Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	file_n	left_a	right_a	69,472	5	9.7647	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50274	The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English.; Works. English. 1680	Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.; Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.	1680 (1680)	Wing M129; ESTC R13145	904,161	562

20 files and twenty men in a file This makes two squares or very near for though there be as many men on one side as the other yet towards the head they joyn together so as one flank may touch the other but on the other side their distance is at least two yards one from the other so that the square is longer from the Rear to the Front than from one flank to another And because we are to speak often of the fore part the hinder part and the sides of this Battalia or Company and of the whole Army when joyned you must know that when I say the head or the front I mean the fore part of the Battel when I say the shoulders I mean the hinder part and when I say the flanks I mean the sides The fifty Velites in ordinary do not mingle with the rest of the files but when the Battalia is formed they are disposed by its flanks The other way of drawing up a Company is this and because it is better than the first I resolve to describe it so plain that you shall understand it as well as it were before your eyes I suppose you remember of what number of men of what Officers it is composed and what Arms it is to carry The form therefore of this Battalia is of twenty files twenty men in a file five files of Pikes in the front and fifteen files of Bucklers in the rear Two Centurions in the front and two in the rear which the ancients called Tergiductores The Constable or Captain with his Colours and Drum is to stand in the space betwixt the five files of Pikes and the fifteen files of Bucklers Corporals upon the flank of every file one so that each of them may have his men by his side those who are on the right hand will have them on their left those on the left on their right the fifty Velites are to be drawn up on the flanks and rear Now that your Soldiers may put themselves into this posture in their ordinary march it is to be done in this manner You are first to reduce your Battalia into 80 files five men in a file leaving your Velites either in the front or the rear but they must be sure to be placed without this order Every Centurion is to be at the head of twenty files five of Pikes are to be immediately behind him and the rest Bucklers The Constable or Captain is to stand with his Drum and Colours in the space betwixt the Pikes and the rest of the Bucklers belonging to the second Centurion and may take up the place of three of the Bucklers Of the Capidieci or Corporals twenty are to stand in the flank of the files of the first Centurion upon the left hand and twenty upon the flank of the last Centurion upon the right hand And it is to be observed that every Corporal who leads the Pikes is to have a Pike in his hand and they who lead the Scudi are to have Bucklers in theirs Having put your files into this order and being desirous upon their march to reduce them into a Battalia to make head against an Enemy you must cause the first Centurion with his first twenty files to make a halt and the second Centurion to continue his march to the right all along by the sides of those twenty files which stand firm till he comes cheek by jole with the first Centurion where he also makes his stand and then the third marching on likewise on the right hand by the flank of the said files advances till he be even with the other two Centurions and then he making his stop and so the rest which being done two of the Centurions only are to depart from the front into the rear of the Battalia which by this means is in the same order as I said before The Velites are to be drawn up by the side as they are disposed in the first way which is called redoubling by a right line for the second way redoubles them in the flanks The first way is more easie this is more orderly and useful and may be better corrected and reformed to your mind for in the first you are obliged to conform to your number for five doubled make ten ten twenty twenty forty so that if you would double your files in a right line you cannot make a front of fifteen five and twenty thirty nor thirty five but you must go where the number will carry you And therefore it happens every day upon particular rencounters that it is necessary to make head with 7 or 800 foot and in so doing to double in a right line would undo you For these reasons this way pleases me best and the difficulties therein are easily removed by exercise and practice I say then that nothing is of greater importance than to have Souldiers which can put themselves instantly into their ranks and to learn that it is necessary to exercise them in these Companies at home to teach them the quick and the slow march to advance or retreat and to pass thorow streights and difficult places without disturbing their order For Soldiers that can do that well are good Soldiers and may be called old Soldiers though they never looked an Enemy in the face whereas on the contrary if a man has been in a thousand Battels and understands not that he is but a Novice and a fresh-water Soldier This is only as to closing their ranks upon a march when they are in small files but having closed their files and being afterwards broken by some accident either from the place or the Enemy to rally and recollect themselves then there lies the difficulty and importance which requires great exercise and practice and by the ancients was endeavoured with much industry In this case it is necessary therefore to do two things CHAP. IX The manner of rallying Soldiers after a rout and to make them face about a whole Company at a time Fabr. WHen a Squadron is broken to rally and bring them again suddenly into order two things are convenient first that several Colours or Countermarks be assigned to every Battalia and secondly to observe this rule that the same Foot stand still in the same Files For example if a Soldier 's place was formerly in the second File let him continue in that File and not only in that File but in the same place and in order to that as I said before several Countermarks are necessary And first it is convenient that the Ensigns and Colours of each Company be so handsomly distinguished that being joyned with other Squadrons they may know one another Next that the Captains and Centurions have Plumes of Feathers of Scarfs or something that may make them conspicuous and remarkable and last of all as being of more importance the Capidieci or Corporals are to be so accoutred that they may be known and of this the ancients were so extraordinarily curious that their

