they were members and the nixt file to it This hath farre lesse trouble in it and thogh it can convenientlie enough be done when the Enemie is in front yet it is most proper when he is in your reare The third way is when the first rank having fired stands still the second advanceth sixe foot before the first and fires and so the rest successivelie This according to my weak judgement is the best and hath least embarras in it bot onlie can be used when your Enemie is in your front observe that by all these three ways wherof I have spoke you gaine ground This fourth way which our Author prescrivs seems to me to have two inconveniencies inseparablie joynd with it The first is you onlie keep the ground you have bot gaines none and in the keeping it five parts of sixe of your fire-men look like supplicants and not like Combattants The second inconvenience is that unless your Souldiers by long practise be habituated to this New Mode these who kneel may readilie be more affrayd of the bullets of their fellows who stand behind them then of these of the Enemy who are at a farre greater distance before them for the nearer danger is with the more ouglie and dreadfull aspect it looks This fear which is naturall to man may make Musketeers slow to rise from their kneeling posture and when they are up too slow to give fire Besides all this the Author gives us no rule how ranks shall fire if an enemie be behind them it seems he conceaves Victorie is so entaild to his Masters armies that they need not provide for a retreate for if an enemie chance to be in their reare I suppose none of their ranks must kneele unless it be to beg quarter FRENCH AUTHOR All the ranks before the skirmish renues must be closed up to sixe foot distance Animadversion THe French Original hath it deux pas two paces I doe not thinke the Author meant two paces each of them of five foot ten foot is too great a distance between ranks of Musketeers I suppose he intended two ordinarie steps and the Translator hath done well to make them sixe foot Bot why close up to sixe foot distance were they ever at a greater distance I believe not I will once more put the Author in mind of his own rule concerning distances given by him in the fourth section of the forming his Battaillon in which he orders the Major or Adjutant to observe that the due distance of files when they are not exercising is onlie half a pace distance bot says he when they come to handle their armes or doublings they must open to a whole pace The like certainlie he meant of ranks In marching sixe foot of distance between ranks of Pikemen is necessare because the length of a Pike from a mans shoulder to the but requires no lesse Musketeers in marching requires not so much bot to keep a Decorum they must keep alike distance with the Pikes Since then the Author hath not told us when rankes either were or sould be at a greater distance then sixe foot and since other Tacticks have requird no greater distance why sould ranks before the skirmish beginne says the Author renue says the Translator ulose up to sixe foot distance And till it be explaind to me it is unintelligible FRENCH AUTHOR When they file of on a Bridge before an Enemie after the loose men have passed The Battaillon must be filed of by rank by the Center They must make quarter Conversions and half Conversions Animadversion WHy these two commands are joynd so close together I suppose be onlie known to the Author and some few of his friends to whom he hath reveald the misterie Whether must they make these conversions before they passe the Bridge or upon the Bridge or after they have pasd the Bridge A very hard matter to doe it I thinke in any of the three places thogh no enemie were near and yet here it must be done before an enemie If it be answerd that this command for conversions is generall hath no relation to the passing a Bridge then I say The Author plac'd it ill here It s proper place had been where he spoke of conversions both in his generall and particular exercise What hath conversions to doe with passing a Bridge I have now given the reasons of my dissent from some things of this French way of exercising the Infanterie Notwithstanding whereof I think the Authors invention is to be commended and I sould have imagined that most of his novelties had been practisd onlie within the walls of Paris or among the traind Bands of France if there be any there if the title page of the Book had not told me they are practisd in the armies of his most Christian Majesty Yet for all that I am of the opinion that since the time the Author wrote this peece to this very day the French Kings armies have been so hotlie imployed that they have had bot litle leisure to make use of all his new motions The Author might if he had pleasd have made his Battaillon sixteen deepe as well as eight and therby not onlie have drilld it by quarter files as well if not better bot also have imitated the Macedonian Phalanx which was constantlie composd of sixteen ranks and so have represented to his soldiers the forme divisions and subdivisions of that Battaillon And because many of his motions are meerlie for show and since for such a trifle as is that exercise by quarter files he thinks the deepth of a battel may be changed he might have cast his Battaillon in a