footemen, the other is, bicause this part of service of warre, is lesse corrupted, then thesame of footemen.  For that though it be not stronger then the old, yet it maie compare with thesame, nevertheles ther hath been spoken a little afore, of the maner of exercisyng them.  And concernyng