n Etruria, the
Etruscans, to see whether they could not circumvent the new commander,
planting an ambush not far from the Roman camp, sent forward soldiers
disguised as shepherds driving large flocks of sheep so as to pass in
sight of the Roman army. These pretended shepherds coming close to
the wall of his camp, Fulvius, marvelling at what appeared to him
unaccountable audacity, hit upon a device whereby the artifice of the
Etruscans was detected and their design defeated.

Here it seems proper to note that the captain of an army ought not to
build on what seems a manifest blunder on the part of an enemy; for
as men are unlikely to act with conspicuous want of caution, it will
commonly be found that this blunder is cover to a fraud. And yet, so
blinded are men's minds by their eagerness for victory, that they look
only to what appears on the surface.

After defeating the Romans on the Allia, the Gauls, hastening on to
Rome, found the gates of the city left open and unguarded. But fearing
some stratagem, and being unable to believe that the Romans could be so
foolish and cowardly as to abandon their city, they waited during the
whole of that day and the following night outside the gates, without
daring to enter. In the year 1508, when the Florentines Avere engaged in
besieging Pisa, Alfonso del Mutolo, a citizen of that town, happening to
be taken prisoner, was released on his promise to procure the surrender
to the Florentines of one of the gates of the city. Afterwards, on
pretence of arranging for the execution of this surrender, he came
repeatedly to confer with those whom the Florentine commissaries
had deputed to treat with him, coming not secretly but openly, and
accompanied by other citizens of Pisa, whom he caused to stand aside
while he conversed with the Florentines. From all which circumstances
his duplicity might have been suspected, since, had he meant to do as
he had engaged, it was most unlikely that he should be negotiating so
openly. But the desire to recover possession of Pisa so blinded the
Florentines that they allowed themselves to be conducted under his
guidance to the Lucca Gate, where, through his treachery, but to their
own disgrace, they lost a large number of their men and officers.

CHAPTER XLIX.--_That a Commonwealth to preserve its Freedom has constant
need of new Ordinances. Of the services in respect of which Quintius
Fabius received the surname of Maximus._

It must happen, as I