129 



CONDOTTIERT. 



CONDUIT. 



130 



and engaged with princes and governments fur their services as merce- 

 naries. The practice of employing these mercenaries, which commenced 

 in the early part of the 1 4th century, originated in the Italian princes 

 and republics commuting the personal services of their subjects in war 

 for pecuniary payments, with which they were enabled to hire merce- 

 naries. As early as 1 225, Genoa took the Count of Savoy into pay 

 with 200 horse. Florence retained 500 French lancers in 1282. After 

 the expedition of the Emperor Henry VII. in 1310, many soldiers of 

 fortune remained in the service of Milan, Florence, and other states. 

 Pisa appears, in 1343, to have disbanded a corps of German mercenaries, 

 whose leader, Guamieri, refusing to lay down his arms, levied contri- 

 butions throughout the Italian states. In 1353, a band under the 

 command of Fra Moriale, afterwards of Conrad Lando, called the Great 

 Company, appeared in Italy, and extorted money from many of the 

 Italian states. During the long and bloody wars between our 

 Edward III. and France, foreigners from different parts of Europe, 

 attracted by his fame and liberality, and allured by the hope of plun- 

 der, flocked to his standard. They were for the most part men of 

 desperate fortunes, or unable to live at home according to their wishes. 

 At the conclusion of the treaty of Bretigni in 1364, which restored 

 peace to England and France, these soldiers, unable to relinquish a 

 course of life to which they were accustomed, and being without other 

 means of subsistence, were dispersed into the several provinces of 

 France, where they possessed themselves of castles and fortresses, and 

 associating themselves with the banditti of their vicinities, levied con- 

 tributions on all within their power, and under the names of companies 

 or companions * they became the terror of the peaceable inhabitants of 

 the country. These ruffians formed altogether a body of 40,000 men, 

 and were headed in many instances by some of the most experienced 

 leaders of the time. They fought pitched battles with the troops of 

 France, in which they gained victories. The misery which they occa- 

 sioned only served to increase their numbers ; for poverty and despair 

 drove their victims to then- standard. Even their excommunication 

 by the pope produced no abatement in their ferocity and rapine. At 

 length the war between Henry de Transtamare and Peter the Cruel 

 for the succession to the crown of Castile furnished an opportunity to 

 rid France of this scourge. De Guesclin proposed to Charles V., king 

 of France, to enlist these companies into his service and lead them into 

 Castile. They accordingly engaged in this expedition, and in their 

 way forced the pope, then residing at Avignon, to give them a sum of 

 money. 



From this time war became a trade in many parts of Europe, par- 

 ticularly in the Italian states, in which needy and desperate adventurers 

 raised forces either by their pecuniary means or by their personal 

 influence and reputation for conduct and courage, and engaged them 

 for hire without the least consideration for the real or supposed justice 

 of the cause in which they embarked. These forces were recruited 

 from the refuse or the vagabonds of every state in Europe. The idle 

 and profligate found in joining their bands a way of life which flattered 

 their indolence and gratified their rapacity. The mode adopted for 

 assembling them was by contracts with nobles who had authority over 

 the loose and disorderly inhabitants of their estates, with captains 

 whose address or bravery could allure adventurers to their banners, or 

 with individuals whose poverty or choice made them offer themselves 

 to princes or governments. In their discipline, though it was far from 

 exact, and in courage and conduct in war, they were superior to the 

 troops which could be then raised under the powers of the feudal 

 system. Besides the profit which they gained on the ransom of their 

 prisoners, their pay, according to the then value of money, appears to 

 have been high (assuming them to have been as well paid as the other 

 troops), and that of the private soldiers to have been at a much higher 

 rate in proportion to the commanders and officers than in modern 

 times. At the siege of Calais, in 1346, Edward, prince of Wales, for 

 himself and retinue, for his wages of war, had 20s. a day. The pay of 

 Henry, earl of Lancaster, for his " wages of war," was 6s. 8rf. a day ; 

 11 bannerets, 4. a day ; 193 knights, 2s. ; 512 esquires, Is. ; 46 men- 

 at-arms and 612 archers on horseback, each 6rf. a day. From the 

 known rapacity of these mercenaries, it is not likely that they would 

 have accepted lower terms than the other troops engaged in the same 

 enterprise. According to Villani, they frequently demanded and 

 received double pay, with a premium or bounty-money of a month's 

 pay, on their engagements. But their chief inducement to serve was 

 the plunder of the towns or castles which they took, the contributions 

 they levied, and the ransom of the prisoners. From this motive they 

 were induced not only to spare their own men as much as possible, 

 but to give quarter to their enemies. This rendered some of their 

 Kittles nearly bloodless, a ludicrous instance of which occurred in one 

 of the Italian wars. Piccinino advanced to attack Florence with an 

 army of several thousand men. The place was defended by Capponi 

 with another body, principally composed of mercenaries. The two 

 armies engaged at Anghiari, a short distance from Florence. The 

 battle lasted four hours. Piccinino was. totally defeated, and fled to 

 Borgo San Sepolcro with about a thousand men. The rest were made 

 prisoners ; only one man was killed, and this owing to the accident of 

 his falling from his horse and being trodden under foot. Capponi, 



* Th*y WMC "ometim called cotslli, probably a corruption of cottelli, from 

 their tearing Knive*, or Inrsre daggers. 

