his own Men, the Courage they might derive from his Prefence and Example, happens, by Degrees, to fail; and not feeing the wonted Marks and Enfigns of their Leader, they prefently conclude him either dead, or that, defpairing of the Day, he is gone to fhift for himself; and Experience declares, that both these Ways have been succefsful at Times. What befel Pyrrhus, in his Battle with the Conful Levinus in Italy, will ferve us to both Purposes: For though, by fhrowding his Perfon under the Armour of Demogacles t, and making him wear his own, he indeed faved his own Life; yet, by that very Means, he was withal very near running into the other Mifchief, of lofing the Battle. Alexander, Cefar, and Lucullus, loved to make themfelves known in a Battle, by rich Accoutrements, and Armour of a particular Luftre and Colour: Agis, Agefilaus, and that great Gilippus ‡, on the contrary, used to fight in dull Armour, and without any princely Attire. Whether beft to fall upon an Enemy, or to wait for an Attack. Amongst other Overfights Pompey § is charged withal, at the Battle of Pharfalia, he is condemned for making his Army ftand still to receive the Enemy's Charge; by reafon that (I fhall here fteal Plutarch's own Words, that are better than mine) it flackens the violent Impreffion which the Motion of Running gives to the firft Blow, and hinders that clafhing of the Combatants, one againft another, which used to fill them, more than any Thing, with great Impetuofity and Fury, on the first Encounter; especially *As at the Battle of Jury, in the Perfon of Henry the Great. Or rather Megacles, as may be feen in Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus, ch. 8. It is my Opinion that one who has been forced to fly his Country from a Sentence of Death, for having robbed the Publick, can never deferve the Title of a Great Man. As to the infamous Robbery committed by this Gilippus, fee Diodorus of Sicily, lib. xiii. ch. 33. tranflated by Amyct. His Father, whofe Name was Clearchus, was in the fame Scrape. Being caft for his Life. he fled, fays Diodorus, before the Sentence. Thus, adds the Hiftorian, did thefe two Perfonages, who in other Refpects were both reputed excellent Men, throw a Scandal upon the reft of their Lives and Actions, by fuffering themselves to be corrupted with fordid Avarice. It is Cafar himfelf that lays this Blame on Pompey. De Bello Civili, lib. iii. ch. 17. especially when they ruth in upon one another with Vi gour, increafing their Courage by the Shouts and the Career, rendering the Soldiers Ardour, as one may say, more cool and firm. This is what he fays, on this Side of the Question; but if Cæfar had come by the worse, why might it not as well have been urged by another, on the contrary, that the ftrongest and most fteady Pofture of Fighting, is that wherein a Man ftands planted firm, without Motion; and that he who makes a Halt upon a March, by confining, and referving his Force within himfelf for an Occafion, has a great Advantage against him who is fhocked, and who has already fpent half his Breath in running on to the Charge? Befides, that an Army being a Body made up of fo many different Parts, it is impoffible for it to move, in fuch Fury, with fo exact a Motion, as not to difturb or break the Order of Battle, and to hinder the moft forward Men from being engaged, before their Comrades can relieve them. In that unnatural Battle, betwixt the two Perfian Brothers, Clearchus, the Lacedæmonian, who commanded the Greeks of Cyrus's Party, led them on in fine Order, and without Hurry, to the Charge; but coming within fifty Paces, put them up on full Speed, hoping, in fo fhort a Career, to keep them both in Order and Breath, and, at the fame Time, giving the Advantage of Impetuofity both to their Perfons and their missile Arms: Others have fettled this Question in their Army thus: If your Enemy come running upon you, ftand firm to receive him; if he ftand firm to receive you, run full drive upon him *. Whether it is beft for a Prince to wait for his Enemy in his own Territory, or to go and attack him upon his Territory. In the Expedition of the Emperor Charles the Fifth into Provence, King Francis might have chofe, either to go meet him in Italy, or to expect him in his own Dominions; wherein, though he confidered of how great Advantage it was to keep his own Territories clear from the Troubles of War, to the End that his Strength being intire, he might continually fupply Men and Money at Need; that the Neceffity of War requires, at every Turn, to fpoil and waste the Country, which A a 4 Book I. which cannot well be done upon one's own; and that the Country People do not easily digeft fuch Havock by those of their own Party, as from an Enemy, so that Seditions and Commotions might, by fuch Means, be kindled amongst us; that the License of Pillage and Plunder (which are not to be tolerated at Home) is a great Eafe to the Sufferings of War; and that he who has no other Profpect of Gain, than his bare Pay, will hardly be kept upon Duty, when but two Steps from his Wife, and his own Houfe: That he who lays the Cloth, is