for courage; and perhaps the reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their service in making them feared as well as hated by the people. For the most part they must have been men who were disposed by inclination not less than circumstances rather for evil than for good. The great body of them consisted of persons whose violent temper, or lawless habits, led them to a roving life. Your earliest laws speak of robbers, whom they class according to their number*, either in companies, or troops, or armies; and they were so numerous, that if a traveller or stranger were met with out of the road, it was lawfult, unless he were blowing a horn, or shouting aloud, to put him to death. This is proof how greatly the people were infested by such outlaws. But as soon as the state of public affairs afforded employment for mercenaries, these men were glad to exchange their appellation and better their quarters,.. especially as they were to pursue a similar course of life under the sanction and protection of the great, and to receive pay for it. * Fures appellamus societatem septem hominum; e septem usque ad xxxv turmam, et deinde esto exercitus. This is in one of Ina's laws.-Canciani, t. iv. 237. † By a law of Wiltræd's which was repreated by Ina.—Canciani, t. iv. 234. 337. MONTESINOS. These robbers, however, were men who, like Robin Hood and his companions, might have made out a strong case in exculpation of themselves. At first they were, beyond a doubt, those Britons who, amid the ruin and misery which was brought upon them by the Saxon conquest, found consolation in the exercise of vengeance, and instead of retiring with their countrymen to the mountainous parts of the island, remained in their own country, and trusted to the cover of the woods and marshes. When that race was extinct, runaway slaves supplied their place. The Norman invasion reduced many of the Saxons to this condition; and under the Norman kings the forest laws made outlaws, just as in these days the fashion of preserving game for what, upon the scale which it is carried on, deserves rather to be called butchery than sport, makes poachers. Similar causes operated upon the continent, though not to an equal extent: political revolutions, and the intolerable oppression and injustice which they produced, made men desperate; and then they turned upon society as much for self-preservation as for vengeance. We know of only one country which was acquired by occupancy, not by conquest: with respect to soil, climate, and every physical circumstance, it might be considered as the most unhappy part of the whole habitable world; but looking at its history, and the moral condition of its inhabitants, it is that spot upon the earth which may be regarded with most pleasure. SIR THOMAS MORE. See how men are the creatures of circumstances! The Norwegians, who settled upon Iceland, were neither more advanced in knowledge, nor under the influence of better principles, than their countrymen and contemporaries and had they sought their fortune in Ireland, Scotland, or the smaller British isles, their posterity would not have been what certainly they were, always the most peaceful, and, during the darkest ages, the most intellectual of all Christian people. But let us return to the continent from whence they came. It was cleared for one generation of its most restless spirits by William the Conqueror, who gathered them together first for winning, and afterwards for securing his kingdom. In the days of his nephew, Stephen, the mercenaries were chiefly drawn from the same countries which supplied the adventurous part of William's armies. MONTESINOS. They were drawn partly from those who could no longer carry on the trade of piracy, which, having so long been a royal occupation, was about this time put down; and partly, perhaps, they came from the manufacturing population which was then springing up in Brabant and Flanders. I have said that these mercenaries were regarded with horror for their cruelties:.. yet war was never carried on with so little bloodshed and so little ferocity as by men of the same description in Italy. SIR THOMAS MORE. In Italy they formed the best, and generally the largest part of the forces which were brought into the field during the ages to which you refer. And having the trade of war, for a trade they made it, in their own hands, they adapted its regulations to their own convenience. I saw the termination of that system. The French and Spaniards and Germans were not accustomed to consider war as a game at chess; their struggle in Italy was carried on upon a widely different scale, and with a widely different feeling. And even if their interference, which has proved in its consequences so fatally injurious to Italy, had not taken place, the use of fire-arms must soon have put an end to that ment. sort of conventional fighting, which rendered a battle little more dangerous than a tournaBut there was another effect arising from the introduction of gunpowder in war, which, if Roger Bacon had perceived it, might have reconciled him to the discovery. It rendered the lot of war equal; for during the chivalrous ages that dreadful occupation was carried on upon terms of tremendous disparity for the chiefs and for their followers: the one were cased in complete steel* from head to foot; the others provided only with a corselet and a headpiece, which could afford little defence against. the spear of the knight, his battle axe, his mace, or the huge sword which he wielded with both hands. MONTESINOS. This levelling property was grievously complained of by those whom it affected. Bayard, humane and generous as he was, and every way worthy of the high place which he holds in *Bien mal-aisez estoient a tuer is the memorable expression of Philippe de Comines concerning certain knights who lay helplessly on the ground while the peasants hewed away at their armour with hatchets. It may remind the reader, by contrast, of the Irish soldier's exultant exclamation, when he was using the bayonet in action for the first time. Captain, it goes into them quite aisy !' |