He had surpassed all the Moderne Captaines Considerations upon the principall things which the King hath done since the Landing of th' English in th' Ile Rhé which will declare some Conditions necessary for a Minister of State The third Book The First Discourse Of what Importance Care and Vigilancy are for a Minister of State and that nothing is to be neglected principally in Warre CAre Labour and Vigilancy are not things purely spirituall The body seems therein to have the best part and if they derive their Originall from th' understanding they determine in the matter and sensible objects do bind them They are the neerest causes of execution and without them a Minister of State may peradventure be wise but can never be happy On the contrary there 's no difficulty nor resistance which may not be forced by their aide with them fortune is constrained to follow Good counsells are assured Bad are corrected Things are supported and overthrown and that form is almost given to businesse which is proposed 'T is then of great Concernment to neglect nothing that may be profitable That no accident is to be esteemed smal if it may incommodate That every moment ought to be of precious esteem if it be necessary for us And that the Maxim of Morality be remembred That evill is raised out of the least defect in things and that Good to be such requires that every part be entire and sound Above all in great misfortunes in the violence of fortune that all advizes must be heard and all things attempted though they seem impossible For then much must be hazarded provided that it be not all unlesse we are constrained thereunto and cannot save our selves but in ruming a course to destroy our selves Moreover we ought t' Imitate the Wise Physitian who will never ordain dangerous Remedies and whose operation is doubtfull but they will trye diverse of whose goodnesse they may not be fully assured but that they shall not kill if they heal not and will not make th' evill worse if they do not ease it In a word 't is not to be believed what great and incredible effects are produced by an exact care by a constant diligence by an infatigable contest and by that prudent inquietude which alwaies acts which forgets nothing which never gives it selfe liberty and forceth at last what holds too fast and draws what will not follow Caesar was incomparable in these Qualities as in all other that forme a great Captain No person ever took more pains in the Warre or exercised more functions together in his Army nor that more desired to be present in all occasions or that was more obstinate t' execute his resolutions not to retire when he was once advanced and not to stand in the midst of an enterprize 'T is true that he deliberated much before he undertook any thing and did not cast himselfe blindly upon any designe He did not prepare to make war after he had begun to make it The provisions answered alwaies to the time he had forecast to make them continues and th' execution never deceived his providence But after that he lost not a moment of time nor an occasion of advantage and never remitted to the next day what he might execute the same day He seldome trusted but to his eyes and judgement and for the most part he went in person to view the Country he would assault and th' enemies he was to fight When th' occasion prest he made incredible Marches He passed Rivers by swimming t' avoid going about to gain Bridges He crossed the Seas in small Vessels to make the more diligence and chose rather to sayl in Storms then suffer his businesse to run hazard and to put his person in danger rather then his fortune And it must not be a wonder if in his profession he left all the men in the world behind him And if it hath been doubted To whom the victory had remained if Alexander had made Warre to the growing Common-Wealth No Question can be made but he was inferiour to Caesar who destroyed it in its most vigorous Age and in th' excesse of its force and made it fall from th' height of its greatnesse and from the top of its Power On the contrary the reason why the Reputation of so many Men is seen to passe with the time and their glory t' extinguish 'T is the diminution of Labour and the default of Vigilancy This diminution default proceed from severall causes The first is that as in the condition of particular persons a mans fortune doth not alwaies advance with equall pace and with an uniforme progresse That it stops toward th' end or moves slowly though it come with impetuosity and swiftnesse Insomuch that he who burnt with impatience in the beginning to quit poverty and laboured with Zeal to become Rich So soon as his desire is satisfied and that he sees himselfe in plenty H' abates of his cares and would enjoy with rest th'fruits of his industry So the man whose spirit is possessed with the passion of glory and meditates the great actions which do beget it when he hath attained his end That he hath filled the World with the reputation of his vertue and hath formed in himselfe a