numbers were written upon their Helmets in great Characters calling them the first second third and fourth c. And not content with this every Soldier had the number of his File and the number of his place in that File engraven upon his Buckler Your Companies being in this manner made distinguishable by their Colours and accustomed to their Ranks and Files by practice and experience it is no hard matter though they be disordered to rally and reduce them suddenly again for as soon as the Colours are stuck down in the ground they are immediately visible and the Captains and Officers knowing which are their own repair themselves and dispose their Soldiers immediately to their places and when those on the left have placed themselves on the left hand and those which belong to the right hand on the right the Soldiers directed by their rules and the difference of their Colours fall immediately into their Ranks as easily as we put together the Staffes of a Barrel when we have marked them before These things if learned with diligence and exercise at first are quickly attained and hardly forgot for your raw men are directed by the old and in time a Province by these exercises might be made very fit for the War It is necessary therefore to teach them how to turn all together when to face about in the Rear or the Flanks and make Rear and Flank of the first Ranks when occasion is offered And this is no hard matter to do seeing it is sufficient that every man faces to that side he is commanded and where they turn their faces that is the Front True it is when they face to the Flank their Ranks do not hold their proportion because the distance betwixt the Front and the Rear is thereby much lessened and the distance betwixt the extremity of the Flanks is much encreased which is quite contrary to the genuine order of a Battalia for which cause great practice and discretion is required to rectifie it and yet this may be remedied by themselves But that which is of greater consequence and which requires more practice is when an Officer would turn his whole Company together as if it were a single man or a solid and massy body of it self And this requires longer experience than the other For if you would have it turn to the left the left corner must stand still and they who are next them march so leisurely that they in the right may not be put to run if they be it will breed confusion But because it always happens that when an Army marches from place to place that the Companies which are not in the Front are forced to fight in the Flanks or Rear so that one and the same Company is many times compelled to face about to the Flanks and Rear at one and the same time that these Companies therefore may in this exigence hold their old proportion according to what is said before it is necessary that they have Pikes in that Flank which is most likely to be attacked and Capidieci Captains and other Officers in their proper places CHAP. X. To range a Company in such order that it may be ready to face the Enemy on which side soever he comes Fabr. WHen you have marshalled your fourscore Files five in a File you are to put all your Pikes into the first twenty Files and place five of your Corporals in the head of them and five in the Rear The other 60 Files which follow are Bucklers all and consist of 300 men So then the first and last File of every Company are to be Corporals The Captain with his Ensign and Drum is to stand in the midst of the first hundred of Bucklers and every Centurion at the head of his Division When they are in this order if you desire to have your Pikes on the left hand you are to double them Company by Company from the right Flank if you would have them on the right you are to double from the left and this is the way by which a Company turns with the Pikes upon one Flank with their Officers at the Head and the Rear of them and their Captain in the midst and it is the form which is observed in a march But upon the approach of an Enemy when they would make a Front of a Flank they have no more to do but to command that all of them face about to that Flank where the Pikes are and in so doing the whole Battalia turns with its Files and Officers at the same time in the manner aforesaid for unless it be the Centurions they are all in their old places and the Centurions can quickly be there But when a Battalia marches in the Front and is in danger to be engaged in the Rear the Files are to be so ordered that the Pikes may be readily behind and to do this there needs no more but whereas usually in every Battalia every Century has five Files of Pikes in the Front those five Files may be placed in the Rear and in all other places the same order to be observed as before Cosimo If my memory fails not you said that this way of exercise is in order to the uniting these Battalia's into an Army and that this practice is sufficient to direct them in that But if it should happen this Squadron of 450 Foot should be to fight singly and by its self how would you order it then Fabritio He who commands them is to judge where his Pikes are to be disposed and place them as he thinks fit which is not at all consistant with what I have prescribed before for though that be a way to be observed in Battel upon an union or conjunction of several Squadrons yet it may serve as a rule in what ever condition you fall into But in showing you the two other ways which I recommended for the ordering of a Battalia I will satisfie you farther CHAP. XI To draw up a Company with two horns or another with a Piazza or vacuity in the middle TO come to the way of drawing up a Battalia or Squadron with two horns or points I say you must order your 80 Files five in a File after this manner In the midst you must place a Centurion with 25 Files two of Pikes to the left and three of Bucklers to the right when those five are disposed bring up the other twenty with twenty Files and File-leaders all of them to be placed betwixt the Pikes and the Bucklers only those who carry Pikes are to stand with the Pikes After these twenty five Files are so placed draw up another Centurion with fifteen Files of Bucklers after which the Constable or Captain is to draw into the middle with his Drum and his Colours with other fifteen Files of Bucklers This being performed the next to march up is the third Centurion who is to be at the head of 25 Files of 5 in a File three Bucklers to the left

