Covenant and with it the fortune of th' house of Israel He hath also permitted that the wealth of the new world should pass into other hands then theirs That their Fleet should be beaten and that Heretiques whom they name Rebels made use of the treasures against them which were destined for th' oppression of a Prince whom they took for their Enemy in regard that he was not their subject or ought not to be their Neighbour without depending on them Yet praised be God we have been wiser for what the King had undertaken his Constancy was never tyred and He Acted not by halfs nor laboured without Effect no irregular passion could make diversion upon his designes He finished all of them He hath dissipated all th' ill humours of the State He hath confounded the Rebellion of his subjects and our Allies have seen all the powers of France displayed and all the vertue of the French to master their ill fortune and draw them from the bottom of the pit In that miraculous passage over the Alpes when Italy saw her deliverer to descend and that Milan durst take some free breath and Naples think of a gentler Domination who would not have believed that the King would have pursued his Victory and taken in Italy a Revenge of the losses of his Auncestors And neverthelesse by a Councell that was understood a few persons and by an extraordinary prudence he quirted the deceitfull appearance of good He retired from Italy and contented himselfe for that time to stench the blood of it and bind up the wound for to finish in Langnedock the Cure of an Evill that was in its Crisis and which a greater stay might have made incureable But of that we will make God aiding hereafter a discourse apart The Tenth Discourse That Princes do approve but of the Services they Command and punish oftentimes them that are done against their Orders LEt a Minister of State know that he doth alwaies ill when he acts against th'orders are given him That in the State good intentions are not warrantable if th' effects are not agreeable to the Prince That the works of supererogation are not current there and that the services that are rendred if they are not commanded are things put to hazard which are exposed to the capricious humour of a person interressed and shall sometimes be condemned by him who would be sorry if they were not done who drawes profit from them and hereby accommodates his affairs so true it is that reason of State is a strange thing and that the Condition of men and chiefly of publique persons is unhappy Th'Examples will declare better then discourse which is to be observed in this matter The Carthaginians punished with death the Captains that had gained a battel without advice and against the rules of War nothing is read answerable to the jealousie the first Romans had for Command They could not give a good countenance to the successes which were obtained with disobedience And there were Fathers who would not give life their Children that were victorious in Combats that had been forbidden them At the siege of Cambrey or of Dourlans the Count Fuentes caused the head of a master of the Camp to be cut off who in an assault advanced further then he was commanded and took a post of very great Importance And though the profits of these happy faults and of those blind successes remain to the Prince and Country 'T is certain there 's cause for their punishment to hinder th' imitation which is often dangerous And for th'Evill is in it that the Judgement of a superiour should be sleighted by a particular person and his Authority violated Amongst us these Attempts are praised when they prosper and they are not punished when they are unfortunate But it is a condition inseparable from our humour and an effect of that blindnesse which possesseth almost all France To neglect prudence and Order and to have an esteem onely for Impetuosities and to Idolize nothing but Courage Observe an Example very remarkable in our time and a fault of another nature then the prudence and love of the Country would have advised and the Prince to whom it was of Advantage judged it worthy of punishment At the peace which was made 1617 by the Mediation of the King betwixt the Republique of Venice and the Arch-Duke Ferdinand who is now Emperour The King of Spain and the Duke of Savoy The Republique of Venice employed Octavian Buon as their extraordinary Embassador a Gentleman of great opinion among the Citizens to manage that affair with the Gussony their ordinary Embassadour near the King The Instruments given to their Embassadours commanded them not to consent to any Treaty of peace but on condition the Galleres which had been taken from the Venetians at Spalatre by the Duke of Ossone should be restored and that that blot was taken out from th' honour of the Republique They had also Orders though not so formall and express to oppose th' union that was in forming between the two Crowns to give joyntly the Law to Italy and to the rest of Europe Neverthelesse the Spaniards who sayl with all winds and raise