great opinion of himselfe Th' hunger of honour which pressed him at first becomes moderate and by consequent his first contest weakens and his ordinary diligence diminisheth A second cause of this diminution is Age and 't is no wonder if the body which destroyes it selfe grieves the Soul and if it operate not with the same vigour as it did when th' Organs are spoyled and th'instruments of use weare out This rule neverthelesse is not absolutely true and hath its exceptions as I have said elsewhere A third cause are the diseases which produce the same effects and more dangerous then Age because they produce them more suddenly and with more violence and 't is not possible that in the griefe of the body and weaknesse of nature a man can intend things that are without him and at the same time contest with the disease and businesse Besides what hath been said before of Phillip the second The Spaniards have also observed that their affaires in the Low Countryes declined with th' health of the Prince of Parma and began to change when he began to be sick and neverthelesse being of a very vast spirit and active humour He would not abate any thing of his accustomed occupations He would do more then he could He would retain the same authority in businesse as when he had his health He could not ease himself upon the cares of another and thought that nothing was well done but what was done by his Orders When he was hurt before Candebu He put the command of th' army into the hands of his Son and in regard he was but a young Prince and to whom experience was wanting and that sort of Capacity which comes not from study or nature He
to God and placeth him so much above other Men It seems to the greatest part of his Relations that they cannot with modesty stay in the crowd nor in th' obscurity of particular persons so long as th'Uncle or the Brother is encompassed with the greatest Lights of the world And therefore some of them are tenacious of all that may establish the greatness of their house and raise them to the State of their Ambition The Spaniards understand better then all the Nations of the world these practices and have larger Meanes t' exercise them then any other Nation The Pensions which they distribute without Measure The Livings they have to conferre in their States of Italy and to th' Advantage of them that act at the Court of Rome The Meanes t' advance their Relations to th' Offices of Peace and Warre Th'Estates which they sometimes give them or make the purchase thereof easie unto them and Advantageous and Rich Marriages which they procure for them are strange Engines to Shake the Probity of Italians if it be not very well Confirmed The marriage of the Heire of th' house of Jesualde of the most famous of the kingdome of Naples against th' expresse Clauses of he father's Will which Gregory the fifteenth dispensed in favour of one of his Nephewes gave th' entry to the Spaniards into the Valtoline rendred them Masters of that Valley under the name of another power gave that great wound t' Italy and th' Armes of Holy Peter aided there t' advance th' Ambition of Spaine and to weaken the Liberty of a Province where they are adored And Moreover when hopes are weak to draw a person to their party They then add feare T is not possible but that th' one or th' other of those Passions may have its Effect and they that resist their guifts and promises in relation to their Interests are carefull at least not to justle them the better t' avoyd the Tempests which they raise and the Persecutions they stir up Besides the Resistance they give them who aspire the Pontificate when they are of a Contrary Inclination They have yet other Expedients to make themselves to be feared I will not believe that they were the Principall Cause of th' unfortunate Ends of the Caraffes All three were hanged The deportments wherewith they abused th' Authority of their Uncle The Evills wherein they plunged Christendome by their ungoverned Ambition The fire which they kindled in the State Ecclesiastique and which endangered the destruction of it In short all that a great power armed with Impunity could produce of fatall gave but too much foundation for Justice to make so great an Ensample But 't is true also that the Contrivances of Spaine and th' Ardent pursuits which their Agents made against them did not abate the spirit of the Judges nor the Rigour of the sentence But without that the persecution wherewith they agitated the Cardinal Aldobrandin after the Death of Clement th' Eighth and the little safety he had also for his person till he had suppled them by Imploring their Aide Make out cleere Evidences how dangerous a thing it is to have been their Enemy or not to have been for them which is allmost the same thing Presently after the coming of Paul the fifth to the Pontificate That Cardinal found himselfe thrust at from so many places and saw so many snares laid about him and so many plots formed for his destruction that he was constrained to leave Rome and to