and two Pikes to the right and after the 5 first Files let there be twenty File-leaders placed betwixt the Pikes and the Bucklers and after these the fourth Centurion Having drawn your men into this order to make a Battalia consisting of two horns the first Centurion is to make a stand with his 25 Files at his heels then is the second Centurion to advance with his 15 Files of Bucklers and place himself on the right hand of the 1st Centurion and marching along by the side of the 25 Files he is to advance till he comes to the 15 File and there he is to stop The next that marches is the Captain with his division of 15 Files of Bucklers behind him and advancing on the right hand by the flank of the other 15 Files he is to march up to their front After him the third Centurion is to move with his 25 Files and the fourth Centurion after him and passing along by the right flank of the last 15 Files of Bucklers they are not to stop at the front of the said Files but to advance till the last of the twenty five Files be parallel with the Files which are behind them As soon as this is done the Centurion at the head of the 1st 15 Files of Bucklers is to remove into the left angle in the rear and by this means you shall form a Battalia of five and twenty firm Files of twenty men in a File with two horns on each side of the front one each of them consisting of ten Files of 5 in a File with a space betwixt the two horns sufficient to receive ten men a breast Betwixt the two horns the Captain is to be placed and a Centurion at each point or angle there are likewise to be two Files of Pikes and twenty Corporals on each Flank These horns or wings are useful to receive and secure Carriages or Artillery when they have any with them The Velites are to be drawn up along the flanks under the shelter of the Pikes But to reduce this horn'd Squadron into another Figure with a space in the middle no more is to be done than out of the 15 Files of twenty in a File to take eight and place them upon the point of the two horns which will make a good rear and turn it into a Battalia Della Piazza or a Battalia with a space in the the midst in this space or Area the Carriages are disposed and the Captain and his Colours but not the Artillery for they are placed either in the front or along the flanks These are the forms to be observed in a Battalia or Squadron when it marches alone thorow dangerous places But the single Battalia without horns or vacuity is better though to secure such as are disarmed the horned figure is convenient The Swisses have several forms of drawing up their Battalia's one is the fashion of a Cross placing their Harquebussiers betwixt the Arms of the said Cross to secure them from the Enemy But because those figures are proper only when Squadrons fight singly and by themselves and my intention being to show they may fight united and in conjunction I shall not trouble my self with them Cosimo I fancy I do sufficiently comprehend the way that is to be observed to exercise men in these Battalia's but if I mistake not you told us that to the ten Battalia's which united make a Battalion you would add a thousand extraordinary Pikes and four hundred of the extraordinary Velites And these would you not advise should be exercised Fabritio I would and with very great diligence exercising the Pikes with the same care as the rest because I would make more use of them than the rest upon all private occasions as in conducting convoys of provisions depredations and such like But my Velites I would exercise at home without bringing them together for it being their office to fight loose and confused it is not necessary that they should be always exercised as the rest for it is enough if they understand their own business well They ought then as I said before and I am not troubled to repeat it again so to exercise their men in these Battalia's that they may know to keep their ranks understand their places wheel readily and shift handsomly either upon sight of an Enemy or inconvenience of the place For when they can do this well they will easily learn which are their places and what are their duties in a Battel And if a Prince or Commonwealth grudges not to take pains and employ themselves in seeing their Subjects thus exercised they would have always good Soldiers be always too hard for their Neighbours and would be in a condition rather to give than receive Laws from other people But as I have said before the disorder in which we live is the cause that we do not only neglect but despise those things and that is the true reason our Souldiers are no better and though there may be Officers and Soldiers too that perhaps are both valiant and skilful yet they have no occasion or encouragement to show themselves CHAP. XII Of the Baggage and Train belonging to a Company How necessary it is that they have several Officers and of the usefulness of Drums Cosimo I Would ask you now what Carriages you would allot to each of these Battalia's Fabritio In the first place I would not allow that either Centurion or Corporal should march on Horseback and if the Captain must ride I would allow him only a Mule I would allow him two Carriages one to every Centurion and two betwixt every three Corporals because we quarter them together in our Camp as shall be shown in its due place so that to every Battalia there should be 36 Carriages which I would have carry the Tents and Utensils for their Cookery their Hatchets and other Iron Instruments to set up their Huts Tents and Pavilions and if there be afterwards any place left let them carry what they please Cosimo I am of opinion that the Officers which you have appointed in every of these Battalia's are necessary yet I should be afraid so many Commanders should confound them Fabritio What you say would be true were they not subordinate to one but depending still upon one person they proceed very regularly nay without them they could not possibly be governed For a wall that is tottering in all places requires that its Buttresses and Supporters be rather many than strong because the strength and goodness of one will not hinder the ruine which will follow And therefore in all Armies and among every ten men it is convenient to have one of more life more courage and more authority than the rest who with his alacrity and language and example may encourage the rest and dispose them to fight And to prove the necessity of these things in an Army viz. Ensigns Officers and Drums it appears by our Armies where there are of them all but none