profit out of all occasions put a great value upon th'Evidences of Esteem and Affection they made out to the King in submitting to him so great differences and exposing of their affairs to the judgement of his Agents But to sell this honour to him at a very dear rate they pressed th' union whereof I have spoken Union which they had long in their thoughts and had sought since France was delivered of the Spanish Invasions and had secured her selfe of their Ambushes Union to which they aimed with the same heat they did at the Monarchy since it was to be the Bridge to passe them safely and the necessary principle for the ruine of other Christian States and losse of their liberties Bentivoglio Nonce and now a Cardinall and Protector of France joyned his good endeavours to those of the Spanish Embassadour in favour of that so much desired Union and fatall Intelligence However if that design fail they would have peace not being able any longer to make War That Gradisque which the Venetians besieged was upon its last breath That the Duke of Savoy swollen with the reliefe was come to him from France was powerfull and Don Petro of Toledo weak and his Army shattered since the siege of Vercel They would have I say peace but after their manner and upon a vain shadow of honour which they believed to have done us and upon a light smoak of difference wherewith they thought to have intoxicated us They would exempt themselves from Evils which hung over their heads they would have it neverthelesse with vapouring and reputation as if fortune had been propitious to them They would have no mention made of it in the Treaty of the restitution of the Ships of the Republique and that the Ships should remain with them as Trophies of
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
duest not decide a difference where parties were so equall Gaston is slain at the Batted of Ravenna by his death Italy changed her face our affaires began then to decline There was no further need of Gonsalve and Ferdinand was delivered of the feares which had so strongly vexed him and so long pursued him The great Captain after that continued intirely estranged from Court and from affairs and a very little after quitted the world where his virtue was become unprofitable because it was too great and where he had lost the good graces of his Master for having overmuch merited them The seventh Discourse Of the disgrace of the Duke of Alva SInce we are upon the subject of Disgraces which happen at Court and tempests which are there raised Let us add the Duke of Alva's to the former examples He was one of the greatest Captains Spain hath brought forth since the death of Gonsalve He performed threescores years services to Charles the fifth and to Philip his Son and with so strange a misfortune that he was ever odious to th' one and never beloved of th' other He made War almost in all the parts of Europe and in Africa he had the Command of the Germane Army where the first League of Protestants was beaten and one of their Commanders taken Prisoner He preserved the Kingdom of Naples to Philip He staid the progress we made into Piedmont He suppressed the growing Rebellion in the Low Countries and though his conduct was too violent and that the severity of his deportment and too great Inclination for blood had forced the people into dispair yet if he had not been recalled when he was of most use there 'T is believed that he had finished the reducement of them or hindered them from growing greater And neverthelesse after so long Course of services and so many years spent for his Masters Philip forbids him the Court for a light fault for an inconsiderable Cause which carried onely the shadow of disobedience His Country-house he assigns him for his Prison and neither his services past nor his Age which was worthy of some respect nor the good wishes of all the people of Spain nor th'entreaties of the Pope who interceded for him could bend Philip or prevail with him for his Liberty But at last the businesse of the succession of Portugal hapning and Philip having need of a Commander of Reputation to manage the War which he had there prepared It was of Necessity to repair to the Duke of Alva He accepted the Command with an incredible Gentleness and without obtaining so much as the permission to see the Court And He was to raise the Regiments of Foot as He said from Towns to conquer Kingdoms The success of that War was such as Philip could desire it But the Conclusion was glorious for the Duke since he dyed after the reduction of Portugal and in the Palace of Lisbon where he had given Entry to his Master I do not truly find it strange that so many Princes are unthankful because it may be they think all to be due to them and that they are not indebted to any person But I cannot but admire the faithfulnesse of those great persons of whom I have lately spoken and that Generall obedience they have given to their Masters even then when they were so ill used This is the Cause that I will adde another example