retire to Ravenna whereof he was Arch Bishop nor did he find there the safety he sought for and th' unexpected stormes which there did arise compelled him to leave that place where he was bound to reside and to provide for his safety by his flight He retired then into Piedmont whereby the Duke of Savoy who knew th' originall of his Evill and the Remedy that might heale it who knew from what Corner the windes of the persecution blew and the Meanes to appease them Advised him to Cast himselfe into th' Armes of the King of Spaine and to employ his Mediation to reconcile him to the Pope No person is ignorant of the warre they made to the Cardinal Baronius and with what obstinacy they assaulted him for cleering the Rights of th' Holy Chair to Sicily and for publishing a truth they would have had concealed In that Treaty where that learned Cardinal endevours to prove that the Body of St Inques is not at Compostelle of Galico They have truly answered with Reasons and Proofs which much weaken the contrary opinion and make theirs very probable who support it by the beliefe of Christian Nations and ought to be known for publique satisfaction But in the Treaty of Sicily they have re-parted with Fire because it may be that reasons failed them and commanded the fourth Volume of th' Annales of that great Person to be burnt by the hand of a Hangman to declare the doctrine it contained criminall because it was not favourable to them Truly this evidence is to be rendred and praise to be given to the Spaniards That there 's not a Nation in the World which hath so violent jealousie as they for the Interests of their State and for the dignity of their Crown And it must also be said to the shame of ours that there are none so strongly labouring under a contrary passion as the greatest part of Frenchmen I will report the causes of both in the second part Besides this what did not the Spaniards in the Conclaves where the suffrages enclined to Baronius side to choose him Pope What Artifices did they leaven unattempted t' oppose that promotion What Efforts did they not employ to breake it and what Engines did they not set a going t' overthrow it The Cardinal of Sourdis stormed and made a noise to no purpose at their practises The greatest part of Honest men were scandalized and desirous to no better effect that the Church might be governed by a Person that had so much merited from her the wishes of honest persons were unprofitable They sighed in vaine for so Holy an Election Baronius his Enemies carried it and the generall Interests of Christendom gave place to the particular Interest of Spaine These Examples and many others astonish them who upon other accounts have no Inclination for that Nation and the fear which every person hath to procure himselfe Evill is the cause that many are diverted from doing the good they would if liberty were not interdicted and generosity assaulted by odious means and by those violent wayes I will handle in the second part Whether Christian Princes ought in Conscience to meddle with the promotion of Popes and how The Thirteenth Discourse That the Mediation of Popes is very profitable in the differences of Christian Princes and in th' Affaires of Christendome I Do not intend t' infer from the precedent discourse that Princes ought to be deprived of the Mediation of Popes nor to reject their offices
to that of Gaston that it had given him the field and that fortune would not have abandoned a young servant that knew how to make use of her favours for a person that made no esteem of it and was compelled to retire in the midst of Enjoyment The long time that had passed wherein Gonsalve had not made warr and the great Cessation in a profession that affords alwayes somewhat to be learnt had without question much changed him from what he was And as Iron rustes when it is not handled and Aire corrupts that is long shut up and putrifies so th' Art of making warr is unlearnt if it be discontinued and military Abilities are weakened if they are not exercised Secondly Age that hath the property to take away the good sense and to ripen prudence hath also the defect to freeze the blood and the spirits and to weaken th' active Qualities which are the Chiefest principles of Execution and the nearest Causes of Victories Insomuch that the Coldness of Age if it have nothing but experience prevents sometimes the committing of faults but not alwayes the suffering of Losses and is not capable of Enterprizes that are not happy because they are bold nor of Certaine designes wherein there 's lesse need of Circumspection then of Courage We have also seen a great number of Brave persons whose Age hath taken away their Reputation and whose Glory hath been effaced by long Life We have no example of this truth more visible then that of Marius His valour accompanied alwayes the disposition of his Temper It entertained it selfe in his fairest yeares and fell in the fall of his body and in the cadency of his Age. It hath also been observed that the