The going and coming of ambassadors in this manner is sometimes very dangerous; for many ill things are often transacted by them, and yet there is necessity of sending and receiving them. Those who read this chapter may perhaps demand what expedient I can propose to remedy this inconvenience. I am sensible there are many persons better qualified to treat of this subject than myself; yet this I shall venture to say, that ambassadors who come from true friends, where there is no ground of suspicion, ought, in my judgment, to be treated with abundance of freedom and openness; and, if the quality of the persons permit, should be often admitted to the king’s presence, provided the prince be wise and affable, for otherwise the less he is seen the better; and whenever he gives audience he ought to be magnificently dressed, well prepared in his answers, and not permitted to hold any long discourse, for the friendship between princes is not of long duration. If ambassadors are sent in a public or private capacity between princes that are in continual hatred and war with one another, as all those that I have known and been conversant with in my time have been, in my opinion they are not greatly to be trusted. However, they are to be honourably received and civilly entertained; for to send to meet them, to lodge them in handsome apartments, and to appoint honest and discreet persons to attend them, is safe as well as civil; for thereby you not only discover what persons they generally converse with, but also prevent fickle and mutinous people from resorting to them with news, and there is no court without some malcontents. Again, I would advise that they have their audience and despatch as soon as possible, for to me it seems dangerous to keep an enemy in one’s house; but to feast them, to bear their expenses, and to make them presents, is but honourable.