Lehal Library

is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town assessing a state’s strength rulers in the area. This is because these towns are so well fortified that everyone realizes what an arduous, wearisome business it would be to attack them. They all have properly sized moats and walls; they have the necessary artillery; they have public warehouses with food, drink and firewood for a year; what’s more, to keep people well fed without draining the public purse, they stock materials for a year’s worth of work in whatever trades are the lifeblood of the city and whatever jobs the common folk earn their keep with. They hold military exercises in high regard and make all kinds of arrangements to make sure they’re routinely practised. So, a ruler whose city is well fortified and who doesn’t inspire hatred among his subjects isn’t going to be attacked, and even if he is, his attackers will leave humiliated, because the world is such a changeable place that it’s almost impos- sible to keep an army camped outside a city’s walls doing nothing for a whole year. Someone will object: what if people have houses outside the walls and see them being burned down; won’t they get impatient; won’t the long siege and their worries for their own futures make them forget their ruler? My answer is that a leader with power and personality will always get round problems like this; he can raise hopes that the siege won’t last long; he can frighten people with stories about the enemy’s cruelty; he can move quickly to block anyone who seems too hot-headed. Aside from this, it’s obvi- ous that the enemy is going to be burning and razing the countryside as he approaches the town at a time when people are still enthusiastic and determined to resist. This actually gives the ruler less cause for concern, because a few days later, when hearts are cooling, the damage is already done, the blow struck, and there’s no way back. As a result, people will rally round their ruler all the more, they’ll see him as indebted to them because their houses have been burned and their prop- erty destroyed in his defence. It’s human nature to tie yourself to a leader as much for the services you’ve done him as the