losse their Fleet had newly suffered it saw powerfull preparations in Holland which threatned the Low Countries and a formed tempest which it could not conjure down In a word Milan lost Naples could not be preserved and Flanders would have been lost of it selfe in shutting up that passage from whence it received its principall supplies to make Warre And neverthelesse this great power which gave fear to so many powers which was formidable even to the Turks and Barbarians of Affrica which is fatall to the rest of Christian Nations which obliged all of them to be with us or against us Had been beaten with that single stroake and we had nothing more within to fear when the springs of our troubles had been stopped without and the Instruments broak which make and nourish our divisions and humbled th' Authors or Promoters of our civill discords These were the thoughts that in that time exercised the spirits of many persons and particularly of th' Italians and as 't is the custome of men t'accommodate their thoughts to their interests and to flatter themselves in their desires they imagined that ours were like theirs Though in that poynt our Interests were disagreeing But also on th' other part who shall consider that men must not spend their time about setting their haire or paring their Nailes when th' Heart and the Brain are sick That great States never perish by a Forraign violence so long as th' Interiour is in health and th' Entrails sound and that they ruine of themselves when the corruption is within and th'Evill hath seised upon the Noble parts That in long Warrs abroad a Prince ought not t' engage himselfe when the Diversion is ever ready within and that ther 's a formed feaction in the middle of the State which will not fail to disturb for to prevaile of th' Occasions That the discontented will foment if they dare not publique assist and to whom strangers will give heat or forces to disturbus by our selves For to consume us at easie Chargges and alwaies to weaken us either by losse or victory Who shall consider I say these things will avow that the Returne of the King into Languedoc was a stroake of the gaine of the decision of our Domestique Affairs the good of Forraign Affairs Furthermore Could a greater misfortune befall us then to lose the occasion of finishing the Ruine of a party that hold France in Languishment more then sixty years had reduced it to a State equall to that of certain persons who know not what health is but are alwaies busie either t'heal th'evills they suffer or to present them they feare The conjucture past It was probable it would not returne of a long time and that 't was to no purpose t' hope or expect it It was so contrary to that party that it could not but be relieved from Germany that laboured to defend its proper Liberty That England was wearied in protecting an ill cause That th' Hollanders durst not irritate France openly by reason of th' use they have of it and that they have learned to regulate their Charities by their Interests and the Zeal of Religion by the Zeal of State That the Spaniards had greater action in Flanders Italy than they could master and could not act against us but with a little Money with vain promises In the third place The Reputation of the Kings Armes was incredible it could alone make conquests It could overcome without fighting and never Prince was better served of his Souldiers or more feared of his Enemies Our Souldiers were in heat and full of hope The past victories were certain arguments of future and after the taking of Rochell forceing of Suza overcomming what was defended by Sea and covered with mountains They ought not t' apprehend any thing impossible nor any thing difficult It was then the only proper season to defeat that party which Sr. the Cardinal most judicially observed and the King most divinely made choyce of If that expedition had been longer deferr'd the plague alone had been sufficient to force us from Languedoc and to defeat our Armies and if we had been engaged in Italy what had not Monsieur of Rohan don with the Aid of strangers which had not failed him If the Spaniards who ever promise timely and almost without deliberation who performe slowly and after long consultations but who spare nothing when they are well engaged in a businesse and have put those that serve them in a condition not to be able to repent or unable t' unsay it If the Spaniards I say had performed the conditions of the Treaty they had made with him and furnished the Money they had promised If the forces of Savoy had passed into Danphine to joyne with him as the resolution was taken If ours had been divided within and without the Kingdome and if th' hope of Change and Expectation of a better fortune had withdrawne from their duty them of that party which feare retained He had without doubt broken all our designes because they were destitute of its Advantages frustrated of forraigne promises Abandoned of the soundest and most Considerable party of Hugonotes