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The Venetians, if their achievements are considered, will be seen

to have acted safely and gloriously so long as they sent to war

their own men, when with armed gentlemen and plebians they did

valiantly. This was before they turned to enterprises on land,

but when they began to fight on land they forsook this virtue and

followed the custom of Italy.

And in the beginning of their expansion on land, through not

having much territory, and because of their great reputation,

they had not much to fear from their captains; but when they

expanded, as under Carmignuola,[5] they had a taste of this

mistake; for, having found him a most valiant man (they beat the

Duke of Milan under his leadership), and, on the other hand,

knowing how lukewarm he was in the war, they feared they would no

longer conquer under him, and for this reason they were not

willing, nor were they able, to let him go; and so, not to lose

again that which they had acquired, they were compelled, in order

to secure themselves, to murder him. They had afterwards for

their captains Bartolomeo da Bergamo, Roberto da San Severino,

the count of Pitigliano,[6] and the like, under whom they had to

dread loss and not gain, as happened afterwards at Vaila,[7]

where in one battle they lost that which in eight hundred years

they had acquired with so much trouble.