Wedge in a Rhombe or Diamant in a Globe or Ring or in a Saw And so have represented to his Spectators the Figures of Battells used by the Antients which to my apprehension wold have been more delightfull to behold then any of his new Evolutions And once more if the deepth of Battaillons may be alterd as the severall fancyes of Drill-masters lead them they may if the Regiment consist of a thousand or a thousand twentie four men as many of our moderne Regiments doe order their files to consist of two and thirtie men and so their Battaillon shall be square of men and with some other rules of the square root they may make Battaillons square of ground doubled Battaillons and Battaillons large of front the art wherof everie Drill-master knoweth not and yet the sight and opening up the use of these thogh now out of fashion wold be of more profit and advantage to an attentive Soldier who minds his business and of more pleasure and delight to the curieous Beholder then any new thing any of them can see in this exercise Bot it will perhaps be answerd me that all these things I have mentiond are old and this Exercise is new and Novelties without all peradventure please best FINIS P. 17. l. 11. for sens read S'ens P. 17. l. 15. for may read way P. 20. l. 29. for methood read method P. 23. l. 18. for files of these ranks read no more bot files P. 24. l. 11. for please read pleased P. 24. l. 13. for leaders of half files read leaders of files P. 24. l. 14. for bringers up of files read bringers up of half files P. 31. l. 17. for vlose read close
of the Authors doublings by Leaders of files Leaders of halfe files and Bringers up of whole files by whole rankes halfe rankes and quarter rankes to the front and the reare of these of the middle to the wings and of the wings to the middle which middle The Translator renders constantlie The Center I hope not a Geometricall one and both of them Inwards are in may be all of them prettie for show bot not the halfe of them for use As to the conveniencie of them let it be considerd that those of them that are most for use are most easie for the Drill-master to teach and the Souldiers to learne wheras these that are meerlie for show are more difficill both to teach and to learn As to the Exercise by quarter files I suppose these Officers who understand it or thinke they doe so will find worke enough to instruct their Souldiers in it and certainlie much time will be spent before they make them capable to obey readilie and perfectlie the severall commands that belong to it How little it serves for use may be known by this that you must alter the deepth of your battell before you can practise it and the Author himselfe tells you the Battaillon must be eight deepe the reason is cleare because the quarter of that file which is composd of sixe men is one and a halfe and Drill-masters must not be permitted to devide a man in two halfes To prove that this Exercise by quarter files can not be made use of before an Enemie thogh he be at a great distance will be needless labour for I suppose it will not be denyed by the Author himselfe or any of his Abettors yea I thinke he tacitlie grants it when he says nothing of it in his particular Exercise for the foot where he speaks of things necessare and ordinare in encounters And yet in former times it hath beene layd downe for a ground that practise before an Enemie is the ultimate end of all militarie Exercises The antient Romans a people that deserved imitation exercisd their soldierie everie day summer and winter yet everie point of their exercise was not onlie frequentlie bot punctuallie practisd before an enemie which made the Jewish Historian Josephus say that the militarie Exercises of the Romans were bloodless Battels and their Battels were bloodie Exercises This exercise by quarter files cannot be made use of bot in these Bodies the quarters of whose files terminats in an equall number of men therfor you can not exercise by quarter files when your file is ten deepe as all the Infanterie of Europe was fiftie years agoe because the fourth part of ten is two and a halfe nor can you doe it when your file is sixe deepe as most if not all Europaan foot now are because the fourth part of sixe is one and a halfe and yet both ten and sixe are equall numbers Let it be a rule to those who exercise by quarter files that That equall number whose quarter terminats in an equall number is a number proper for them and onlie proper for them such are 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40. Bot the nixt equall number to any of these will not serve their turne a 10 14 18 22 26 30 34 and 38 because the quarters of all these terminates in an unequall and od number or rather in a number and the halfe of an unite as the quarter of 14 is 3 ½ the quarter of 22 is 5 ½ the quarter of 26 is 6 ½ and so of all the rest These who intend to make use of this exercise for show for I hope it pretends to nothing of necessitie had need to keepe constantlie the same men in these same rankes and files wherin they were when they were first exercised that way for if any of them be changd from their former stations The Drill-master shall have a new worke to beginne againe with them As by example The first and second men in the file make one quarter of it The third and