Pagina 174 van 310

5. Princes, especially new ones, have found more fidelity and

assistance in those men who in the beginning of their rule were

distrusted than among those who in the beginning were trusted.

Pandolfo Petrucci, Prince of Siena, ruled his state more by those

who had been distrusted than by others. But on this question one

cannot speak generally, for it varies so much with the

individual; I will only say this, that those men who at the

commencement of a princedom have been hostile, if they are of a

description to need assistance to support themselves, can always

be gained over with the greatest ease, and they will be tightly

held to serve the prince with fidelity, inasmuch as they know it

to be very necessary for them to cancel by deeds the bad

impression which he had formed of them; and thus the prince

always extracts more profit from them than from those who,

serving him in too much security, may neglect his affairs.