in the poverty of all them that aided him and in the distrust of some and irresolutions of others In certaine Corners of a Province where he commanded He gave so much trouble that the presence of the King was necessary and six Armies to reduce him Moreover 't is a great discourse to speak of the Conquest of Milan and to renew beyond that Mountaines the pretentions of our fathers T is a designe which well deserves Consideration before it be attempted and requires another Conjuncture than that wherein we are found For who is ignorant that t is not for the good of France nor th' Interest of Italy that the King be Duke of Milan Who knows not that our Conquests if we should Maintaine them would give greater jealousie to the Princes of that Country then the domination whereof they complaine That they esteeme us worse Masters and more dangerous Neighbours then the Spaniards are more Conformable unto their Flegme and severity than our Heat and License That they believe that we are a more certaine and assured Counterpoyse to th' Ambition of others than they would be to ours That the facility we have to make our Armies descend into their Countrey and th' aboundance of men to relieve them might give the desire of undertaking and usurping it That th' occasion stirres up the most lazie and raiseth the most sleepy That present objects do raise all the faculties and that Commodity and Conveniency provoke th' Appetite of Conquest which is otherwise moderate and quiet And though th' Ambition of the Spaniards hath neither Moderation nor bounds That they desire violently and desire Many things That in th' order of their Counsells which neither change nor dye They have declared the warr t' all Nations which hold not of them by subjection or dependency since this
difference nor measure to their civilities and treating with the same honours and complements the persons of small merit and base condition oblige not so much the one as they wrong th 'others Neverthelesse if I am not deceived I doe exercise such a moderation in speaking of Popes and so well support what is of Gods institution in condemning what proceeds from the weaknesse and from the corruption of man that I am so farre from beleeving my selfe guilty of blame that I think without vaunt to have merited somewhat from the Holy Chayre if without passion judgement be passed upon me Howsoever if I flatter my selfe in my apprehensions and if the love of my worke deceives me I submit with a compleat submission to the judgement of Superiours and of them who have power to regulate my opinions and to impose lawes upon my understanding What they shall condemne I condemne it I doe now retract what they shall not esteeme good and I have not so little of Christianity as not to know that t is better to obey and exercise a necessary vertue then to make a noyse in the world and gaine a vaine reputation of spirit in defending an ambiguous Opinion Let this be said in passing-by and by way of prevention As for the Examples which make out th' other part of the matter of this work I advise thee Reader that if the Authors from whom I have taken them are deceived I will not be their security If I have mistaken my selfe in what I have taken from them I confesse freely that that fault is voluntary that 't is a defect for which a remedy might have been found in consulting with knowing men or bookes but that I have not done it for want of leisure or industry If any person take it ill that I doe make so frequent use of Spanish Examples I beseech him to consider that I doe it for two or three reasons The first that its the French humour to be more sensible of strange things than them of their country The second in so much that they will serve the more to make knowne the Conduct of the Spaniards which is a necessary knowledge to the Agents of other Princes since that Nation holds other Christian nations in perpetuall exercise and obligeth them to be with her or against her The third insomuch that speaking generally that Nation understands th' Art to governe and command men better then any Nation in the world If I speak in many places with prayse of S. the Cardinall bee it considered apart from the interest of any person that I take nothing from another to give to him That I do attribute alwaies to the King the chiefe glory of good successe That I doe represent him as the principall and first cause of the good fortune of France and that the prayses which I give to S. the Cardinall are applyed unto him in such a manner that they rebound neverthelesse upon the King That I condemne not in particular any living person That I commend others whom J meet with in my discourse who deserve it and give honour to vertue wheresoever I finde it That I doe report what passed under the Government of that great Minister of State by way of Example and as I doe relate the Actions of a Ferrand Gonsalve or of a Gaston of Foix of a Prince of Parma or of a Duke of Guyse that I adde nothing to th' Actions that I speake not