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.
standerde, twoo hundred menne at least, chosen to be on foote the moste parte, emongest whiche there should be tenne or more, mete to execute all commaundementes, and should bee in soche wise a horsebacke, and armed, that thei mighte bee on horsebacke, and on foote, accordyng as neede should require.  The artillerie of the armie, suffiseth ten Cannons, for the winning of Townes, whose shotte shoulde not passe fiftie pounde:  the whiche in the fielde should serve mee more for defence of the campe, then for to fight the battaile:  The other artillerie, should bee rather of ten, then of fifteene pounde the shotte:  this I would place afore on the front of all the armie, if sometime the countrie should not stande in such wise, that I mighte place it by the flancke in a sure place, where it mighte not of the enemie be in daunger:  this fashion of an armie thus ordered, may in fighting, use the order of the Falangi, and the order of the Romane Legions:  for that in the fronte, bee Pikes, all the men bee set in the rankes, after such sorte, that incountering with the enemie, and withstanding him, maye after the use of the Falangi, restore the firste ranckes, with those behinde:  on the other parte, if they be charged so sore, that they be constrayned to breake the orders, and to retire themselves, they maye enter into the voide places of the seconde battailes, which they have behinde them, and unite their selves with them, and making a new force, withstande the enemie, and overcome him:  and when this sufficeth not, they may in the verie same maner, retire them selves the seconde time, and the third fight:  so that in this order, concerning to fight, there is to renue them selves, both according to the Greeke maner, and according to the Romane:  concerning the strength of the armie, there cannot be ordayned a more stronger:  for as much, as the one and the other borne therof, is exceedingly well replenished, both with heades, and weapons, nor there remayneth weake, other then the part behinde of the unarmed, and the same also, hath the flanckes impaled with the extraordinarie Pikes:  nor the enemie can not of anye parte assaulte it, where he shall not finde it well appointed, and the hinder parte can not be assaulted:  Because there can not bee an enemie, that hath so much puissaunce, whome equallye maye assault thee on everye side:  for that hee having so great a power, thou oughtest not then to matche thy selfe in the fielde with him:  but when he were three times more then thou, and as well appointed as thou, hee doth weaken him selfe in assaulting thee in divers places, one part that thou breakest, will cause all the reste go to naughte:  concerning horses, although he chaunce to have more then thine, thou needest not feare:  for that the orders of the Pikes, which impale thee, defende thee from all violence of them, although thy horses were repulced.  The heades besides this, be disposed in such place, that they may easyly commaunde, and obeye:  the spaces that bee between the one battaile,
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Machiavelli, Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.