em.
But not possessing such a strong army as would have enabled them to
temporize with their enemies, and consequently not having the time
needed for gaining any to their side, they were undone. Yet we know that
the Pope, as soon as he had obtained what he wanted, made friends with
them, and that Spain did the like; and that both the one and the other
of these powers would gladly have saved the Lombard territory for
themselves, nor would, if they could have helped it, have left it to
France, so as to augment her influence in Italy.

The Venetians, therefore, should have given up a part to save the rest;
and had they done so at a time when the surrender would not have seemed
to be made under compulsion, and before any step had been taken in the
direction of war, it would have been a most prudent course; although
discreditable and probably of little avail after war had been begun. But
until the war broke out, few of the Venetian citizens recognized the
danger, fewer still the remedy, and none ventured to prescribe it.

But to return to the point whence we started, I say that the same
safeguard for their country which the Roman senate found against the
ambition of the tribunes in their number, is within the reach of the
prince who is attacked by many adversaries, if he only know to use
prudently those methods which promote division.

CHAPTER XII.--_A prudent Captain will do what he can to make it
necessary for his own Soldiers to fight, and to relieve his Enemy from
that necessity._

Elsewhere I have noted how greatly men are governed in what they do by
Necessity, and how much of their renown is due to her guidance, so that
it has even been said by some philosophers, that the hands and tongues
of men, the two noblest instruments of their fame, would never have
worked to perfection, nor have brought their labours to that pitch of
excellence we see them to have reached, had they not been impelled by
this cause. The captains of antiquity, therefore, knowing the virtues
of this necessity, and seeing the steadfast courage which it gave their
soldiers in battle, spared no effort to bring their armies under its
influence, while using all their address to loosen its hold upon their
enemies. For which reason, they would often leave open to an adversary
some way which they might have closed, and close against their own men
some way they might have left open.

Whosoever, therefore, would have a city defend itself stubbornly,