but of the things wee have touched and seene whereof our senses are Judges and whereunto all Nations give Evidence I doe but reason upon it let it be examined whether my reasonings are weake and ill grounded and if they who take offence have better Moralls and better Politiques then mine I doe not pretend to hinder them of the light or of the value they shall put upon them with these Precautions It cannot be thought strange that I prayse a Person who hath rendred so great Services to the King which are known to all the world who hath so much merited of the State and of Religion that our Neighbours and they that love us not have an infinite esteeme for him and that he is my Master It remains to speake of the forme of the Worke which is the style Whereupon Reader I doe timely advise thee that I am not enflamed with eloquence That I have laboured Things more then Words That I have not read Quintilian nor the Rhetorique of Aristotle unlesse it be that part where he speakes of the passions of Men and of the affections of divers Ages And therefore if there be any thing that relishes of this Art know that it entred by chance and slipped in by accident That 't is a plant that growes of it selfe and without being set and that I have done like the needle of a Watch which markes the howers without knowing of it Notwithstanding I confesse that I have not neglected to give it ornaments after my fashion that 's to say naturall and that I had strewed more flowers if J had had them or more leasure to have gathered them Thou mayst finde there some inequality and some places that are not so strong or so well digested as others But 't is that all the matters or the manner wherewith they ought to be handled are not capable of the same force and graces Forgoes much better when the subject carries us and that we have wind and tide then when we cannot move but by the strength of Armes and Oares And the Maisters of fortifications say that there are places upon the Earth which cannot be made strong not for want of Art but by reason of the vitious platforme and situation I beseech thee also not to start back at th' Entry and at the reading of the first discourse which hath some Rudenesse in it whereof I am very sensible and which is not sufficiently polished nor adorned THE MINISTER OF STATE First Book First Discourse That An Excellent Minister of State is an Evidence of the Fortune of a Prince and the Instrument of the happinesse of a State IN the course of Affairs 't is certain that Designes onely are in the power of man and that all Events are disposed by some Power above him and which being infinitely wise doth nothing by Chance Th'hazard to which so many things are attributed is a work of our brain and none of the Principles of governing the World All things are guided without our help in Light and Justice and the blind goddesse that is called Fortune is a fancy which Philosophy hath not adored and Religion hath abolished in the destruction of Idolatry Th' invention neverthelesse hath not been unprofitable The miserable charge the causes of their misery upon it and th' imprudent th' effects of their ill conducts Her name is in the mouths of all persons the wise and unwise do equally employ it and use is made of it sometimes to be the better understood and not to depart from a received custome nor
and ill of the times had divided into three parts was reduced under the dominion of Augustus by the Counsell of Mecaenas and by the Valour of Agrippa Justinian triumphed over Persia and destroyed the Vandals in Africa and the Goths in Italy by the aide of Bellisarius and Narcete The Count of Dunois Pothon the Hire and the Mayde Jane delivered France from the invasion of the English And the first Man of the past-age of whom it may truly be reported that he was too happy for a Christian Prince hath by his conduct or with the ayde of his Ministers of State taken Rome and Thunis a Pope a King of France given chase to Salyman and made it appeare to Germany that it was to be conquered That very Prince who was so intelligent in all things and had added so many acquired qualities to the gifts of nature tooke the liberty to tell his Son in presenting to him the Secretary Eraso that he gave him some-what that was greater than his States and than the Crownes which he had resigned unto him By such sort of persons Principalities and Monarchies have been first founded And for the love of them the people have voluntarily renounced their Liberties and they are the persons who renew also under their Soveraigns the naturall and primitive order of command and of that obedience which is amongst men And truly 't was very reasonable since a difference ought to be made amongst them that Merit should begin to make it The Society to which they are born and without which they cannot subsist is a Consort so delicate and a Fabrick composed of so many pieces that if it be not guided by a dextrous prudence and maintained by a soveraign vertue a very little thing