2 Samuel 17:2

And I will come upon him while he [is] weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that [are] with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:

Ver. 2. And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed.] That indeed had been the ready way to win. Hannibal when he could have taken Rome, would not; when he would, could not. a The Protestant princes of Germany lost a fair opportunity at Ingolstadt, August 13, 1546, which they never afterwards could recover. They were far stronger in horse than the emperor, whose forces were but slenderly fortified at that time, and might easily have been worsted; but the next night they so entrenched themselves, that they took better heart, and soon after got the day. This error of the Protestant princes - the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, and the rest - was, saith mine author, b the rise and cause of their calamity, but of Caesar's victory, to the grief of all good people.

a Plut.

b Alsted., Chronol. 545.