INTRIGUE XXVIII. How to shun the Reproach of an unhappy Adventure.

LEST any blame you, for a rash underta∣king, which proveth bad in the event; you must carry it, as if the result were uncertain, and as it were not known, what might be the event; and take his Advice, whose Business it is, what is best to be done; then, when you both agree Page  65in one Judgment, and his Councel prove the same with yours, shew him the unhappy event; and, by this means, you shall shun his Reproach, and Reproof: For, agreeing to the same Mea∣sures, he cannot, in Reason, condemn the event of his own Advice.

Thus, when Hannibal, the Elder, the Son of Guiscon, was beat in the First Sea Fight, of the Punick War, he sent, with all speed, a Mes∣senger to Carthage; to know whether or not he should Fight the Romans, on the first opportunity.* To whom all the People, with one Universal Voice and Consent, answered; Fight them without de∣lay, and let nothing hinder. Then the Messen∣ger added, We have engaged, and are beat. Then they were all silent, who had, otherways (if it had not been for their own Councel) dam∣ned Hannibal, and his Fight too; and might, perhaps, crucified himself; which was then the Custom of the Carthaginians.