exercised, and that with moste great
diligence: and the Pikes I would exercise, at leaste Ansigne after
Ansigne, in the orders of the battailes, as the other: For as moche as
these should doe me more servise, then the ordinarie battailes, in all
particulare affaires: as to make guides, to get booties, and to doe like
thynges: but the Veliti, I would exercise at home, without bringing them
together, for that their office being to faight a sonder, it is not
mete, that thei should companie with other, in the common exercises: for
that it shall suffice, to exercise them well in the particular
exercises. Thei ought then (as I firste tolde you, nor now me thynkes no
labour to rehearse it againe) to cause their men to exercise them selves
in these battailes, whereby thei maie knowe how to kepe the raie, to
knowe their places, to tourne quickly, when either enemie, or situacion
troubleth them: for that, when thei knowe how to do this, the place is
after easely learned, which a battaile hath to kepe, and what is the
office thereof in the armie: and when a Prince, or a common weale, will
take the paine, and will use their diligence in these orders, and in
these exercisyng, it shall alwaies happen, that in their countrie, there
shall bee good souldiours, and thei to be superiours to their
neighbours, and shalbe those, whiche shall give, and not receive the
lawes of other men: but (as I have saied) the disorder wherein thei
live, maketh that thei neclecte, and doe not esteme these thynges, and
therefore our armies be not good: and yet though there were either hed,
or member naturally vertuous, thei cannot shewe it.

COSIMO. What carriages would you, that every one of these battailes
should have?

[Sidenote: Neither Centurion nor Peticapitaine, ought not to ride; What
carriages the Capitaines ought to have, and the nomber of carrages
requisite to every bande of menne.]

FABRICIO. Firste, I would that neither Centurion, nor Peticapitain,
should be suffered to ride: and if the Conestable would nedes ride, I
would that he should have a Mule, and not a horse: I would allowe hym
twoo carriages, and one to every Centurion, and twoo to every three
Peticapitaines, for that so many wee lodge in a lodgyng, as in the place
therof we shall tell you: So that every battaile will come to have
xxxvi. carriages, the whiche I would should carrie of necessitie the
tentes, the vesselles to seeth meate, axes, barres of Iron, sufficient
to make the l