CHAPTER XVII..

THE GOOD GENERAL.

THE soldier, whom we formerly described,* hath since, by the stairs of his own deserts, climbed up to be a general; and now we come to character him.

MAXIM I.

He is pious in the ordering of his own life.-Some falsely conceive, that religion spoileth the spirit of a general, as bad as a rainy day doth his plume of feathers, making it droop and hang down; whereas, indeed, piety only begets true prowess.

II.

He acknowledgeth God the Generalissimo of all armies.-Who in all battles, though the number be never so unequal, reserves the casting-voice for himself. Yet can I scarce believe what one tells us, how Walter Pletemberg, Master of the Teutonic Order, with a small number, slew in a battle a hundred thousand Muscovite enemies, with loss of but one man on his side.†

III.

He hath gained skill in his place by long experience.-Not beginning to lead others, before himself ever knew to follow ; having never before (except in cock-matches) beheld any battles. Surely, they leap best in their providence forward, who fetch their rise farthest backward in their experience.

IV.

He either is, or is presumed, valiant.-Indeed, courage in him is necessary; though some think that a general is above valour, who may command others to be so: as if it were all one, whether courage were his naturally or by adoption, who can make the valiant deeds of others seem his own; and his reputation for personal manhood, once raised, will bear itself up like a round

Book ii. chap. 20, p. 113-120.

TILMAN BREDENBACH, De Bello Livon.; and FITS-HERBERT, "Of Policy and Religion," part i. cap. xiv.

body, some force is required to set it but a touch will keep it-a-going. Indeed, it is extreme indiscretion (except in extremities) for him to be prodigal of his person.

V.

He is cheerful and willing in undergoing of labour.-Admirable are the miracles of an industrious army; witness the mighty ditch in Cambridgeshire, made by the East-Angles, commonly called "Devil's-ditch," as if the pioneers thereof came from hell. Thus the effeminateness of our age, defaming what it should imitate, falsely traduces the monuments of their ancestors' endeavours.

VI.

He loves, and is beloved of, his soldiers.-Whose good-will he attaineth,

1. By giving them good words in his speeches unto them. When wages have sometimes accidentally fallen short, soldiers have accepted the payment in the fair language and promises of their general.

2. By partaking with his soldiers in their painful employments. When the English, at the Spanish fleet's approach in eighty-eight, [1588,] drew their ships out of Plymouth-haven, the Lord-Admiral Howard himself towed a cable; * the least joint of whose exemplary hand drew more than twenty men besides.

3. By sharing with them in their wants. When victuals have grown scant, some generals have pinched themselves to the same fare with their soldiers; who could not complain that their mess was bad, whilst their general was Fellow-commoner with them.

4. By taking notice and rewarding of their deserts; never disinheriting a worthy soldier of his birth-right of the next office due to him. For a worthy man is wounded more deeply by his own general's neglect, than by his enemy's sword: the latter may kill him, but the former deads his courage, or, which is worse, mads him into discontent; who had rather others should make a ladder of his dead corpse to scale a city by it, than a bridge of him whilst alive for his punies † to give him the go-by

+ The old method of writing

CAMDEN'S " Elizabeth," anno 1588. puis-nès, "juniors or inferiors." This sentence, and many others in Fuller, teach us, that it is no new thing under the sun for brave officers who have seen much service, and deserved well of their country, to complain in their old age, that raw

and pass over him to preferment. For this reason chiefly, beside some others, a great and valiant English general, in the days of queen Elizabeth, was hated of his soldiers, because he disposed offices by his own absolute will, without respect of orderly advancing such as deserved it; which made a great man once salute him with this letter :

"SIR, IF you will be pleased to bestow a captain's place on the bearer hereof, being a worthy gentleman, he shall do that for you which never as yet any soldier did; namely, pray to God for your health and happiness."

VII.

He is fortunate in what he undertakes.—Such a one was Julius Cæsar, who in Britain, a country undiscovered, peopled with a valiant nation, began a war in Autumn, without apparent advantage, not having any intelligence there, being to pass over the sea into a colder climate,* ("an enterprise," saith one,† "well worthy the invincible courage of Cæsar, but not of his accustomed prudence,") and yet returned victorious. Indeed, God is the sole Disposer of success. Other gifts He also scattereth amongst men, yet so that they themselves scramble to gather them up; whereas success God gives immediately into their hands on whom he pleaseth to bestow it.