confounds and disorders it And insomuch that they who attain to such a condition are Extraordinary but not Immortal and have not alwaies successors of their virtue as they have of their dignity It happens ordinarily that they leave in favour of the people a representation of their reason and as a Monument of their Philosophy The Laws and good Orders And again because all Laws are not good in all times and that they cannot provide against all occurrences and the accidents of life 't is necessary that he raise also some wise Person whose prudence may supply the defects and give them such a just temper and wholesome proportion as may best fit the Time Men and Affairs 'T is then a most certain truth that good Ministers of state are the glory of their Princes and happiness of the people on the contrary the wicked are the shame of throne and dispair of th' other They are the naturall principles of the Corruption of States all ill humours are awakened under their conduct they serve for pretence to the spight of discontented and to the disturbance of factious persons and the people who are troubled to permit the Government of honest men are carried to License and enclined to Rebellion when they fall under the power of those who are dishonest It seems to them that 't is enough to have one Master to whom necessary obedience ought to be paid and whose yoak God doth oblige them to carry how grievous soever it be made but to obey them who are not their Soveraigns when they do them hurt when they triumph in their vexations and nourish themselves in their blood 'T is a sad necessity for them and a hard essay of patience In effect If Aristotle hath defined a Tyrant to be The person who hath his peculiar interest more before his eyes then the good of his subjects Into the hands of how many Tyrants do the miserable people fall when they are governed by corrupt Ministers of State and neverthelesse 't is a Flayl which they seldom want And as the Prince looks upon the State as a Wife that belongs to him and which cannot be taken from him There are Ministers of State to be found who cast their eyes upon it as a Mistress whom they endeavour to strip naked whilst they do enjoy her Second Discourse That th' art to govern is doubtfull and difficult and receives a great reliefe from Learning 'T Is not strange that so few honest men are found in the frequent occasions of sinning not that the knowledge of governing should be so rare when 't is so difficult The reason of State which is the matter is so perplexed and ambiguous and th' affairs have so many lights which confound our sight that 't is no wonder if we are often troubled to chuse our party and if the choyce made in so great a confusion be rather a stroak of chance and triall of our liberty than a rational election Moreover the greatest part of politick precepts which are left us and reduced into a forme of science are such abstruse things that if Nature or Experience give not the art of Application they become pernicious or vain instead very often of making an able man they make onely a Pedant they communicate presumption rather then wisdome they make many to wander rather then discover unto them the nearest way and for an uncertain reformation which they promise they confound and alter all things by the novelties they introduce The way also by Examples is so deceitfull and the past makes so ill a judgement of the future that no certainty can be raised out of it And as two Faces equally beautiful or two Dayes of compleat resemblance are rarely seen so the condition of affairs is alwaies various where the Vertue of the persons that mannage them is not alike nor their fortune equall And again as there 's not much cause for him to deliberate who hath not two faces nor a party to follow nor reasons to dispose him There are none also who want examples and accidents to favour them The Pope the Duke of Milan and the King of Naples make a league against Florence To divert the tempest Larance of Medicis seeks the last casts himself at his discretion and by that brave confidence withdrawes him from the league and prevents the lightning that was ready to fall and might have burned his Country Charles the eighth entred Italy like a Torrent which drowned all that it encountred nothing made resistance and Florence that was on his way trembled for fear of her liberties In this fatall fear and consternation of spirits Peter of Medicis Son of Larance goes to meet the victorious and casts himselfe unhappily into his nets Th' example which he would have followed was destructive to him and he returned not till he had put the keys of the States of the Common-wealth into our hands till the Country way plundred of all without and in danger to be lost if the generosity of the Citizens had not been greater than the resolution of Charles and than the fortune of that unwise Conqueror When the Sr. of Lautree undertook th' enterprise of Naples Hugo Moncado resolved to defend onely the City and to abandon