greatest part of Conquerours and vanquishers of Nations did not attaine th' Age of sixty yeares and that Many of them have finished their dayes much short of that time by naturall death or by a precipitated or violent End Caesar Charles the fifth Francis the first Henry the fourth and the last Prince of Orange failed betwixt fifty and sixty yeares And one of these stayed not to give over business till he was in Condition no longer to retaine it nor to give over his greatnesse till death would have taken it from him But by a Prudence higher then that of the world and by Motives more generous then those that had made him t' undertake so great things He quitted the functions of th' Empire t' exercise them onely of a Man and chose rather t' end his Life in th' humility of a Religious person then with th' Ambition of a Monarch The Prince of Parma who had th' honour to give Life to the Military discipline of th' Ancients and to advance that faire work which the Prince of Orange had finished dyed at th' age of Eight and forty yeares And 't is true That his Glory began to decline that th' affaires obeyed him no more as they had before done and that his last designes had neither the good fortune of Event nor the grace of Execution as the former had Alexander Germanicus The Marquis of Pessary and Don John of Austria have encountred the same period of Life and a death almost alike All four passed not the Age of thirty and three yeares and all four fell rather by the Malice of others and with great suspition of poyson then by the fault of their Complexion or by open force This rule neverthelesse is not so generall that it admits not of Exceptions and there all valours which resist the Ruine of the body and th' injuries of Age they maintaine themselves in spight of the Time Insomuch that 't is not the blood that heats them but reason that enlighteneth them And without speaking of the present Age the past hath produced a Constable of Mountmorancy and a Duke of Alva who have preserved an entire Reputation to the very extremity of Age whose last actions have been the Crownes of the first and the Conclusion of life the glory of all the rest This neverthelesse is very pure and t is otherwise true That fortune hath been pleased to favour young Captaines when they were wise against th' old who have not the Courage so active nor the Virtue so violent And by consequence there 's some apparance that she would have declared for Gaston and been of his party against the Great Captaine Thirdly the great Captaine came to the Government of an Army whose officers and souldiers were scarce known unto him nor had th' army other knowledge of him then his Reputation and Glory Insomuch that 't is a Question if there had been any Sympathy at least at his first comming betwixt th' head and the Members whether their Manners had agreed and the Proportion had been adjusted to the Command and obedience Fourthly he came to Command an Army shattered and of unfortunate Troops and he was necessitated at the same time to fight the despaire of his souldiers and the boldnesse of his Enemies On the Contrary Gaston was in Exercise and in breath and the warr he carried into the kingdome of Naples had been but a Consequent of his good fortune and the Continuation of that He newly finished most happily in Romagna He exercised a Soveraigne power in his Army He had th' heart of all his Souldiers they loved him as their Companion and respected him as their Generall His beauty and good fashion and the other Graces of the body which render virtue the fairer and in an age when they make strongest Impression and have an action more lively His beauty that was extreame and just that was neither excessive nor retentive who knew how to give much and to distinguish of Persons who obliged honest Persons and contented the covetous His Courtesie was capable to compell his Enemies to change their passion and so wish him in the practise of it Th'Eloquence wherewith he changed the spirits of Men prepared Courages for him as he would have them and brought Moderation t' impetuous spirits and boldness to the fearefull All those Qualities I say together might give him hopes to lead his army as farr as humane force could go and he ought not to have proposed any difficulties to himselfe but impossibilities Briefly Th' opinion the souldiers had of his Fortune and Virtue and th' Experience they had so often made of Th' one and th' Example he had given them of Th' other Enabled them to dare all dangers under so valliant a Commander and t'hope all good successe under so happy a Commander From all these Conjectures I conclude very rationally that the death of Gaston hath been the good fortune of Gonsalve That if Gonsalve deserved to be compared to Scipio That our Heroique Gaston if he had lived long had deserved preference to both of them And if the greatness of things he ought to have done were to be judged by them he had done That none of th' ancient Captaines had surpassed him in the Glory of Armes and that