Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	bullet_n	great_a	piece_n	2,015	5	9.9190	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66051	Mercvry, or, The secret and svvift messenger shewing, how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance.	Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.; Kinnaston, Francis, Sir, 1587-1642.	1641 (1641)	Wing W2202; ESTC R1665	56,355	185

one of his houshold servants that was troubled with sore eyes pretending that for his recovery his haire must be shaved and his head scarified in the performance of which Hystiaeus tooke occasion to imprint his secret intentions on his servants head and keeping him close at home till his haire was growne hee then told him that for his perfect recovery hee must travaile into Greece unto Aristagoras who by shaving his haire the second time would certainly restore him By which relation you may see what strange shifts the antients were put unto for want of skill in this subject that is here discoursed of 'T is reported of some fugitive Jewes at the siege of Jerusalem who more securely to carry away their gold did first melt it into bullets and then swallow it downe venting it afterwards amongst their other excrements Now if a man had but his faculty who could write Homers Iliads in so small a volume as might be contained in a nut shell it were an easie matter for him by this tricke of the Jewes securely to convey a whole packet of letters 2. When all the land passages have beene stopped up then have the antients used other secret conveiances by water writing their intentions on thin plates of leade and fastning them to the armes or thighes of some expert swimmer Frontinu● relates that when Lucullus would informe a besieged City of his comming to succour them hee put his letters into two bladders betwixt which a common Souldier in the disguise of a sea-monster was appointed to swim unto the City There have bin likewise more exquisite inventions to passe under the water either by a mans selfe or in a boate wherein he might also carry provision only having a long truncke or pipe with a tunnell at the top of it to let downe fresh ayre But for the prevention of all such conveyances the antients were wont in their strictest sieges to crosse the rivers with strong * nets to fasten stakes in severall parts of the channell with sharpe irons as the blades of swords sticking upon them 3. Hence was it that there have beene other meanes attempted through the open ayre Either by using birds as Pidgeons and Swallowes instead of messengers of which I shall treate more particularly in the sixteenth Chapter Or else by fastning a writing to an arrow or the weight that is cast from a sling Somewhat of this nature was that intimation agreed upon betwixt David and Ionathan though that invention doe somewhat favour of the antient simplicity and rudenesse It was a more exact invention mentioned by Herodotus concerning Artabazus and Timoxenus who when they could not come together were wont to informe one another of any thing that concerned their affaires by fastning a letter unto an arrow and directing it unto some appointed place where it might bee received Thus also Cleonymus King of Lacedaemon in the siege of the City Trezene injoyned the Souldiers to shoot severall arrowes into the Towne with notes fastned unto them having this inscription {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I come that I may restore this place to its liberty Vpon which the credulous and discontented Inhabitants were very willing to let him enter When Cicero was so straightly besieged by the Galls that the Souldiers were almost ready to yeeld Cesar being desirous to encourage him with the newes of some other forces that were to come unto his ayde did shoote an arrow into the City with these words fastned unto it Caesar Ciceroni fiduciam optat expecta auxilium By which meanes the Souldiers were perswaded to hold out so long till these new succours did arrive and breake up the siege The same thing might also bee done more securely by rolling up a note within the head of an arrow and then shooting of it to a confederates Tent or to any other appointed place To this purpose is that which Lypsius relates out of Appian concerning an antient custome for the besieged to write their minds briefely in a little piece of leade which they could with a sling cast a great distance and exactly hit any such particular place as should be agreed upon where the confederate might receive it and by the same meanes returne an answere Of this nature likewise are those kind of bullets lately invented in these Germane warres in which they can shoot not onely letters corne and the like but which is the strangest powder also into a besieged City But amongst all other possible conveyances through the ayre imagination it selfe cannot conceive any one more usefull then the invention of a flying charriot which I have mentioned elsewhere Since by this meanes a man may have as free a passage as a bird which is not hindred either by the highest walls or the deepest rivers and trenches or the most watchfull Sentinels But of this perhaps I may have occasion to treate more largely in some other discourse CHAP. 5. Of that secrecy which consists in the materials of writing whether the Paper or Inke THe severall inventions of the ancients for the private conveyance of any written message were the subject of the last Chapter The secrecy of Writing may consist either in The materials or The Forme 1. The Materials of writing are the Paper and Inke or that which is instead of them both which may be so privately ordered that the inscribed sence shall not bee discoverable without certaine helpes and directions 1. The chiefe contrivance of secrecy by the paper in use amongst the Ancients was the Lacedemoniar Scytale The manner of which was thus there were provided two round staves of an equall length and size the Magistrats alwayes retaining one of them at home and the other being carried abroad by the Generall at his going forth to warre When there was any secret businesse to bee writ by it their manner was to wrap a narrow thong of Parchment about one of these staves by a serpentine revolution so that the edges of it might meet close together upon both which edges they inscribed their Epistle whereas the Parchment being taken off there appeared nothing but pieces of letters on the sides of it which could not be joyned together into the right sence without the true Scytale Thus is it briefly and fully described by Ausonius Vel Lacedemoniam Scytalen initare libelli Segmina Pergamei tereti circumdata ligno Perpetuo inscribens versu deinde solutus Non respondentes sparso dabit ordine formas You may read in Plutarch how by this meanes Pharnabaz did deceive Lysander 'T is true indeed that this way was not of such inextricable secrecy but that a little examination might have easily discover it as Scaliger truly observes however in those ages which were lesse versed in these kinds of experiments it seemed much more secret then now it doe's unto us and in these times there are such other meanes of private discoursing