laying seige to Mondolpho, a place in the territories of the Vicariat in Italy, seeing the cannoneer give fire to a piece that pointed directly against him, it was well for him that he duck'd, for otherwise, the shot, that only ras'd the top of his head, had doubtless hit him full in the breast. To say truth, I do not think that these evasions are perform'd upon the account of judgment; for how is any man living able to judge of high or low aim on so sudden an occasion? And it is much more easie to believe, that fortune favour'd their apprehension, and that it might be a means at another time, as well as to make them step into danger, as to teach them to avoid it. For my own part I confess, I cannot forbear starting when the rattle of a harquebuze thunders in my ears on a sudden, and in a place where I am not to expect it, which I have also observed in others, braver fellows than I; neither do the stoicks pretend, that the soul of their philosopher should be proof against the first visions and fantacies that surprize him; but as a natural subject, consent that he should tremble at the terrible noise of thunder, or the sudden clatter of some falling ruine, and be affrighted even to paleness and convulsion. And so in other passions, provided a man's judgment remain sound and intire, and that the site of his reason suffers no concussion nor alteration, and that he yields no consent to his fright and discomposure. To him who is not a philosopher, a fright is the same in the first part of it, but quite another thing in the second; for the impression of passions does not remain only superficially in him, but penetrates further, even to the very seat of reason and so, as to infect and to corrupt it. He judges according to his ear, and conforms his behaviour to it. But in this verse you may see the true state of the wise stoick learnedly and plainly express'd : Mens immota manet; lacrymæ volvuntur inanes.-Virg. Æn. l. 2. The wise peripatetick is not himself totally free from perturbations of mind, but he moderates them by his wisdom. CHAP. XIII. THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES. THERE is no subject so frivolous, that does not merit a place in this rhapsody. According to the common rule of civility, it would be a kind of an affront to an equal, and much more to a superiour, to fail of being at home, when he has given you notice he will come to visit you. Nay, Queen Margaret of Navarre further adds, that it would be a rudeness in a gentleman to go out to meet any that is coming to see him, let him be of what condition soever; and that it is more respective, and more 52 IN EVERY SOCIETY EXISTS A PARTICULAR FORM OF CIVILITY. civil to stay at home to receive him, if only upon the account of missing of him by the way, and that it is enough to receive him at the door, and to wait upon him to his chamber. For my part, who as much as I can endeavour to reduce the ceremonies of my house, I very often forget both the one and the other of these vain offices, and peradventure some one may take offence at it; if he do, I am sorry, but I cannot find in my heart to help it; it is much better to offend him once, than my self every day, for it would be a perpetual slavery; and to what end do we avoid the servile attendance of courts, if we bring the same, or a greater trouble, home to our own private houses? It is also a common rule in all assemblies, that those of less quality are to be first upon the place, by reason that it is a state more due to the better sort to make others wait and expect them. Nevertheless, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis at Marseilles, the king, after he had in his own person taken order in the necessary preparations for his reception and entertainment, withdrew out of the town, and gave the Pope two or three days respite for his entry, and wherein to repose and refresh himself before he came to him. And in like manner, at the assignation of the Pope and the Emperour at Bologna, the Emperour gave the Pope leave to come thither first, and came himself after; for which, the reason then given was this; that at all the interviews of such princes, the greater ought to be first at the appointed place, especially before the other, in whose territories the interview is appointed to be, intimating thereby a kind of deference to the other, it appearing proper for the less to seek out, and to apply themselves to the greater, and not the greater to them. Not every country only, but every city, and so much as every society, have their particular forms of civility. There was care enough taken in my education, and I have liv'd in good company enough to know the formalities of our own nation, and am able to yive lesson in it; I love also to follow them, but not to be so servilely yed to their observation, that my whole life should be enslav'd to ceremony; of which there are some, that provided a man omits them out of discretion, and not for want of breeding, it will be every whit as handsom. I have seen some people rude, by being over-civil, and troublesome in their courtesie: though, these excesses excepted, the knowledge of courtesie and good manners is a very necessary study. It is, like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight, and in the beginning of an acquaintance and familiarity; and consequently, that which first opens the door, and intromits us to better our selves by the example of others, if there be any thing in the society worth taking notice of. CHAP. XIV. THAT MEN ARE JUSTLY PUNISH'D FOR BEING OBSTINATE IN THE DEFENCE OF A FORT THAT IS NOT IN REASON TO BE DEFENDED. VALOUR has its bounds, as well as other vertues, which once transgress'd, the next step is into the territories of vice, so that by having too large a proportion of this heroick vertue, unless a man be very perfect in its limits, which upon the confines are very hard to discern, he may very easily unawares run into temerity, obstinacy, and folly. From this consideration it is, that we have deriv'd the custom in times of war, to punish even with death those who are obstinate to defend a place that is not tenible by the rules of war. In which case, if there were not some examples made, men would be so confident upon the hopes of impunity, that not a hen-roost but would resist, and stop a royal army. The Constable Monsieur de Montmorency, having at the siege of Pavia been order'd to pass the Tesino, and to take up his quarters in the Fauxburg St. Antonie, being hindred so to do by a tower that was at the end of the bridge, which was so impudent as to endure a battery, hang'd every man he found within it