Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	day_n	king_n	time_n	2,754	5	3.4132	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75685	As you vvere, or the new French exercise of the infanterie ballanced with the old.		1674 (1674)	Wing A3917A; ESTC R223521	29,647	34

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