a person Th' End of that enterprise exceeded all that could have been desired of good success Our friends were delivered and the Rout of our Enemies compleated the Victory which we sought not but in their retract After the first passage of Suza could Montferrat be trusted in surer or more esteemed hands then those of Sr. of Thorax And again as fortune had pre-prepared him that Occasion and reserved him for the defence of Casal and to confirm th' Honour he hath gained in Rhe It seeems also that by a certain fatality Sr. of Chombert had been destined to go to relieve him the second time and to compleat the Glory of that Siege by the safety of that place In those last Emotions of Italy did not the King appear admirable in the choice of the men which he imployed there And though Policy permits not many Chiefs of equall Authority in an Army He understood neverthelesse so well to discern the just proportion of their humours and the necessary Temper to conserve Concord amongst them that he joyned and changed them to so good purpose that it may be his service was advanced by that plurality and his Armies were the more happy And when the passage was to be opened for our Troops for the Reliefe of Casal and the resistance of Armies to be forced which opposed it To whom could that design be more rationally committed Monsieur Mount Moraney than to them who have executed it What might not be expected from that Lord who came into the world lighted with the virtue of his Ancestors and Crowned with their Glory who laboured so much to improve that immortall Inheritance who is not so absolute in th' Armies he commands by his Authority as by th' Affections of the Men of War That Love makes more men follow him in perillous occasions then Duty who shews to others the way of doing well and whose example would inspire the strongest passions into the most fearfull souls Veillane and Carignan shall be for ever famous by th' effects of their Valour and by that of th' other Marshal Monsieur Feat who accompanied them with his Courage and Prudence and made himselfe to be no lesse considerable in War than in Peace nor in the Field than in the Cabinet Above all 't is a thing worthy of Consideration and a particular mark of the Kings judgement and of the wisdom of his Councill in leaving the Marshall of Force constantly in Italy and in making that Army as the foundation of our Armies in that Country and him the Director of the War Age which ruines th' Active Qualities of so many other persons offended not his old Age which chils the blood did not diminish his Valour 'T is a habit which had not in him its Original from th'heats of the Body but in the lights of Reason and he was as bold when there was cause as he was ever wise His long and ancient experience and the good sense wherein he naturally abounded permitted him not to commit any fault He knew the Spaniards too well to fall into their snares and into a surprise by their Deceits and with the Companions which the King gave him There was nothing to be feared and all good successe was to be hoped from his Conduct It must not be forgot that Sr. the Cardinal considers not onely Merit in the choice of them whom he proposeth but would also have good Birth if it be possible That things may be acted with Glory and that the reputation of affairs might improve by the Dignity of the Persons who manage them He is very far from th' humour of a certain King who made his Physicism his principall Counsellor And from the humour of another who made his Chirurgion enter into the Councill of State and permitted the same hands to handle the Seals which had newly quitted the Razour and Launcet wherefore the Nobility is more imployed in Negotiations then heretofore it was They who lead Armies or help to make War are called to manage Treaties of Peace and the suspensions of Arms And 't is true that ordinarily th' affairs do prosper well in their hands because they are usually bolder in Action and have the sense lesse sophisticated than persons of the long Robe The Sixth Discourse That a Minister of State ought not to forme his Conduct by the Example of strangers and that be ought to treat with them after a Different Manner THere 's nothing so universall in the world as Diversity and it seems that God hath affected it to shew his power by it and to render Nature fair The number of Angels as 't is said surpasseth the number of other Creatures But if the Schools would have believed St. Thomas the diversity of kinds which is amongst them had equalled the number of particulars and there had not been in those high and divine Hierarchies two Natures alike However insomuch that they conceived that the Dignity of the living Creatures encreased by the multitude of th'Individuals which composed them and that Philosophy hath sent back the Phoenix to the fables of the Poets who have sung of him as being alone The greatest part of the Schools have departed in that sense from the judgement of that Doctor whose opinions are so often