to the former and of a person of the number of the most famous of the Age past Albuquerque subdued Ormus took Goa and settled th' Empire of the Portugals in the East-Indies He caused the power of his Masters to be adored where their name was not so much as known before his time His Conquests enriched Portugal and the precious Jewels which the Sun-rising engenders in th' East past in abundance since his voyages through all Europe After all these services and in his great Age Manuel King of Portugal sends him a successor and he had the displeasure to see himself stript of an honour he had not received and of a Dignity he held not of the bounty of him which took it from him but from his personall valour The news truly of that Affront which was the recompence of his long and profitable services troubled him much at the first And making a great disturbance in his soul forced him to say these words Good God of how many Evills do I find my selfe encompassed If I am faithful to my King I offend men and I offend my King if I follow the Inclinations of men But this violent passion being appeased and that his reason was returned he justified the proceedings of Manuel and reduced willingly to the condition of a private person If Death which sometimes happens too late to many great persons had not ceazed on him before he arrived at Goa from Ormus You may believe that Albuquerque was solicited by his friends to possess himselfe of that State and to establish himselfe in a place where he was powerful and where he had in his favour the love of the people 'T is therefore the Custome of Princes not to permit long the Government of a Country to him that hath subdued it for fear lest in time he take root there and that the sweetnesse of the Command and the Conveniency of making himselfe Master should cause in him the Desire of it So Ferdinand of Castile left not the Government of the West-Indies to Christopher Columbe who had made the discovery of them So the same Prince withdrew that great Captain from Naples as hath been above expressed So Fernant of Cortes was recalled from the Kingdom of Mexico which he had gained for Charles the fifth So the Peru was filled with Combustion and Wars because the Pizarres who had made the Conquest would not acknowledge the Governour which Philip the second had sent thither nor obey in the place where they had accustomed to command The Eighth Discourse That in th' affaires of State men do that sometimes which they would not do and that there are inevitable Faults THat a Minister of State then suffer not himselfe to be transported with his charge nor be drunk with the fume of it That it be alwayes in him under jealousie And consider that 't is of the nature of Glass and not of the Diamond and that if it have some Clearness yet 't is frail And that he may the better comprehend this truth and make use of th' instruction it bears he must know that he is to defend himselfe not onely from men and the designs of Envy But that he must also depend upon some superiour power that will make him when it pleaseth to forsake his prudence and compell him to act against his proper Maxims that will carry him whither he would not go and will so Invert his understanding that he cannot but commit voluntary faults nor to enter the precipice which he shall see open in the midst of his way That if in the war of
to Conquer all and to carry by assault what makes resistance But that we are not able long to preserve that heat nor to maintain our Conquests The same may be said of the Spaniards that their designs have sometimes good beginnings which attain not alwaies their Ends because they are Immoderate That they begin well but finish not alwaies the work they undertake because they withdraw themselves to other work that they make not an end of all things they undertake in regard that they undertake too much at a time that they Grasp more then they know how to hold and devour more then they can digest 'T is not for want of patience but for their too great Ambition nor that they forsake the Labour for being a weary and to rest themselves but they suspend it or slack it in one place to attend it in another where they think to prosper better And as the Covetous person hath no sooner the desire in his heart of being rich but he desires suddenly to become rich The like is the condition of the ambitious person there are no degrees for the growth of passion 't is great as soon as 't is born and he hath th' unhappinesse that his Imagination knows not how to bound the Conquests which it meditates upon nor lengthen the time must necessarily be imployed to act them This hath happened to the Spaniards It may be said that they have found their enterprises more difficult then they were represented unto them in having too great an opinion of their own virtue or too little of other mens virtues Le ts come to the proof of this truth wherewith they have furnished us and whereof they have given us cause to beware They observed that th' Enterprise upon England and