VIII.

He trieth the forces of a new enemy before he encounters him.Samson is half-conquered, when it is known where his strength lies; and skirmishes are scouts for the discovery of the strength of an army, before battle is given.

IX.

He makes his flying enemy a bridge of gold, and disarms them of their best weapon.-Which is, necessity to fight, whether they will or no. Men forced to a battle against their intention, often conquer beyond their expectation. Stop a flying coward, and he will turn his legs into arms, and lay about him manfully; whereas open him a passage to escape, and he will quickly shut up his courage.

striplings who had never drawn their swords against their enemies in war, were advanced above them in rank, merely through the more powerful influence of their immediate connexions.-EDIT.

CÆSARIS Comment., lib. iv.

plete Captain," p. 19.

The DUKE OF ROHAN, in the "Com

But I dare dwell no longer on this subject. When the Pope carnestly wrote to king Richard I., not to detain in prison "his dear son," the martial bishop of Beauvois, the king sent the Pope back the armour wherein the bishop was taken, with the words of Jacob's sons to their father: "See whether or no this be the coat of thy son." Surely, a corslet is no canonical coat for me, nor suits it with my clergy-profession to proceed any further in this warlike description; only we come to give an example thereof.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LIFE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, KING OF SWEDEN.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, king of Sweden, born anno Domini 1594, had princely education both for arts and arms. In Italy he learnt the mathematics; and, in other places abroad, the French, Italian, and German tongues; and after he was king, he travelled under the name of Mr. GARS,* being the four initial letters of his name and title.

He was but seventeen years old at his father's death, being left not only a young king, but also in a young kingdom; for his title to the crown of Sweden was but five years old; to wit, since the beginning of his father's reign. All his bordering princes (on the North, nothing but the North bounded on him) were his enemies; the duke-emperor of Muscovy on the East, the king of Denmark on the West, and of Poland on the South. The former two laid claim to parcels, the latter, to all his kingdom. Yet was he too great for them in his minority, both defending his own, and gaining on them. "Woe be to the kingdom whose king is a child:" yet blessed is that kingdom whose king, though a child in age, is a man in worth.

These his first actions had much of glory, and yet somewhat of possibility and credit, in them. But chronicle and belief must strain hard to make his German conquest probable with posterity; coming in with eleven thousand men, having no certain confederates, but some of his alliance whom the emperor

Gustavus Adolphus, Rex Suecorum.—Dr. Wats, in charact. ad finem, part iii.,

p. 183.

had outed of all their estates: and yet, in two years and four months, he left the emperor in as bad a case almost as he found those princes in.

God's providence herein is chiefly to be admired; who, to open him a free entrance into Germany, diverted the imperial and Spanish forces into Italy, there to scramble against the French for the dukedom of Mantua. For heaven only knows how much Protestant flesh the Imperialists had devoured, if that bone had not stuck in their teeth.

If we look on second causes, we may ascribe his victories to this king's piety, wisdom, valour, and other virtues. His piety to God was exemplary, being more addicted to prayer than to fight, as if he would rather conquer heaven than earth. He was himself exceeding temperate, save only too much given to anger; but afterwards he would correct himself, and be choleric with his choler, showing himself a man in the one, and a saint in the other.

He was a strict observer of martial discipline, the life of war, without which an army is but a crowd (not to say "herd ") of people. He would march all day in complete armour; which was, by custom, no more burden to him than his arms; and to carry, his helmet, no more trouble than his head; whilst his example made the same easy to all his soldiers. He was a strict punisher of misdemeanours and wanton intemperance in his camp and yet let me relate this story from one present therein :

When he first entered Germany, he perceived how that many women followed his soldiers; some being their wives, and some wanting nothing to make them so but marriage; yet most passing for their laundresses, though commonly defiling more than they wash. The king, coming to a great river, after his men and the waggons were passed over, caused the bridge to be broken down, hoping so to be rid of these feminine impediments. But they, on a sudden, lift up a panic shriek, which pierced the skies and the soldiers' hearts on the other side of the river; who instantly vowed not to stir a foot farther, except with baggage, and that the women might be fetched over, which was done accordingly. For the king, finding this ill-humour so generally dispersed in his men, that it was dangerous to purge it all at once, smiled out his anger for the prescnt, and permitted what he could not amend: yet this abuse was afterwards reformed by degrees.

Ile was very merciful to any that would submit. And as the