fourth make the second quarter The fifth and sixth make the third and the seventh eight make the fourth quarter of the file Now if the men who have stood it may be sixe or seven dayes in one and the same place of the file have cund somthing of this abstruse Doctrine that is lecturd to them doe not change them or their stations If you doe your former labour is lost you must beginne againe because you have neither the Leaders nor followers of quarter files that you had before It is not so in the old and ordinare commands of exercise the performance wherof is with much lesse difficultie And trulie in this quarter-file exercise as the Author descrives it Officers wold not onlie be of a quick apprehension to understand all the hard words of command used in it bot they wold likewise have very tenacious memories to retaine them and these who have not I sould advise to exercise by booke bot then what shall become of the Souldiers that cannot read And thogh they could yet have no lessons writ for them how to obey these difficill commands Indeed I wold have lookd upon it as a charitable act of the Author and yet no more as what he was bound to doe both to have set down rules how all his new orders sould be obeyed and figures representing them all to the eye This all Tacticks and Masters of exercise before him thought themselvs obligd to doe In this he had done himselfe much right for then he had not left the rarities of his Invention to be misunderstood by the weake apprehensions of vulgar capacities who cannot reach his meaning I professe ingenuouslie that after some studie I fancy I have the Ideas of these motions or notions call them which you will in my head bot nixt morning I am to seek them nor can I find them till I find my Booke and then I must studie them de novo Let other Officers Drill-masters and Souldiers have as much braine as they will sure I am they have got worke enough cut out for them And that Reader of a Countrey Church who durst not hazard to read the names of Shadrach Meschah and Abednego for feare he sould not pronounce them distinctlie bot gravelie calld them the three Gentlemen with the difficill names wold rather have quitted his office then adventured either to give or receave these hard words of command of this exercise Take two of them for example Quarter files in front and reare take care To the right and left Quarter files of the front and reare double your ranks in front and reare upon the quarter files of the Center on the wings March march And within a litle Quarter files in the Center take heed to your selvs To the right and left Quarter files in the Center double your ranks in front and reare on the quarter files of the front and reare inwards March march Certainlie these words are so long
one time If it be said the Lieutenants are to be with the pikes when the Battaillon is forming bot when it is formed they may be otherwise disposed of to shun contest I am content to be so charitable though I see no reason for it to beleeve the Author meant so bot then I say why takes he so much notice of the first and last Lieutenants and tells us nothing where the rest of them shall have their stations whether still with the pikes which most probablie he meanes or some more of them then two with the muskets which most rationallie he sould have meant or that he leaves the rest except these two to be individua vaga to wander where they please And indeed though he doe so with all of them I am sure I shall not fall out with him for the matter In the nixt place I desire it may be rememberd that in the eight section of the way to forme Battaillons the Author requires a Sergant to be at the wing of each division which in my animadversion on that section I reckond to be sixe in this section he requires the halfe of the Sergants to be with an Ensigney in the reare of the Pikes Now let us suppose there be in one Regiment ten Companies these have twentie Sergants allowd them of these the Author takes the halfe to wit ten and placeth them in the reare of the Pikes and sixe on the wings of three Divisions this is in all sixe teene there remaines then bot foure of the twentie to attend the reare of the Musketeers which being twice as numerous as the Pikes makes this Division of the stations of Sergants very disproportionable Sergants formerlie were obliged onlie to attend the wings Bot if the Author doth allow as he doth Sergants to be in the reare as well as on the wings I shall agree with him for I have oft wonderd why so necessare an Officer as a Sergant sould be pind to the flanks as I have seene too oft practisd Bot I will still dissent from him in allowing so many Sergants for the reare of the Pikes and so few for the reare of the Muskets till he make it appeare that Pikemen may break their ranks bot Musketeers cannot FRENCH AUTHOR The Drums shall be placed on the right hand and the left Animadversion IF he meane on the right and left hands of the whole Battaillon or Regiment I would gladlie know what they sould doe there I sould thinke it most consonant to reason not to speake of practise that when a Battaillon Brigad or Regiment is formd everie Officer among whom Drummers ordinarlie are reckond sould have his station assignd him in that place where he can doe best service whether they be to fight or