 ARTS AD SCI. BIT. VOL. III. 



however, was unable to follow up his success, and his troops refused to 

 advance till they had secured their plunder. Several other battles, 

 equally bloodless, were fought in the wars of this period. 



The Condottieri were notorious for bad faith in their engagements 

 with the states they served. Their rapacity was equal to their bad 

 faith ; besides their pay, they exacted gratifications for every success. 

 Such was the terror they inspired, that some of the Italian states paid 

 them large sums not to pass through their territories. With the 

 improvement of artillery and the introduction of rnusquetry the con- 

 dottieri declined ; but it is difficult to state the period of their 

 extinction. Our countryman, Sir John Hawkwood, is said to have 

 been the last, as he was beyond comparison the most eminent for his 

 skill in military affairs. Sir John died at Florence in 1393 at an 

 advanced age, and was buried with great pomp by the Florentines. 

 There is a cenotaph to his memory in the church of Sible Hedingham, 

 Essex, where he was born. 



(Froissart ; Villaui ; Machiavelli ; Aretin.) 

 CONDUCTOR OF HEAT. [ELECTRICITY ; HEAT.] 

 CONDUIT, the artificial channel in which water is conducted from 

 the point of supply to the place of delivery or of outfall. It may be 

 either circular or polygonal in section, open or closed, of earth, 

 masonry, or metal, and in each particular case the formation of con- 

 duits gives rise to the application of special laws of construction and of 

 calculation. For the purposes of discussion, it would be more con- 

 venient to consider the various questions connected with the flow of 

 water in channels of a circular section under the head of WATER PIPES, 

 even when it may not run in them " full bore ;" and at present it is 

 therefore proposed to treat solely of channels or conduits with 

 polygonal sections, such as are usually employed in canals, cuts, 

 mill-races, &c. 



Practically (that is to say, with reference to the mode of building 

 the channels, and assuming that word to apply to the use of all kinds 

 of constructive materials) the system of constructing a channel must 

 be regulated, firstly, by the purposes for which the water it is 

 intended to conduct is subsequently to be applied ; and secondly, by 

 local circumstmces connected with the choice of materials or the 

 economy of execution. For the purposes of navigation, open channels 

 of a trapezoidal form in earthwork are sufficient, provided the requisite 

 degree of impermeability in the bed be secured ; and even for a water 

 supply such channels may be admitted, if the water should flow in the 

 open air of the country, where it would not be exposed to take up 

 atmospheric impurities. But if the earth of which the banks are made 

 should be liable to be removed, or if it be essential to reduce the 

 sectional area of the water-way to the minimum, as when a canal has 

 to be carried upon an aqueduct; or if it be necessary to protect the 

 water from contamination by soot or dust, then the channel must be 

 made of masonry, and, as a general rule, of a rectangular form, though 

 for certain theoretical reasons the portion of the section normally 

 filled would be more satisfactorily made in the shape of a regular half 

 hexagon, whose complete diameter should be the water-line, and be 

 equal to twice the depth. 



In earthen channels it is essential to observe that the bottom velocity 

 must never exceed that which would be required to remove the 

 materials of which the bed is formed. A certain velocity is at all 

 times necessary in the stream, in order to prevent the growth of the 

 peculiar vegetation which usually grows in earthen channels ; but if 

 the velocity should exceed the rates indicated in the following table, 

 the permanence of the channel may be dangerously affected. It is 

 usually considered that the minimum velocity to be given to the 

 waters of any artificial open conduit should be from 10 to 14 inches 

 per second, or from 50 to 60 feet per minute, in order to avoid the 

 dangers of interference with the discharge from the above-named 

 cause ; namely, the growth of plants. It is usually considered, how- 

 ever, that the bottom velocities should not exceed the rates of 



25 feet per minute in soft alluvial beds. 



40 



60 



120 



180 



240 



300 



400 



soft clayey beds. 



sandy and silty beds. 



gravelly beds. 



strong gravelly beds. 



shingly beds. 



shingly and rocky beds. 



rocky beds, or in smooth masonry. 



In open masonry conduits, wherein the water flows without pressure, 

 the transverse section must depend upon the uses to which the stream 

 is to be devoted ; because the draught of canal boats may, for instance, 

 render it necessary to modify the ordinary relations of width and 

 depth ; or, in an aqueduct, the effects of ordinary frosts may render it 

 advisable to increase the theoretical depth. In closed conduits the 

 choice of the transverse section will be influenced by the considerations 

 arising from the quality of the waters, and from the precautions 

 necessary to maintain in it a constant flow. As it is usually possible to 

 regulate the admission of the water, it would seem that the form which 

 would most commonly be adopted would be the semicircle, because 

 in a channel of that form the wetted border would be the least in 

 proportion to the volume discharged. But it is found that it is easier 

 to execute a lung artificial channel with the requi^te degree of regu- 

 larity of outline and of fall, when its section is made nearly rectangular 



