This error is due to the craft of our captains and to the ignorance of
our rulers. For the control of the armies of Italy for the last five and
twenty years resting in the hands of men, who, as having no lands of
their own, may be looked on as mere soldiers of fortune, these fell
forthwith on contriving how they might maintain their credit by being
supplied with the arms which the princes of the country were without.
And as they had no subjects of their own of whom they could make use,
and could not obtain constant employment and pay for a large number
of foot-soldiers, and as a small number would have given them no
importance, they had recourse to horsemen. For a _condottiere_ drawing
pay for two or three hundred horsemen was maintained by them in the
highest credit, and yet the cost was not too great to be met by the
princes who employed him. And to effect their object with more ease, and
increase their credit still further, these adventurers would allow no
merit or favour to be due to foot-soldiers, but claimed all for their
horsemen. And to such a length was this bad system carried, that in the
very greatest army only the smallest sprinkling of infantry was to be
found. This, together with many other ill practices which accompanied
it, has so weakened the militia of Italy, that the country has easily
been trampled upon by all the nations of the North.

That it is a mistake to make more account of cavalry than of infantry,
may be still more clearly seen from another example taken from Roman
history. The Romans being engaged on the siege of Sora, a troop of horse
a sally from the town to attack their camp; when the Roman master of
the knights advancing with his own horsemen to give them battle, it so
chanced that, at the very first onset, the leaders on both sides were
slain. Both parties being thus left without commanders, and the combat,
nevertheless, continuing, the Romans thinking thereby to have the
advantage of their adversaries, alighted from horseback, obliging the