to march Bot to what use Drums shall serve either on the right or left hands of the whole Battaillon and in no other place when they are either to fight or to march is a thing not so easilie understood Bot if the Author meane that Drums shall be placed on the right hand and the left onlie so long as the Battaillon is Exercising I say he was obliged to tell us at what distance on the right and left hand the Drums sould have their stations for I am sure The French Drill-masters will confesse that there be some motions of Exercise which will not suffer either Drummers or other people to be within a great distance of either right or left hand of the whole Battaillon As when halfe files are commanded either by halfe File-leaders or Bringers up of whole files to double the front of the Battaillon Entire or to the right and left hand by Division when this word of command is obeyd the Battaillon possesseth in front twice as much ground as it did before bot these halfe files can not performe this till they chace the Drums a great way from both the right and left wings of the Battaillon Bot before I part with this head of forming a Battaillon I shall take leave to say that I conceave The Author hath not said so much on it as he might at least not so much as he sould and consequentlie that his rules concerning it are Defective and because I am obliged to give reasons for my opinion I offer these first he hath not told us what Companie sould have the precedencie of another that is where the Lieutenant Collonels Musketeers and Pikes sould stand for I suppose he allows the Collonels the right hand where the Majors where the oldest Captaines where the youngest and where the rest that everie one of them may have their due according to their prioritie This is a point wherin there is neither custome nor law of warre universallie observed it being variable according to the pleasure of the Prince or State who wageth the warre or of their Generalls who mannageth it Secondlie he has not assignd to everie Officer belonging to the Battaillon their proper stations for thogh it may be soone knowne where the Officers of a private Companie fould stand so long as it is a Companie apart yet when the several Companies are incorporated in one Bodie the stations of the Officers are sensible changed as any who never saw a Battaillon bot in paper may easilie understand All he hath done in this so necessare a point is to tell us where the Ensigneys Sergants and Drums and the Lieutenants sould be and that in so confusd and unintelligible a way as I have demonstrated that he might better have said no more of them then he hath done of the Captaines and the three Field Officers Nor doe I imagine any man will be so litle the Authors friend as to say he needed not speake of these two points because they are knowne in the French Armies for by that reason he might have held his peace of very many things mentiond by him in his Booke which were not onlie knowne in France bot in most places of Christendome long before his Grand-father was borne To support these reasons given for my opinion I shall say further that a Battaillon Regiment or Brigad or give it what name else you please is formd for one of foure reasons These are either to be lookd upon and viewd by a Prince a General or some great Personage or to fight or to march or to Exercise In the first case it is very proper and convenient that everie Companie be placed according to its prioritie and everie Officer have his station assignd him according to his Dignitie In the three last cases those two points are not onlie convenient bot purlie necessare And therfor I conclude a Battaillon is not formd or not formd as it sould be where any of these two things are either omitted or forgot The Author haveing with many niceties formd his Battaillon as you have seene proceeds thus FRENCH AUTHOR The Generall Exercise for the Infanterie After haveing drawne the Regiment into Battailla they draw out the files of Halberdeers which are
they put not their Battaillons in an inextricable confusion then which an enemie can desire no fairer advantage As to that that the Pikes sould charge at the same time that the Musketeers make readie the originall hath it present their Pikes which the Translator as I observd before renders charge I know not to what purpose Pikes sould either present or charge when the Musketeers are either makeing readie or giving fire unless they be comd within the length of their Pikes of an enemie nor doe I thinke it convenient they sould for it is neither a necessare nor an easie posture for Pikemen to keep their Pikes presented the whole time they are advancing towards an enemie which I suppose both they and the firemen are bound to doe thogh all that while the Musketeers are either making readie or giving fire FRENCH AUTHOR To the right double your ranks in front ranks as you were To the left double your ranks in front ranks as you were To the right double your ranks in the reare ranks as you were To the left double your ranks in the reare ranks as you were Animadversion THis way of doubling ranks mentiond here is done thus The second ranke doubles the first the fourth the third and the sixth doubles the fifth for what use this doubling serves let these tell who are more in love with it