for their labour. And again since, accompanying the Dauphine in his expedition beyond the Alpes, and taking the castle of Villane by assault, and all within it being put to the sword, the governour and his ensign only excepted, he caus'd them both to be truss'd up for the same reason; as also did Captain Martin du Bellay, then Governour of Turin, the governour of St. Bony, in the same countrey, all his people being cut in pieces at the taking of the place. But forasmuch as the strength or weakness of a fortress is always measur'd by the estimate and counterpoise of the forces that attack it (for a man might reasonably enough despise two culverines, that would be a mad-man to abide a battery of thirty pieces of canon) where also the greatness of the prince who is master of the field, his reputation, and the respect that is due unto him, is always put into the balance; 'tis dangerous to affront such an enemy: and besides, by compelling him to force you, you possess him with so great an opinion of himself and his power, that thinking it unreasonable any place should dare to shut their gates against his victorious army, he puts all to the sword, where he meets with any opposition, whilst his fortune continues; as is very plain in the fierce and arrogant forms of summoning towns, and denouncing war: savouring so much of barbarian pride and insolence in use amongst the Oriental princes, and which their successors to this day do yet retain and practice. And even in that remote part of the world where the Portuguese subdued the Indians, they found some states where it was an universal and inviolable law amongst them, that every enemy, overcome by the king in 54 COWARDS IN GREECE EXPOSED IN WOMEN'S ATTIRE. person, or by his representative lieutenant, was out of composition both of ransom and mercy. So that above all things a man should take heed of falling into the hands of a judge who is an enemy and victorious. CHAP. XV.--OF THE PUNISHMENT OF COWARDICE. I ONCE heard of a prince, and a great captain, having a narration given him as he sat at table of the proceeding against Monsieur de Vervins, who was sentenc'd to death for having surrendred Bullen to the English, openly maintain'd, that a souldier could not justly be put to death for his want of courage. And, in truth, a man should make a great difference betwixt faults that merely proceed from infirmity, and those that are visibly the effects of treachery and malice; for in the last they will fully act against the rules of reason that nature has imprinted in us; whereas in the former it seems as if we might produce the same nature, who left us in such a state of imperfection, and defect of courage for our justification. Insomuch, that many have thought we are not justly questionable for any thing, but what we commit against the light of our own conscience. And it is partly upon this rule, that those ground their opinion, who disapprove of capital and sanguinary punishments inflicted upon hereticks and miscreants; and theirs also, who hold that an advocate or a judge are not accountable for having ignorantly fail'd in their administration. But as to cowardice, it is most certain, that the most usual way of chastising that is by ignominy and disgrace; and it is suppos'd, that this practice was first brought into use by the legislator Cherondas; and that before his time the laws of Greece punish'd those with death who fled from a battel; whereas he ordain'd only that they should be three days expos'd in the publick place dress'd in womens attire, hoping yet for some service from them, having awak’d their courage by this open shame; "Suffundere malis hominis sanguinem quam effundere;" "choosing rather to bring the blood into their cheeks than to let it out of their bodies." It appears also, that the Roman laws did anciently punish those with death who had run away for Ammianus Marcellinus says, that the Emperor Julian commanded ten of his souldiers, who had turn'd their backs in an encounter against the Parthians, to be first degraded, and afterwards put to death, according (says he) to the ancient laws, and yet else-where for the like offence, he only condemns others to remain amongst the prisoners under the baggage ensign. The punishment the people of Rome inflicted upon those who fled from the battel of Cannæ, and those who ran away with Cneius Fulvius, at his defeat, did not extend to death. And yet methinks men should consider what they do in such cases, lest disgrace should make such delinquents desperate, and not only faint friends but implacable and mortal enemies. Of late memory, the Seigneur de Franget, lieutenant to the Mareschal de Chattilion's company, having by the Mareschal de Chabanes been put in governour of Fontarabia, in the place of Monsieur de Lude, and having surrender'd it to the Spaniard, he was for that condemn'd to be degraded from all nobility, and both himself and his posterity declar'd ignoble, taxable, and for ever incapable of bearing arms; which severe sentence was afterwards accordingly executed at Lions and since that all the gentlemen who were in Guise when Count Nassau enter'd into it, underwent the same punishment, as several others have done since for the like offence. Notwithstanding, in case of such a manifest ignorance or cowardice as exceeds all other ordinary example, 'tis but reason to take it for a sufficient proof of treachery and malice, and for such it ought to be censur'd and punish'd. CHAP. XVI.-A PROCEEDING OF SOME AMBASSADORS. I OBSERVE in all my travels this custom, ever to learn something from the information of those with whom I confer (which is the best school of all other) and to put my company upon those subjects they are the best able to speak of: Basti al nochiero ragionar de venti, FOR it often falls out, that, on the contrary, every one will rather choose to be prating of another man's province than his own, thinking it so much new reputation acquir'd; witness the jeer Archidamus put upon Periander, "that he had quitted the glory of being an excellent physician to gain the repute of a very bad poet." And do but observe how large and ample Cæsar is to make us understand his invention of building of bridges, and contriving engines of war, and how succinct and reserv'd in comparison, where he speaks of the offices of his profession, his own valour, and military conduct. His exploits sufficiently prove him a great captain, and that he knew well enough, but he would be thought a good engineer to boot; a quality something *Aristo. Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator, Ememorat miles vulnera, pastor oves. Propert |