preparation for that Fleet which they called Invincible broke the course of the Victories of the Duke of Parma that it drayned Spain of Money and Men and hindred that Prince from receiving necessary recruits to continue the War They also acknowledged that the journies he made into France to relieve the League had unfurnished the two Countries of their best Souldiers and left those fair Provinces for a prey to their Enemies which had been so long their Indyes and since have been so long their Poverty and Church-yard We may indeed say here by the way and then we will return to our subject That Philip the second did not a little forget himselfe in these occasions and that his Conduct was then too wise or not wise enough That it was not truly ill argued for the subduing of the Hollande's first to ceaze on France and Conquer England to cut off at once th' Armes that supported them and force away the Dugs which fed the Rebellion of that people But also that it was too vast a Design for a Prince so decayed and a way too long and too dangerous for a person of so small strength and short breath That if he was transported by the zeal of th' house of God and could not suffer Religion to perish in the first Kingdom of the world If he was concerned in th' ill of France and if he so vehemently loved the Church that he could not permit so faire a member to be separated from her It must be confessed that his zeal had been commendable if it had been more prudent But he should have remembred that true Charity excludes not Justice that it perverts not th' order of things that it disorders not the duty of life and that it hath as much light as heat and of moderation as force And therfore that it had been better to withdraw the people from Heresie which God submitted to him and from rebellion wherein they were involved then to ingage in th' affaires of his Neighbours whereof he was not to give an Accompt and that he was more obliged to labour the Cure of his sick subjects then the lesser diseases of strangers But le ts speak the truth It troubled Philip much to lose so fair an occasion as that which then presented it selfe to gain by our disorders And he well saw that after the French were divided into Factions and that the Children had torn in pieces their Mother it would be easie for him to recollect the scattered members and the pieces of th' Inheritance That if the lost this Conjuncture he might after in vain desire it that the madmen might return to their senses and that they had been corrupted by Charmes and Drenches That they being cured might change their love into hatred and be animated against them who had put them into that Condition Though the Spaniards made the forementioned reflections they failed not to strike upon the same sands and to repeat their faults Th'Emperour had incredible success in Germany His Conquests forced in upon him like a Torrent God sent him Victories like those of the Children of Israel when they marched under the Conduct of Moses and Joshua and it was no more a Caesar by name and the vain Imagination of what he ought to be but he had the power and the majesty His Authority gave reputation to the Spaniards His Armies rendred them more fearfull than they were and they saw their desires crowned with the taking of Breda which Spinola boasted to have taken in spight of four Kings and th'ayds of divers Nations in League After that nothing was thought impossible for them And notwithstanding instead of pursuing the great progress which they had made in the Low-Countties and to follow their Fortune which marched before them they provoked troubles in Italy and sharpned the spirits of divers Princes in possessing themselves of the Valtoline The usurpation of that passage gave occasion to make a league for to make it free and the War was carryed into Piedmont whither they conveyed great forces which served onely to make th' affront more eminent which they received before Verrne and to augment the shame of that retreat But they fell not alone into the precipices They drew in the Emperour whose name they made use of to vex Monsieur of Mantouë To put I say a poor Catholique Prince into his shirt who reverenced him they compelled him to agree with the King of Denmark and to make a dishonourable peace with the Protestant Enemy They constrained him to take the Law of the Conquered to restore him his Losses and to let loose the Chain which pressed all Germany There 's apparance that if he had continued the designs he had in that Country and those in Flanders They had compleated His Happiness At least they had avoided the disgraces which happened unto them they had given no scandall to Christendom Boldne had been preserved and so Catholique a City had not entertained Heresie within its walls nor lamented the losse of th' ancient Religion But in this they had not onely men for Enemies but God seemed to declare and to make War against them And as he suffered heretofore the Philistins to take th' Ark of the
