t the half of its virtue. The walls of fortresses,
impregnable for a thousand years, became as matchwood ramparts. The
mounted man-at-arms was found with wonder to be no match for the
lightly-armoured but nimble foot-man. The Swiss were seen to hold their
own with ease against the knighthood of Austria and Burgundy. The Free
Companies lost in value and prestige what they added to their corruption
and treachery. All these things grew clear to Machiavelli. But his
almost fatal misfortune was that he observed and wrote in the mid-moment
of the transition. He had no faith in fire-arms, and as regards the
portable fire-arms of those days he was right. After the artillery work
at Ravenna, Novara, and Marignano it is argued that he should have known
better. But he was present at no great battles, and pike, spear, and
sword had been the stable weapons of four thousand years. These were
indeed too simple to be largely modified, and the future of mechanisms
and explosives no prophet uninspired could foresee. And indeed the
armament and formation of men were not the main intent of Machiavelli's
thought. His care in detail, especially in fortifications, of which he
made a special study, in encampments, in plans, in calculations, is
immense. Nothing is so trivial as to be left inexact.

[Sidenote: The New Model.]

But he centred his observation and imagination on the origin, character,
and discipline of an army in being. He pictures the horror, waste, and
failure of a mercenary system, and lays down the fatal error in Italy of
separating civil from military life, converting the latter into a trade.
In such a way the soldier grows to a beast, and the citizen to a coward.
All this must be changed. The basic idea of this astounding Secretary is
to form a National Army, furnished by conscription and informed by the
spirit of the New Model of Cromwell. All able-bodied men between the
ages of seventeen and forty should be drilled on stated days and be kept
in constant readiness. Once or twice a year each battalion must be
mobilised and manoeuvred as in time of war. The discipline must be
constant and severe. The men must be not only robust and well-trained,
but, above all, virtuous, modest, and disposed to any sacrifice for the
public good. So imbued should they be with duty and lofty devotion to
their country that though they may rightly deceive the enemy, reward the
enemy's deserters and employ spies, yet 'an apple tree laden with fruit