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I wish on this subject to adduce a modern example. Fra Luca, the

man of affairs to Maximilian,[1] the present emperor, speaking of

his majesty, said: He consulted with no one, yet never got his

own way in anything. This arose because of his following a

practice the opposite to the above; for the emperor is a

secretive man-he does not communicate his designs to any one, nor

does he receive opinions on them. But as in carrying them into

effect they become revealed and known, they are at once

obstructed by those men whom he has around him, and he, being

pliant, is diverted from them. Hence it follows that those things

he does one day he undoes the next, and no one ever understands

what he wishes or intends to do, and no one can rely on his

resolutions.

[1] Maximilian I, born in 1459, died 1519, Emperor of the Holy

Roman Empire. He married, first, Mary, daughter of Charles the

Bold; after her death, Bianca Sforza; and thus became involved in

Italian politics.