weightiness nor perish but by the Corruption within and by the vices of the noble parts Such was th' Ancient Republique of Rome after that so many Nations had submitted unto it and that there remained nothing in the world wherewith to fill up th' Ambition of one of its Citizens nor sufficient to make him Great enough without the Ruine of his Country Such is also at this day the Empire of th' Ottomans whose body is so dilated and power so vaste that it seems that nothing ought to affright the Head but the Members nor dissolve the Masse but it s owne Parts There are others whose Extent truly is not small nor forces incosiderable But which have neverthelesse need of foraine Aidâ—… for to support them To fortifie themselves with Alliances To forme Leagues To make use of diversions In short to repaire with Industry what of force is wanting in them either for resistance or enterprize There are Princes who subsist onely by the Conveniences of their Country and by the benignity of its scituation Two great powers betwixt which It is shut up and to whom It serves for Barriere are in perpetuall jealousie that th' one or th' other will make its Accommodation of it there 's nothing that they would not do to hinder them from the change of Master and from submitting to a Domination by them suspected This passion of State hath been th' originall of great wars which have been seene in Piedmont since hundred yeares and of so much Spanish and French blood as hath been shed in that Province There are others who have quit themselves under a voluntary dependency upon a greater power or by reason of some good turne received or to be delivered of the Expence from disturbance and from feare which the Neighbourhood of a greater brings when he is no friend which is seldome but to their Advantage so he is in some sort the Master of the petty States which he protects without Citadelle and Garrison he Commands them and he receives when he hath need considerable supplyes of Money and Men. There are others who are under a forced Dependancy and are become Captives without thinking of it who have given the matter of their Chaine and furnished the Stuffe whereof the yoak was made that oppresseth them Covetousness hath precipitated the Genoueses into this unhappiness That villanous passion hath forged their servitude The Money which they have put into the hands of the Spaniards hath betrayed them and by an Inverted order the Creditors put themselves to the Mercy of their Debtors They cannot now unsay it they have given them pawns and cannot recover them and which they will not suffer them to loose A single free thought cannot enter their spirits They dare not accept th' aid of them who would redeem them for their Captivity and being slaves to their Money they must or necessity be to the Men who keep it for them On the other side 't is a pleasant way of gaining a State that which the Spaniards have practised towards the Genoueses It was never doned so good cheape in other places All others have cost them something if the Great Duke be obliged to the defence of the State of Milan they have rendered unto him the fortresses of the Toscane and given him Sienna If the Prince o Parma ought to furnish them with Men and Money for the same subject He hath received also the Citadelle of Pleasance But here they onely tendred th' hands to take the Money which hath been voluntarity unto them They enjoy it and are the Masters of it In leaving t' others the vaine Names of Creditours and if â—metime they give them somewhat by may of profit even that returnes to them and resembles the water of Certaine Fountaines which by a constrained Motion being forced out of its reserve returnes thither by a Naturall motion and by a necessary fall Let this be said in passage To conclude There are States which are not conserved but by reason of their weakness and in regard they are so inconsiderable that they deserve not the violation of Justice in a Conquerour nor that his Ambition be rendred odious for the desire of them such is the Common-wealth of Ragouse which is so little that to this day it hath not provoaked th' Appetite of the Turk so poor that almost all its Revenues is laid out to feed the great Persons of the family of Porte and to serve for entertainment to the Sangiaes who are their Neighbours A Minister then of State must know That every sort of State requires a different Conduct That th' one ought not to serve as Example to th' other for Government and when any business is to be had with them that they are to be treated withall according to their Power and Liberty Whilst the Common-wealth of Venice was in disorder with Paul the fifth and that Christendom was divided upon that Quarrell the Common-wealth of Genes fell into almost the like Inconvenience This neverthelesse did bend under the will of the Pope And having cast it selfe into a shamefull servitude was carefull to performe such Actions as might deserve the Name of a lawfull obedience and that Spaine whose Aide it wanted was but too much carried to dispose it to