Bayard: the Good Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach

gerly united with the Emperor, the King of Spain, and the Pope in the L

s of high renown to command them. He sent for Bayard and said to him: "You know that I am crossing the mountains to fight the Venetians, who have taken Cremona from me, and other places.

ill do what you wish; but how many fo

said the King; "

quite enough for one man to command if he did his duty thoroughly, and to this the Ki

onth of July by this time, and immense waggons of hay, from the second mowing, were entering Padua every day. A number of Venetians made an ambush under some thick trees about a bow-shot from the walls, then they hid behind the hay-waggons and crept in through the gates, which a

fired off not more than four times a day." The city was strongly fortified and defended, and it was decided to attack the most important gate which led to Vicenza. This being a most perilous enterprise, the command was given to Bayard of the attacking party. The gate was approached by a long, straight road between deep ditches, and there were four great barriers at tw

s of men. Then Bayard shouted: "At this rate, gentlemen, they will keep us here for six years; we must give them a desperate assault and let each man do as I do!" This they promised, and the trumpet was sounded, when with one tremendous rush they drove back the defenders by the length of a lance, and with a ringing war-cry Bayard sprang over the

and they asked for nothing better. So they set forth an hour before daybreak and rode steadily towards Bassano, till they reached a place where the spy pointed out to them a little wooden bridge which the band from Treviso would have to cross, where two men could keep five hundred in check. This the Good Knight left to be defended by a few men-at-arms and archers, who were to remain in ambush until they had seen the troop from Treviso go by, and await their return. Then Bayard gave directions to one of his co

rked that he knew a way by which they might possess it in a quarter of an hour. So he sent for the two captains who were taken and said to them: "I insist that the castle be surrendered to me at once, f

sh at him with his lance, struck him to the ground, and called upon him to surrender. He had given up his sword, to Boutières' great delight, and the lad of sixteen, with the standard he had taken and his sturdy-looking prisoner, had caused great amusement in the French company. When he was thus brought into the dining-hall before his own captains, the standard-bearer looked very much ashamed of himself, and protested that he had simply yielded to the force

one of those rapid changes so common in Italian politics, before the end of the year Louis XII. found himself deserted by most of