adored by them Let 's go on The Varieties of bodies which issue from th' Elements were incredible if Nature had not submitted them to our sense and if Art did not discover unto us an infinity of Words which are made of a few Letters and an infinity of Figures which are drawn out of a small quantity of Colours And an infinity of Colours which are taken out of a small quantity of Drugs This is not all The divesity which Nature could not place in Essences she hath put to the forms which accompany them what she could not do to the principal she hath done to the Incidents and Accessaries and the conformity which is in the faces of men for to distinguish them from Beasts is changed by many Marks of dissemblance for to distinguish them from one another This Second Diversity proceeds from the first mixture of th' Elements which enters into the Composition of the Bodies from the virtue of Heaven and of the Stars which are therein predominant and from the quality of the Climate and of the place which have a great share in the Composition and in the Constitution of all things that are born That if the Compositions of bodies of the same kind are so divers for the Causes above mentioned How much greater ought the Difference to be which is found in the manners of men where th'Inclinations of the Body do interveyn the motions of Reason Examples from without and strange suggestions but above all th'Inclinations of the Body prevail and the strength of the Constitution Reason is very seldom heard Men live almost wholly by passion and as if the whole Man were but a lump the greatest part of them act but according to that party
County whose person was odious unto them and Conduct insupportable In brief for the love of them He overthrows the functions of Soveraignty and chose rather to receive the Law from his Catholique subjects than to be constrained to give it to the Heretique Rebells But he knew too late Nature of the people and their diseases And as 't is sometimes good when th' Appetite of Novelty is appeased which vexed it and tired with its owne disorders To bring it back with sweetness To give it liberty to retire from Evill with some shew of Reputation and to seem lesse Culpable then It was That nothing but force can reduce it when it begins to shake and is full of fancies of the future and of hopes of Change That to flatter them is to lose them when they are in that Humour and 't is then that they make themselves to be feared when the least Evidence of feare is discovered unto them Th' easiness of granting the first demands doth furnish them with boldness to make new ones The desire of evill is increased in giving them powers t' execute it and at last 'T is found that instead of a weak and irresolute Mutiny as it was A powerful enemy is made and an Irreconcilable persecutor I handle this Matter very particularly in the second part of this work So 't is that Philip fell into th' Inconveniency which he had a designe t' avoyd and he saw Religion perish and his Subjects of the Low Countries to rebell for not using seasonable Remedies which might have wrought if they had been applied in season in employing Severity and Gentleness in counter time and in making too much or too little use of th' one or th' other It may be also that there was of Fate in th' Accident of that new Power and that God suffered it to rise in opposition to the Spanish Ambition and to stop with so small a thing that Torrent which threatned th' overflow of all his Neighbour-Countryes Our Kings also under whom Heresie hath risen have spoiled all in following violent Counsells They have allwayes either strained too much or slacked too much And as if they had been carried with Contrary windes They never knew how to take the Medium nor find the temper betwixt and Excessive Rigour and a too Loose Indulgency The shamefull Peaces accorded in divers times tho th' Hugunots sad Edicts made in their favour declare cleerly what spirit acted in France and that there was no need of fighting Battails nor of the burning of Townes for to put things in the State they were before the warr On th' other side the violent designes and bloody Resolutions which were taken t'ill purpose have been the fruits of Spanish Counsells and of I alian suggestions Th' impatience which some had to see our Miseries finished have retarded the Cure in making too great haste And th' hopes which others had to make profits of them hath been the Cause that they enflamed more and prepared a long and new Matter for our Discords which were of Advantage to them Th' Execution of St. Bartholomew is a work of their spirit they glory that their King had a particular hand in it and that the Duke of Alva did advise it in his journey to Bayone I will not discourse of the nature of the Action which found even Catholique spirits divided and their opinions different to approve or condemn it Th' Incertitude wherein they alwaies were in what manner King Charles concurred whether by pretension or by a pure designe and