raise a prejudice against Venice On the contrary Venice remained inflexible in its pretensions because it had power to maintaine them and pursued the business to th' End that the Liberty which it had not received but from God and wherewith it was borne might not be weakned The designes then of the Pope which prospered for Genes were vaine for Venice and th' Inequality of those two states could not admit of the same Remedies though they laboured of the same Evill and of the like Accident The Eighth Discourse That a Minister of State ought not inviolably t' act that which hath been alwaies practised in the State HE not only acts safely who formes not his conduct upon that of strangers not treats equally with two unequall powers But a Minister of State is farre from that he ought to be if in the State where he acts he tye himselfe servilely to what hath been done before him If he dare not go out of the beaten Road If he have no other marke then th' example of them that have gone before him If he will alwaies walk upon their paces and adore only their foot-steps No comparison was ever more naturall or report more just than that of th' humane and politique body Th' Oeconomy of th' one may serve for Modell to th' other They are both subject to the same Accidents and to the same Symptomes Both of them have ordinarity the birth weak the progress proud and rapid the subsistence trembling and the fal precipitated And nevertheless each of those ages requires a different Regiment and a Conduct altogether diverse These considerations also have place in th' Ecclesiastique State and in the government of Soules And though its foundations be
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
to succeed I passe by that which they might have done who thought that the glory of Command was the ultimate End of Man and Ambition somewhat a nobler and a better thing then justice But even amongst the very Christians and in th' houses which Piety hath made famous that Passion hath been seen t' overflow to the prejudice of blood and violate th' holiest lawes of Nature and which the very barbarous people Reverence I will recite here a Memorable Example 'T is a thing sufficiently known in the world what th' house of Austria was to th' Alliance of blood and if devotion as t is said hath been the foundation of Greatness 't is well known that Alliance hath built it up and carried it from a Moderate beginning to that high Power wherein 't is seen and to that vast domination for which th' Heaven hath no Horizon nor th' earth Limits Maximilian the first hath gained by that means the Low Countries and those faire Provinces which by their fertility and by the wealth wherewith they abound have deserved to be called th' Indies of Europe Philip the first and his posterity have obtained by it all Spaine and those Countryes of the new world where the sun in retiring from us goes to beget Gold and those other unprofitable things whereof men are Idolaters Philip the second came to the Crown of Portugall by that meanes and to all those States which that Nation possessed in Asia in Afrique and th' East Indies That very Prince thought t' incorporate England to Spaine by the marriage of Mary his first wife that was Queen thereof But the judgments of God in that supplanted the prudence of men and permitted that Princesse to dye without Children either to suppress the growth of a Power which would have been fatal to the Liberty of Christian Nations or for the punishment of the Iniquities of th' English and that base Compliance wherewith they had received the Schism which Henry th' Eighth introduced amongst them and applauded the passions of that Prince who chose rather to quit the Church then to separate from a Concubine The same Philip also aspired to the Crown of France for his Children by reason of the Marriage of his third wife daughter of Henry the second and the most important Article wherewith th' Instructions of the Duke of Feria were Charged when he came to Paris during the league was to cause the Salique laws to be Abolisht and to root out from the spirit of the French their Aversion of having no Soveraignes that spin and of not submitting to th' yoak of Women Insomuch that it hath been allwayes the designe of the Spaniards and a premeditated prudence of the Princes of th' house of Austria to look about them and to cast their nets upon the parties that could joyne some new estate to theirs and under a Title so innocent and just t' extend their domination With what heat did they labour to cause the eldest Daughter of Lewis the twelfth to be given to Charles the fifth who brought for her Dowry the Dutchesse of Britanny and of Orleans and our pretentions for Italy How many propositions were made upon that foundation and how many treaties concluded which the Time hath made abortive and which Fortune laughed at Neverthelesse as they have been ever Industrious to draw to them as much as they could th'estates of their Neighbours They have been also carefull not to permit any of theirs