"Wherefore the Prince also commanded, that no man should trouble them, or doe them any harme, wisely judging, that such an accident came not but by Divine Miracle, and that also to signifie some notable event. Uppon the tenth day, these two valiant troupes joyned battell, early in the morning, before the sunne-rising, so continuing in fight untill the sunne-set, at which time the Prince, with some horsemen, went out of the Cittie to see the battell, and it appeared to him and his associates, that the Water Serpents gave place to the Land Serpents. So the Prince, and his company, returned into the Citty againe, and the next day went forth againe, but found not a Serpent alive, for there were slaine above eyght thousand: all which, he caused presently to be covered with earth in ditches, and afterwards declared the whole matter to _Baiazeta_ by letters, after he had gotten that Cittie, whereat the great Turke rejoyced, for hee thereby interpreted happinesse to himselfe."
Luckily, man has found out things inimical to Serpents, and they, and their use, seem to be very simple:--
"There is such vertue in the Ashe tree, that no Serpent will endure to come neere either the morning or evening shadow of it; yea, though very farre distant from them, they do so deadlie hate it. We set downe nothing but that wee have found true by experience: If a great fire be made, and the same fire encircled round with Ashen-boughes, and a serpent put betwixt the fire and the Ashen-boughes, the Serpent will sooner runne into the fire, than come neere the Ashen-boughes: thus saith _Pliny_. _Olaus Magnus_ saith, that those Northern Countries which have great store of Ash-trees, doe want venemous beasts, of which opinion is also _Pliny_. _Callimachus_ saith, there is a Tree growing in the Land of _Trachinia_, called _Smilo_, to which, if any Serpents doe either come neere, or touch, they foorthwith die. _Democritus_ is of opinion, that any Serpent will die if you cast Oken-leaves upon him. _Pliny_ is of opinion that _Alcibiadum_, which is a kind of wild Buglosse, is of the same use and qualitie; and further, being chewed, if it be spet upon any serpent, that it cannot possibly live. In time of those solemne Feastes which the _Athenians_ dedicated to the Goddesse _Ceres_, their women did use to lay and strew their beddes, with the leaves of the Plant called _Agnos_, because serpents could not endure it, and because they imagined it kept them chast, Where-upon they thought the name was given it. The herbe called Rosemarie, is terrible to serpents.