Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/287

 to the Hazard of a Battel, and that nothing of Madness were imputable to him upon that Account; but Prudence restrains his generous Efforts: He sees with what great Hazard his faithful Subjects, and the Ruin of all Christendom, an unsuccessful Battel would prove, and is very unwilling that the Public should pay for his Rashness. He considers how great the Odds would be, between 25 or 30,000 Foot, with a small Number of Horse, and 200,000 Horse, supported by a Veteran Body of Foot. What Hopes there may be of Success in that Case, the Example of former Times, and the Blood-shed at Nicopolis, and at Varna, and the Fields of Mohac, as yet white with the Bones of Christians slain there, sufficiently inform us. 'Tis the Part of a foolish Commander, without duly weighing his own and the Enemy's Strength, to rush into Battel, where his Loss can find no wiser an Excuse than, I had not thought. 'Tis all in all, what the Enemy is with whom we are to cope; this is an infallible Rule, laid down by all the gravest Authors that ever wrote of Military Affairs: such was Cæsar; he counted it a Happiness to Lucullus and to Pompey, that they had to do with a slothful Enemy, over whom they got Victories without Dust or Sweat; and when he had obtained such an easy Victory over Pharnaces, he jestingly said, I came, I saw, I overcame: But were to make War with the People of those Countries (then effeminated by Luxury, but now harden'd by Want, Frugality, Hunger, Cold, Heat, continual Fatigue, and Severity of Discipline, to do and suffer any thing) he would tell us another Story. Hence it is, that Livy reasons upon good Grounds, that Alexander the Macedonian would not have had the same Success against the Roman Enemy, as against the Persian, or the Womanish Indian: There is a good