to be alienated nor to suffer any division without knowing the Meanes of Consolidating it and to destroy the divided Members and the loose pieces Th' Emperour Charles never promised the Low Countryes or the Duthy of Milan upon the Marriage of his daughter or of his Neece with the son of France but with Intention to break his promise or at least with hopes that Fortune which had done such strange things in his favour that had so often given the Lye to Apparences and disturbed th' order of things for the Love of him and which had sometimes sent him prosperities which he desired not would exempt him from that Obligation under some plausible pretence as it did And when Philip the second transmitted the Low Countryes to th' Arch Dutchesse for her Dowry There 's apparence that he was assured that time would make up that Breach and that he made not so great a wound in the rest of his Estates without preparing the Remedies to heale it But to returne to my designe and make it appeare That th' Alliances of blood work softly upon the spirits of Princes and are but weake bonds t' hold their Amities I will represent th' originall and th' effects of that which hath been the most profitable to th' house of Austria and it may be the most dammageable to the Christian Common-wealth Philip the son of th' Emperour Maximilian married Joane youngest Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella Kings of all the dominions of Spaine Th' Eldest was married into Portugall according to their Custstome The Catholique King had also a son called John who dyed young and whom Spaine saw almost as soon put out as shine and had almost at one time the Contentment to see him come and the Griefe to lose him Presently after the death of that Prince th' Arch Duke Philip and Arch Dutchesse his wife who lived onely by the love she bare to her husband and was Idolatresse of all his motions and passions caused themselves to be Called Princes of all the Dominions of Spain to the prejudice of the Queen of Portugall to whom the Crownes did belong in priority of birth to her sister That attempt ill digested out season and that precipitated Ambition displeased Infinitely Ferdinand and Isabella who judged of the Tree by the fruits and gave their son in Law and daughter t'understood that they were to leave that borrowed Title and to put off that imaginary Quality and which did not belong to them Behold a very pleasant Beginning of Philips Ambition since it made Invasions upon its owne Relations and the first shew of that furious Appetite to reigne which hath vexed his Posterity After that he guided his Interests apart from them of his Father in Law He held him alwayes at distance he looked upon him only as a Prince which stood in his light and there was no other Communication amongst them but a continual Commerce of Complaints and disorders In a Treaty which Maximilian and he made at Blois with Lewis the twelfth being permitted t' either parties to Comprehend therein whom they would He made no more mention of Ferdinand then as if he had not related to him or that He had been indifferent to him He did also the same thing in another Treaty which his Father made at Hugano with the Cardinal of Ambois so Ferdinand had his Revenge in disavowing the Treaty his son in Law made at Blois with Lewis the twelfth for the kingdome of Naples and in Contracting a second Marriage and marying of Germania sister
a Quarrell and laboured with great Obstinacy the Ruine of one Another In that hard Accesse and cruell Conjuncture wherein she could not gaine without losse she proposed to herselfe to follow alwayes the fortune of the weakest to make the Counterpoise to the strongest and to dispose them to Reconciliation when both despaired of the victory which succeeded unto her Alliances are also good to preserve union and nourish th' Intelligence of Houses which otherwise are obliged to be of good understanding and which a Common interest doth conjoyne and bind Insomuch that if they make not the knot they tye it faster If they forme not the friendship they heat it if they do not introduce the concord they confirme it T is for that reason they are so frequent amongst the Princes of th' House of Austria and were heretofore betwixt them of France and Navarre and betwixt them of Castille and Portugall before th' union of those Crowns But what must be understood of most certain from Alliances and to which Princes who make them and their Counsellors ought chiefly to have an eye is to draw some present utility or some future good whilst the Wills of them who are conjoyned in Alliance are in heat and th' emotion which that Bond brings doth last Francis the first married Elnor Sister of Charls the sisth to recover his Liberty as I have said Phillip the second gave his youngest Daughter to the last Duke of Savoy to make him seise upon the Marquisat of Saluce and to cause the Gates of Italy to be shut against us and to deliver Milan from the jealousie which that neighbourhood gave it Ferdinand of Castille