Page:The Prince.djvu/195

80 employ or disband them, he deterimined to have them all massacred, and afterwards caried on the war with his own troops only.

I will also advert to a trait of history drawn from the Old Testament. David having offered to go to combat that formidable Philistine Goliah, Saul, to inspire him with greater ardour, armed him with his sword, his helmet, and his cuirass; but David told him they would more inconvenience than serve him, and declared that he would fight his enemy only with his sling.

Finally, foreign soldiers either become a charge to you, or abandon you at the very moment they can serve you, or else turn their arms against him who employs them. Charles the VII. the father of Lewis XI. after having by his valour delivered France from the English, being convinced of the necessity of fighting with his own troops, established throughout all France companies of artillery, of cavalry, and infantry. His son Lewis XI. has since disbanded the infantry, for whom he substituted the Swiss. This fault, which was also committed by his successors, has been the source of the evils experienced by the state at this moment. These kings, by giving superior credit to the Helvetic soldiery, have made their own contemptible, who from being accustomed to fight with the Swiss, think they cannot conquer without them. So that the French were afraid either to