Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/286

 the Genius of Emperors are to be judged of rather by their Councils, than by their Fortunes or Events; and that, by those Councils, the Times, our own Strength, the Nature and Power of our Enemies are to be regulated. If a common Enemy, well known to us, and famous for no Victory, should invade our Borders, 'twere Cowardice not to oppose him, if we have Forces enough. But if the Enemy be such as seem to be sent as a Scourge from God (such was Atila of old, Tamerlane in the Days of our Forefathers, and the Ottoman Princes in our Age) whom nothing can withstand, who lays all waste before him; to oppose such an Enemy with small and new-levied Forces, would not only be rash, but even Madness itself. Solyman comes terrible, by his own and his Ancestor's Successes: He invades Hungary with 200,000 Horse, he draws near to Austria, and threatens the rest of Germany; his Troops are fetched from the very Confines of Persia; his Army is furnished from many Nations; each of the Three known Parts of the World conspire therein for our Destruction: He, lke Lightning, strikes down all before him with his battering Army, and fills all Places with the Terror of his Name; he roars and Hovers round our Borders, striving to break in sometimes here, sometimes there. Many Nations of old, when they have been threatned with such Potent Enemies, have left their Native Country, and sought out other Habitations. To be unmoved in small Dangers, is but a mean kind of Praise; but not to be terrify'd by the coming of so great an Enemy, who has laid waste so many bordering Kingdoms, seems to me an Herculean kind of Constancy. Amidst these Dangers, Ferdinand heroically keeps his Station, and being of an unconquered Spirit, will not quit that, or his State. He could wish his Forces were sufficient to put all