A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3Guizot, François
History
A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3
Guizot, François
France -- History
answered Bayard; “nephew of our prince, and brother of your queen.”
[Germaine de Foix, Gaston de Foix’s sister, had married, as his second
wife, Ferdinand the Catholic.] Hardly had he finished speaking, when
Captain Pedro de Paz and all those who were with him dismounted and
addressed the noble prince in these words: “Sir, save the honor and
service due to the king our master, we declare to you that we are, and
wish forever to remain, your servants.” The Duke of Nemours thanked them
gallantly for their gallant homage, and, after a short, chivalrous
exchange of conversation, they went, respectively, to their own posts.
The artillery began by causing great havoc on both sides. “‘Od’s body,”
said a Spanish captain shut up in a fort which the French were attacking,
and which he had been charged to defend, “we are being killed here by
bolts that fall from heaven; go we and fight with men;” and he sallied
from the fort with all his people, to go and take part in the general
battle. “Since God created heaven and earth,” says the Loyal Serviteur
of Bayard, “was never seen a more cruel and rough assault than that which
French and Spaniards made upon one another, and for more than a long half
hour lasted this fight. They rested before one another’s eyes to recover
their breath; then they let down their vizors and so began all over
again, shouting, France! and Spain! the most imperiously in the world.
At last the Spaniards were utterly broken, and constrained to abandon
their camp, whereon, and between two ditches, died three or four hundred
men-at-arms. Every one would fain have set out in pursuit; but the good
knight said to the Duke of Nemours, who was all covered with blood and
brains from one of his men-at-arms, that had been carried off by a
cannon-ball, ‘My lord, are you wounded?’ ‘No,’ said the duke, ‘but I
have wounded a many others.’ ‘Now, God be praised!’ said Bayard; ‘you
have gained the battle, and abide this day the most honored prince in the
world; but push not farther forward; reassemble your men-at-arms in this
spot; let none set on to pillage yet, for it is not time; Captain Louis
d’Ars and I are off after these fugitives that they may not retire behind
their foot; but stir not, for any man living, from here, unless Captain
Louis d’Ars or I come hither to fetch you.’ “The Duke of Nemours
promised; but whilst he was biding on his ground, awaiting Bayard’s
return, he said to the Baron du Chimay,--“an honest gentleman who had
knowledge,” says Fleuranges, “of things to come, and who, before the
battle, had announced to Gaston that he would gain it, but he would be in
danger of being left there if God did not do him grace,--Well, Sir
Dotard, am I left there, as you said? Here I am still.’ ‘Sir, it is not
all over yet,’ answered Chimay; whereupon there arrived an archer, who
came and said to the duke, ‘My lord, yonder be two thousand Spaniards,
who are going off all orderly along the causeway.’ ‘Certes,’ said
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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