Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/305

281 EXPEDITION OF CHARLES VIII 281 of the hedgehog, they presented an invulnerable chapter front on every quarter. In the level field, with free — ■— — scope allowed for action, they bore down all oppo- sition, and received unshaken the most desperate charges of the steel-clad cavalry on their terrible array of pikes. They were too unwieldy, however, for rapid or complicated manoeuvres ; they were easily disconcerted by any unforeseen impediment, or irregularity of the ground; and the event proved, that the Spanish foot, armed with its short swords and bucklers, by breaking in under the long pikes of its enemy, could succeed in bringing him to close action, where his formidable weapon was of no avail. It was repeating the ancient lesson of the Roman legion and the Macedonian phalanx. ^^ In artillery, the French were at this time in ad- French aitu- vance of the Italians, perhaps of every nation in Europe. The Italians, indeed, were so exceedingly defective in this department, that their best field- pieces consisted of small copper tubes, covered with wood and hides. They were mounted on unwieldy carriages drawn by oxen, and followed by cars or wagons loaded with stone balls. These guns were worked so awkwardly, that the besieged, says Guic- ciardini, had time between the discharges to re- pair the mischief inflicted by them. From these 33 Machiavelli, Arte della Guer- defects imputed to the Swiss heris- ra, lib.3. — DaBos, Liguede Cam- sow, by modern European writers, bray, tom. i. dis. prelim. — Giovio, (See lib. 17, sec. 25 et seq.) It is Hist, sui Temporis, lib. 2, p. 41. singular, that these exploded arms Polybius, in his minute account and tactics should be revived, after of this celebrated military institu- the lapse of nearly seventeen cen- tion of the Greeks, has recapitu- turies, to be foiled again in the lated nearly all the advantages and same manner as before. VOL. II. 36