could, on plain ground, attack ten thousand cavalry together with an
equal number of infantry; and not merely attack, but defeat them; as we
saw done by the Swiss at that battle of Novara, to which I have already
referred so often. For although history abounds in similar examples,
none would have believed them, or, believing them, would have said that
nowadays men are so much better armed, that a squadron of cavalry could
shatter a rock, to say nothing of a column of infantry. With such false
pleas would they have belied their judgment, taking no account that with
a very scanty force of foot-soldiers, Lucullus routed a hundred and
fifty thousand of the cavalry of Tigranes, among whom were a body of
horsemen very nearly resembling our own men-at-arms. Now, however, this
error is demonstrated by the example of the northern nations.

And since what history teaches as to the superiority of foot-soldiers
is thus proved to be true, men ought likewise to believe that the other
methods practised by the ancients are in like manner salutary and
useful. And were this once accepted, both princes and commonwealths
would make fewer blunders than they do, would be stronger to resist
sudden attack, and would no longer place their sole hope of safety
in flight; while those who take in hand to provide a State with new
institutions would know better what direction to give them, whether in
the way of extending or merely of preserving; and would see that to
augment the numbers of their citizens, to assume other States as
companions rather than reduce them to subjection, to send out colonies
for the defence of acquired territories, to hold their spoils at the
credit of the common stock, to overcome enemies by inroads and pitched
battles rather than by sieges, to enrich the public purse, keep down
private wealth, and zealously, to maintain all military exercises, are
the true ways to aggrandize a State and to extend its empire. Or if
these methods for adding to their power are not to their mind, let