to consider it a litle I believe you will find it to be so Now when we say Order your armes The Souldiers set the buts of them on the ground the Pikemen hold their Pikes in their right hands just against their right ears The Musketeers lay their right hands on the barrills of their Muskets and so both of them leane on their armes and all leaning is repose therfor it is that I thinke Rest on your armes is more proper then Order your armes and set down your armes at your feet more proper then any of them Bot I doe not offer to introduce either new things or new words FRENCH AUTHOR Lay down your armes The Pikemen sticke their Pikes between their two legs Animadversion BOt if the ground be so hard that you cannot sticke your Pikes in it as in a dry summer and a frostie winter it will unquestionablie be I suppose you may lay your Pikes on the ground bot if you can stick them it will be more handsome and have the braver show Bot I mistake the French language if in the originall which I read it be not lay down your Pikes on the ground between your feet When Pikemen were formerlie orderd to lay down their Pikes they were taught by a turne of the right hand to lay the buts of their Pikes levell with the out-side of their right foot bot now that Monsieur will have us to lay them between our feet or stick them between our legs let it be so we need not fall out with him for the matter FRENCH AUTHOR Be readie to goe a la paille A la paille Which they are to doe when the Drum beats a charge and are to return when the Drum beats againe with their Swords in their hands and holding them above their heads when everie one is returnd to his place and when they are returned Returne your Swords handle your Armes Animadversion WHat a fanfare is all this To what purpose all this glancing show what can the business be Before this peece was Englished I read in the French originall A la paille bot did not know what it meant in exercise bot was hopefull The Translator wold have helped me Bot in him I meet againe with A la paille and with no English for it So both the Author and the Translator leave us to our conjectures For my part I thinke it is probable he intended no more bot what is usuall in exercises to permit the Soldiers after they had layd down their armes to goe recreate and refresh themselves under the name of a la paille and on the beating of the Drum to returne with drawn Swords to their other armes Secondlie A la paille in French is as much as To the straw is in English therfor it may be he intended that when the Battaillon is to encampe and the watch is set and the Regiment hath layd down their armes The Soldiers are commanded to goe look for straw and sticks for hutting and fuell And while they are about that worke if the Drum beate they are to draw their Swords in case of a sudden attack and therwith defend themselvs till they get back to their other armes If neither of these two conjectures of mine please you you may if you thinke it worthie your labour guesse your self the freedome to doe it can be denyed to neither you nor me FRENCH AUTHOR All sorts of change of fileings Take care in all changeings of filings that the siles be of even number and if there be found any supernumerarie files let them be formed into ranks in the reare of the Division Animadversion IN the first place what this Gentleman means by supernumerarie files in the plurall number I do not understand for I conceave in the greatest Battaillon that ever was or yet can be fancied to be there will be bot one odd file and why that one od file sould be called supernumerarie even in the singular number I know not od or uneven it may be bot supernumerarie it can not be for I doe not beleeve that any of the French Captains entertains more Soldiers then these the French Kings allows them wages for And if they have no supernumerarie Soldiers they will have no supernumerarie files As litle doe I understand why od files if there were any sould be made ranks in the reare for by that mean you shall increase the number of your ranks which sould be constantlie and perpetuallie the same and consequentlie adde to the deepth of your Battaillon which must not be permitted you or any under the Prince or his Generall Suppose you have one od file which may frequentlie fall out if you make a ranke of it in the reare of a Division then you make that Division seven deepe wheras it sould be bot sixe Sure there is lesse hurt and lesse disorder in an od file then in an od ranke If the Author had said If there be any od men in any of the Companies let them all be cast in the reare of the whole Battaillon and make files of them he had to my sence have spoke reason yet no more then very ordinarie Officers have both spoke and practisd before him FRENCH AUTHOR Manner of fireing The best way of fireing is by rank when you wold fire in a Parallell line with the Enemie Animadversion YEs To fire by rank is not alone the best bot the onlie way of fireing if the Enemie be either in your front or your reare Bot if he be on either of your flanks you are to face him by these files that are nearest to him and then you are to fire likewise in a parallell line with the Enemie and yet in this case the Author must permit us to fire by file and not by ranke FRENCH AUTHOR For this purpose to doe it with lesse trouble it is good to doe it standing firme your ground without any motion save that of making the five first ranks kneele and let the sixth be the first that fires then the fifth rising up does the like and so the rest in order Animadversion I Have seen three several ways how ranks fire successivelie not to speak of fireing by three ranks together the first kneeling the second stooping the third standing which is not used bot at a dead lift The first is when the first ranke hath fired The Musketeers divide themselves in two parts the one half marcheth by the right the other by the left hand to the reare where they are againe by their Officers marshald in one rank This way is troublesome especiallie if the rank be numerous as in all great Battaillons ranks are yet it hath been so antient a custome in the armies of the Estates of the United Provinces of the Low-countreys that I saw it practisd in the year 1659. by the Estates Guards at the Hague The second way is when these who have fired turne to the left hand marches down to the reare between that file wherof
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
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