then I am Is it necessare and usefull in encounters I trow not nor am I bound to take this Gentlemans word for it But waveing that question I affirme The Author hath committed two grosse errors in this one Paragraph First by mentioning onlie this way of doubling ranks after he had promisd to give us the Exercise of foot in things necessare and usefull he prefers it to any other way of doubling ranks wheras it may be done with more conveniencie and advantage by making either Leaders of halfe files or Bringers up of files to double ranks My reason is because thogh when by the last two ways ranks are doubled the files of these ranks are at a closer distance yet the ranks doubled keepe the same distance they had bot by this way of the Author not onlie files are at a closer distance bot the ranks doubled are at twice as great distance as they were before and so the more unserviceable The truth is the most advantagious way to double ranks is to make the last three halfe files by right and left hand double the three rankes that stand before them Entire or as this Author calls it on the wings for therby you not onlie keepe both your ranks and files at the same distance they were at before their doubling bot also you possesse twice as much ground in front as you did before your doubling His second error is that he orders ranks to double in the reare which must be done thus The first ranke doubles the second the third doubles the fourth and the fifth ranke doubles the sixth Assuredlie then the ranks doubled stand with their faces to the Drill-master bot the ranks doubling turne their backs to him and stand still with their backs to him for against this ridiculous posture the Author hath provided us with no word of command either before or after the doubling Bot to strike home the necessitie of doubling ranks in the reare must needs arise from the news you have of an enemies approach in your reare In this case you will resolve either to leave him or stand and fight him If the first I pray you trifle not away your time in doubling ranks either in front or reare If the second that you mind to fight then I suppose you will face your Battaillon to the reare whether you doe this by a Demy tour which is the best way or by a Countermarch which is not so good or by a halfe conversion which is the worst of the three is not the question here Bot the face of your Battel being changd that which was your reare is your front and what was your front is your reare and consequentlie your Collor's and Officers must change their places and stations If then you thinke it fit that ranks double you may doe it without bidding them double either to front or reare for by what I have said you may see that ranks must all wise double to the front bot never to the reare If you be please to consider this rightlie you will perhaps conclude with me that all the Authors doublings of ranks in the reare either by this may prescriv'd in this section or by Leaders of halfe files or Bringers up of files wherof he speaks in his generall exercise are not onlie needless useless and inconvenient bot redundant to call them no worse FRENCH AUTHOR The whole Bodie take care to Countermarch To the right by ranks Countermarch March halt to the right To the left by ranks Countermarch March Halt to the left Animadversion WHy not a Countermarch by files as well as by ranks The one is as necessare everie bit as the other And if he had said that neither the one nor the other was necessare or yet ordinarlie used in encounters I sould not at all have contradicted him Bot the Author in his generall Exercise speaks of Countermarches by files as well as by ranks So doe some others who write of exercising bot I wish that seeming difference were expunged out of all their Books for it does bot puzle a young Soldier when he hears or reads of two several Countermarches one by files and another by ranks and if his judgement be not subtiler then mine he will never distinguish them And indeed they are bot one thing files cannot countermarch bot ranks must doe it too nor can ranks countermarch bot files must doe it likewise Imagine a regiment of a thousand men drawne in battell on a Field wheron they may march a hundreth in breast That Bodie is drawne up ten deep in file and so there are one hundreth files and ten ranks It were superfluous nay ridiculous for the Colonell of that regiment to bid the ten ranks march or yet the hundreth files march because the one cannot move but the other must move also It is the very same thing in a countermarch And therfor in exercising Officers sould say no more bot To the right or To the left hand Countermarch without mentioning either file or ranke Countermarches in the dayes of old were on some occasions thought usefull till the force of Gun-powder made the performance of them before an enemie dangerous and consequentlie the command for it somthing Impertinent The old Graecians and other nations too made much use of them in their bodies of foot which were sometimes eight very oft sixteene deepe as also in their bodies of Horse which were foure five eight and sometimes ten deepe There were three kinds of those Countermarches The Macedonian The Laconian and the Persian which was also calld the Choraean All these three are still used in our Europaean