ever at the Charge of the Feast: That there is more Alacrity in attacking than defending; and that the Shock of the Lofs of a Battle in our own Bowels, is fo violent, as to endanger the Diffolution of the whole Body, there being no Paffion fo contagious, or that fo eafily gains Ground, as Fear; and that the Citizens who fhould hear the Rattle of this Tempeft at their Gates, that should take in their Captains and Soldiers, yet trembling and out of Breath, would be in Danger, in this Combuftion, to precipitate themselves upon fome untoward Refolution: Notwithstanding all this, he chofe to recall the Forces he had beyond the Mountains, and to wait for the Enemy. For he might, on the other Hand, imagine, that being at Home,. and amongst his Friends, he could not fail of Plenty of all Manner of Conveniencies; the Rivers and Paffes of which he was Mafter, would bring in both Provifions and Money fafe, without the Trouble of Convoy; that he should find his Subjects the more affectionate to him, the nearer their Danger was; that having fo many Cities and Barriers to fecure him, it would be in his Power to haften or delay Battle, as he faw fit; and if the latter pleafed him, that he might, under Covert, and at his own Eafe, see his Enemy founder, and defeat himself with the Difficulties he was certain to encounter, in an Enemy's Country; where, before, behind, and on every Side, War would be made upon him, and where he would have, in case of a Sickness in his Army, no Means to refresh himself, or to enlarge his Quarters, or to lodge his wounded Men in Safety: No Money, no Victuals, but what he fights for; no Leifure to halt and take Breath, no Knowledge of the Ways Ways or Country, to fecure him from Ambushes and Surprizes; and, in cafe of lofing a Battle, no poffible Means of faving the Remains. Neither is there want of Examples in both thefe Cafes. Scipio thought it much better to go and at- Inftances for 'tack his Enemy's Territories in Africk, than to and against the stay at Home to defend his own, and to fight Queflion. him in Italy, where he was; and it fucceeded well with him: But, on the contrary, Hannibal, in the fame War, ruined himself, by abandoning the Conqueft of a foreign Country, to go and defend his own. The Athenians having left the Enemy in their own Dominions, to go over into Sicily, were not favoured by Fortune; but Agathocles, King of Syracufe, found her favourable to him, when he went over into Africk, and left the War at Home. So that the common Obfervation is juft, that Events, especially in War, do, for the moft Part, depend upon Fortune, who will not be governed by, nor submit to human Prudence; according to the Poet. Et male confultis pretium eft, prudentia fallax, Prudence deceitful and uncertain is, Ill Counfels fometimes hit, where good ones miss But, to take the Thing right, it should seem that our Counfels and Deliberations depend as much upon Fortune, as what we do; and that fhe engages our very Reasoning in her Uncertainty and Confufion. We argue rafhly and adventurously, fays Timaus in Plato †, by Reason that, as well as ourselves, our Arguments have great Participation with the Temerity of Chance. * Manil. Aftron. lib. iv. ver. 85, c. + Plato, in Timæus, p. 528. CHAP. 3 The Horfes CHA P. XLVIII. Of the War Horfes called Deftriers. Defriers why fo called. Horfes to change in the midst of a Race. B EHOLD I am become a Grammarian I who never learned any Language but by rote, and who do not yet know Adjective, Conjunction, or Ablative. I think I have read, that the Romans had a Sort of Horfes by them called Funales, or Dextrarios, which were either Led-Horfes, or Horfes laid in at several Stages, to be taken fresh upon Occafion; and thence it is, that we call our Horfes of Service, Defriers: And our Romances commonly use the Phrafe of a Romans Deftrer for Accompagner to accompany. They alfo called defultorios equos those Horfes that were trained in fuch Sort, that running Horfes, full Speed, Side by Side, without Bridle or Saddle; the Roman Gentlemen armed at all Points, would fhift, and throw themselves from the one to the other, in the midft of the Race. The Numidian Gens d'Arms, had always a LedHorfe in one Hand, befides that they rode upon, to change in the Heat of Battle: Quibus, defultorum in modum, binos trahentibus equos, inter acerrimam fæpe pugnam in recentem equum ex fesso armatis, tranfultare, mos erat. velocitas ipfis, tamque docile equorum genus*. i. e. Whose Use it was, leading along two Horfes, after the Manner of the Defultorum, armed as they were, in the Heat of Fight, to vault from a tired Horse to a fresh one; fo active were the Men, and fo docile the Horfes. There are many Horses trained up to help their Riders, fo as to run upon any one that appears with a drawn Sword, to fall both with Mouth and Heels upon any that front or oppose them: But it oft falls out, that they do more harm to their Friends than their Enemies, befides that you cannot loose them from their Hold, to reduce them again into Order, when they are once engaged; by which Means * Liv. lib. xxiii. c, 29. Tanta you |