the particular resentment of a Prince which ingaged with the Zeal of publique good are the cause that no judgement can be made thereof but what may be dangerous or rash I suspend mine also to rest me upon the success which was not conforme to th' Hopes were had of it And were it that we knew not how to make use of our advantage or that th' Election of the Duke of Anjou for King of Polonia lost the fruits of the victory that was at hand or that God would not blesse an Action wherein it was presumed that the publique Faith whereof he was alwaies Protector was violated We have seen the Fire the more kindled which they thought had been put out by that bloud-letting and pretence given to cruelty to be animated against the Catholique bloud The Cardinall of Lorrain also made a great wound in the State and Church in being promoter of the discourse of Poissy After he had been so contrary to the Protestant Ministers The persons being of obscure birth and their Lives charged with faults who had been shaken by many Declarations and Edicts who had so often shun'd the Light for to save themselves in dark places and in Woods who had deliberated upon the Doctrine they published To bring forth I say this people to a day so glorious as the Cardinall had made it to draw them to so famous a Combate and to give them the meeting in the Field where they had him for Adversary and the King and the Princes for Spectators It must be confessed that he was much too blame and that it was to pass too dangerously from one extream to another He ought to have believed that it was a means to cherish them in Errour that were shaking and to confirme them that were irresolute That that Honour would excessively swell their heart That it would give them a greater Opinion of their persons and doctrines than they had before and would put those proud spirits into a condition never to Renounce the propositions so solemnly debated He might have believed that no jealousie is so violent as that which we take in favour of our Opinions And for the matter of Sect that come into the World Th' Authors ought to be gained before they are publiquely declared or else they must be destroyed But when they had overcome the first encounterd resistance and that apprehension which the greatnesse of their Enterprize gave them and that the uncertainty of the success was ceased The disease must take its Course of Necessity Hope and fear are weak Remedies against it and Man labours in vain If God doth not shew himselfe with a powerfull Arme to defend his own cause The example of Luther was fresh in memory and the causes of the miserable Schism in Germany known to all the World So long as Luther did only Hazzard his Doctrine and had no other designe but to cast out his spight and revenge the wrong he believed was done to them of his Order for not permitting them to preach as they were accustomed th' Indulgencies in the Duchy of Suxe It had been easie to have reduced him But after he had conferred with Cardinall Caietan That he had been heard of Charles th' Emperour and that Leon the tenth had fulminated against him He changed the passion Vanity succeeded cheller and th' honour to have to do with so great persons renders him irreconsilable In vaine after the Messengers of Paul
back to his Enemies And before the Battail of Garillan He answered him that would have diverted him from fighting and giving of Battail who presented unto him that he was weake in respect of us and the Match ill made betwixt his Army and ours That he knew of what importance that Daye 's Labour was to his Master's Affairs and that he was resolved to perish that day or overcome 'T is true then that there are Occurrences wherein somewhat is to be submitted to Fortune Where the lesse is to be hazarded to save the greater And where when the Question is of the whole Affair not onely a part of the Forces is to be hazarded but also the Generalls of th' Army and those precious heads which command so many other heads ought to take resolution rather to dye than see the Victory in th' Enemies hands and t' outlive it at their Losse So did Caesar in Spain at the Battell where the Children of Pompey were slaine and the rest of that miserable Common-wealth finished their dest uction so did Monsieur of Andelot when he defended Orleans against th' Army of the Duke of Guise So did the Prince of Parma at the siege of Antwerp after that the Hollanders were seized of one part of the Ditch that th'Engine which they made to play had made them flye which defended it Th' one and th' other run with Swords in their hands to the Danger both were then transported Declaring that he would dye if it were impossible for him t'overcome and made appeare by his action somewhat that savoured of despaire or rather of that excesse which Philosophy attributes to the Heroes and distills into the souls of extraordinary persons Th' example of that pathetique virtue and of that generous emotion was not barren The Souldiers that saw it felt the same