ng within
a towne, thinges to be kept secret, and mindynge not to truste any
person, have sente common matters written, accordyng to the common use
and enterlined it, as I have saied above, and the same have made to be
hanged on the gates of the Temples, the whiche by countersignes beyng
knowen of those, unto whome they have been sente, were taken of and
redde: the whiche way is moste politique, bicause he that carrieth them
maie bee beguiled, and there shall happen hym no perill. There be moste
infinite other waies, whiche every manne maie by himself rede and finde:
but with more facilitie, the besieged maie bee written unto, then the
besieged to their frendes without, for that soche letters cannot be
sent, but by one, under colour of a fugetive, that commeth out of a
toune: the whiche is a daungerous and perilous thing, when thenemie is
any whit craftie: But those that sende in, he that is sente, maie under
many colours, goe into the Campe that besiegeth, and from thens takyng
conveniente occasion, maie leape into the toune: but lette us come to
speake of the present winnyng of tounes. I saie that if it happen, that
thou bee besieged in thy citee, whiche is not ordained with diches
within, as a little before we shewed, to mynde that thenemie shall not
enter through the breach of the walle, whiche the artillerie maketh:
bicause there is no remedie to lette thesame from makyng of a breache,
it is therefore necessarie for thee, whileste the ordinance battereth,
to caste a diche within the wall which is battered, and that it be in
bredth at leaste twoo and twentie yardes and a halfe, and to throwe all
thesame that is digged towardes the toun, whiche maie make banke, and
the diche more deper: and it is convenient for thee, to sollicitate this
worke in soche wise, that when the walle falleth, the Diche maie be
digged at least, fower or five yardes in depth: the whiche diche is
necessarie, while it is a digging, to shutte it on every side with a
slaughter house: and when the wall is so strong, that it giveth thee
time to make the diche, and the slaughter houses, that battered parte,
commeth to be moche stronger, then the rest of the citee: for that soche
fortificacion, cometh to have the forme, of the diches which we devised
within: but when the walle is weake, and that it giveth thee not tyme,
to make like fortificacions, then strengthe and valiauntnesse muste bee
shewed, settyng againste the enemies armed menne, with all thy