is powerless to protect you. A wise and good prince, therefore, that
he may continue good, and give no occasion or encouragement to his
descendants to become evil, will never build a fortress, to the end that
neither he nor they may ever be led to trust to it rather than to the
good-will of their subjects. And if Francesco Sforza, who was accounted
a wise ruler, on becoming Duke of Milan erected a fortress in that
city, I say that herein he was unwise, and that the event has shown the
building of this fortress to have been hurtful and not helpful to his
heirs. For thinking that by its aid they could behave as badly as they
liked to their citizens and subjects, and yet be secure, they refrained
from no sort of violence or oppression, until, becoming beyond measure
odious, they lost their State as soon as an enemy attacked it. Nor was
this fortress, which in peace had occasioned them much hurt, any defence
or of any service them in war. For had they being without it, through
thoughtlessness, treated their subjects inhumanely, they must soon have
discovered and withdrawn from their danger; and might, thereafter, with
no other help than that of attached subjects, have withstood the attacks
of the French far more successfully than they could with their fortress,
but with subjects whom they had estranged.

And, in truth, fortresses are unserviceable in every way, since they
may be lost either by the treachery of those to whom you commit their
defence, or by the overwhelming strength of an assailant, or else by
famine. And where you seek to recover a State which you have lost, and
in which only the fortress remains to you, if that fortress is to be of
any service or assistance to you, you must have an army wherewith to
attack the enemy who has driven you out. But with such an army you might
succeed in recovering your State as readily without a fortress as with
one; nay, perhaps, even more readily, since your subjects, had you not
used them ill, from the overweening confidence your fortress gave you,