heat and by that means some of them forced th' Enemies from the Town where they were far entred and others Recovered the Ditch where th' Hollanders began to fortifie after they were lodged in it Le ts conclude then with th'Examples of the greatest persons of Antiquity and with the first of the Moderne That the passage of our Army into th' Iland of Rhé was not projected by chance and without th' Advice of Reason That it hath not been th' Effect of a light troubled by ill successe and of a Discourse confused by ill fortune but of a Resolution illuminated by that high prudence which diversifieth its conduct according to the diversity of accidents which happen which shift sayles according t' th' nature of the Winds which Reign Which knows t' apply Remedies to the state of the Maladies which dares quit th' High-wayes when'tis expedient to take the By-paths and which guides not alwayes common virtues but sometimes inspires and gives birth t'Heroique persons The Fourth Discourse Of the Alliances of bloud which are practised amongst Princes and whether the King was well advised when he made that Allyance with England I Treat at large th'Allyances of State in the second part of this work and particularly of that we have with the Turke and with the Republique of Holland There I do cleer many Doubts which respect the Soul and take away the stones of offence whereat they strike who have not known the foundation and stumble for want of Light I give nevertheless nothing to conveniency that is contrary to justice and flatter not the conduct of them who submit all other Reasons to that of State I take nothing there from God to give it to Caesar I hold the just Balance and stay at the temper which God hath advised in the prudence of Serpents and the simplicity of Doves Here I have thought it expedient to speak of th' Allyances which are practised in the families of Princes to justisfie that which hath been made with England All the spirits that were formalized at it are not yet satisfied The Wounds which are shut up leave all wayes some marks Some maligne impression remains a long time after a poyson is driven away and ordinarily the opinions that are left part not so neatly but some impression remains On th' other side they that have observed the sequells of th' Alliance whereof we speak who have seen the Depraedations upon our Seas and th'Invasions of our Ilands and th' other enterprizes th' English have made upon us Who have understood that their Ministers of State manadged that business with poysoned hands that they did undermine us when they seemed to help us That they stretched the Cloath whereof they were after call'd Merchants and laid the foundation of the War which they made against us These I say have believed that there was somewhat wanting in the prudence of our Ministers of State and that th' house was ill built that fell so soon to Ruine Wherefore having discoursed of that Warr I thought this the proper place to speak of the Alliance which did precede it I say then that th' Alliances of bloud which are entertained amongst Princes serve very little to divert their designes or to change their Inclinations The dispositions they find in their spirits are there left They put up nothing but at most palliate them and suspend for some time th' Action of the Causes which they cannot take away And though it falls out otherwise in the Condition of particular persons no Consequence is to be drawne for that of Princes The Quality of Soveraignes which Princes sustaine hath priviledged Duties and begets passions to which all others are subalterne The King in this is above Man The Consideration of Parentage is inferiour to that of the State and th' Obligations of blood which are bounded in a few persons ought to give place to th' obligations of the Charge wherein an infinite of Persons are Interessed To that truly Princes need not to be Exhorted They are but too much carried to it naturally They ordinarily offend lesse against their Dignity by default then by excesse The love they have for it degenerates rather into Jealousie then into Idleness And if you would have them forsake their interests and the good of their affaires It must be under the shew of something that resembles it And 't is not the will that a Man ought to propose to himselfe to be gained but th' understanding which is by Endeavour to be seduced But 't is true that of too Extreams which bound the duty of Princes they carry themselves oftnest to th' Excesse and that the passion for Commanding preserves not onely what belongs to them but makes usurpations upon all the Rights of Reason upon all the priviledges of Humane Society and upon all the Respects which are brought by Relations Th' Examples are so ordinary that a Man must have seen or heard nothing to call it in Question I will not speak of what hath passed in the time of the Pagans nor of that Ambitious Roman who caused her Chariot to be drove over the Body of her Father to whose kingdome her Husband ought