writer of wonderful weight in such matters, as a great captain and as a philosopher among the first disciples of Socrates; and I do not accede to the measure of his dispensation in all things and everywhere.
(a) When Monsieur d’Aubigny was besieging Capua,[1] and after he had made a fierce assault, Signor Fabricio Colonna, commander of the city, having begun to discuss terms of surrender from the top of a bastion, and his soldiers having relaxed their watchfulness, ours took possession of the city, killing right and left. And in still more recent times, at Yvoy,[2] Signor Jullian Rommero, having adopted the blundering course[3] of going out to parley with the Constable, on his return found the place taken. But, that we might not go unpunished, when the Marquis of Pescara was besieging Genoa, where Duke Octaviano Fregoso commanded, under our protection, and when the accord between them had been carried so far that it was regarded as settled and on the point of being concluded, the Spaniards, having crept into the town, treated it as if they had won a complete victory.[4] And later, at Ligny en Barrois, where the Count of Brienne commanded, the Emperor in person having laid siege to the town, and Bertheville, the said count’s lieutenant, having come out to parley, during the parley the place was taken.[5]
Fu il vincer sempre mai laudabil cosa,
Vincasì o per fortuna o per ingegno,[6]
they say. But the philosopher Chrysippus would not have been of that opinion, (b) and I as little; (a) for he said that they who run races ought to put forth all their powers of swiftness, but that it was in no wise allowable for them to put their hand on their opponent to stop him, or to thrust out
- ↑ See Guicciardini, V, 2.
- ↑ Montaigne is here in error. The incident he narrates occurred at the siege of Dinan (in the neighbourhood of Liège) in 1554. He very likely knew of it by oral report. See de Thou, and G. Paradin, Continuation de l’histoire de notre temps.
- ↑ Ce pas de clerc.
- ↑ See Guicciardini, XIV, 5; also, du Bellay, II, 43.
- ↑ See du Bellay, IX, 328.
- ↑ It is always glorious to conquer, whether the victory be due to chance or to skill. — Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Canto XV, 1.