Marryed Germania Neece of Lewis the twelfth to break the Leagues which were framed betwixt Lewis the Emperour Maximilian and th' Arch Duke Phillip to his prejudice and to dissipate th' Intelligences of those Princes that were not favourable unto him In consideration whereof I say that the Alliance which the King had made with the King of England ought to be placed amongst his wisest Elections in the felicities of his Reign And that they who advised him to it could not give a sounder Counsel and that it hath been a great honour to Sr. the Candinall to have mingled his Cares with those of his Master and his disturbances with his Master 's for th' accomplishment of that worke 'T is not a small advantage to render ones enemies weake and to make a power retire that is contrary to us or suspected is a great advance But t is the perfection of wisedom to draw to ones selfe a good that was intended for them that love us not to gain that which we make them lose If we had not made haste Spain who suffered that Alliance t' escape their hands and which sometimes loseth her Advantages in seeking of them too cunningly and too great Had it may be renewed it And if that had been is it not probable that it had invention enough and Artifice for to keep us alwayes in Check by the means of England That it had manadged at pleasure the Protestants of France with their hands and had assured all his designes in making the Counterpoyse to ours with that party which was also entire That the losses which they lately received had affrighted them more then beaten them and that the sight of their wounds yet bloudy and the desire of revenge rendred them irreconcilable t is at least certaine that it diverted the Ruine and was opposed to its dammage That if England hath turned her Arms upon us if it hath since quarrell'd us and if the capricious humours of a particular person hath been the Torch of a publique dissention It was a stroak which was not in the power of humain discourse to foresee and the reason of State did not permit that a Prince should give so pernicious an example to his subjects as openly to favour Felony in the states of another Prince yet it may be said in truth that the peace which ensued that War and which was so advantagious to us is in part an effect of th' Alliance whereof we speak and the worke of that Princesse which shall be hereafter th' Indissoluble band of the friendship of the two Brothers and th' Immortall subject of the Concord of both Nations Adde to this th' Interest of Religion which is very considerable in this Alliance of the great good it produceth to have accustomed th' English to permit th' exercise of it in the Queen's family T is no small matter that they are made acquainted with our Holy Mysteries and that they are no longer offended at that which they have had a long time in detestation T is to be believed that this holy humanity which now is in safety amongst them shall not be there without a tast of its Graces and that th' Example of good souls to whom'tis permitted to provide for their safety without crime may touch them and bring them to the knowledge of that truth their fathers had forsaken The Fifth Discourse Of the Greatness and Importance of the Siege of Rochelle I Will not play th'Oratour upon the taking of Rochelle nor amuse my selfe with the Flowers of Rhetorique and th' Ornaments of that Science which hath not significant expressions how rich soever for the subject which I treat I will not exalt the glory of that siege by the Reputation of a City whose name hath passed to th' Indies with reputation by the course and Merchandize it made upon all Seas Th' Heresie and Rebellion to which it served for sanctuary in France The friendship of Protestants and hatred of Catholiques which it equally exercised had rendred it famous in th' Earth I speake not now of the place nor of th' advantages of its scituation where it seemed Nature had placed all she had of strength and Art had laid out all she had of Invention I passe by the comparison of the sieges of Tire and Antwerp which others have spoken of and which are inferiour to ours Though one of them was the principall worke of the Prince of Parma and the admiration of the past Age and the other th' great effect of the power of Alexander and th' Industry of Greece I take another way and will indeavour to declare the value of the Conquests which we have made in other Ages Heretofore nothing was more easie to a Conquerour then to subdue a Province and the gaine of a battell delivered up a whole Countrey to the victorious wherein there was scarce any strong place Now that th' Art of making Warre hath changed face and conduct That 't is in all Countryes almost reduced to cast up Earth and to retrench That few Battells are fought that the life of Men are better Husbanded and that an Army cannot March very farre but a Fortresse is in its way 'T is no marvell if there be as much difficulty and by consequence as much glory to take a Fortress of Reputation as there was heretofore to