The three sons of Count Jean II not strangely reflected the conditions of their birth and the widely differing characters of their mothers. Francois, only son of his second marriage, which was founded on a real preference and esteem, possessed the kindly and charitable nature of his mother and the firm character of his distinguished Gruyere ancestors. Jean, the illegitimate son of Luce d'Alberguex, was lovable and valorous, but lacking in firmness or dignity of character. Michel, the heir of Gruyere, and the child of Count Jean's loveless marriage with Marguerite de Vergy, while personifying in their perfection the physical beauty and charm of his line, was like the fair fruit of a decaying tree hollow at heart, and was only too well fitted by his fantastic pretensions and his frivolous weakness of character for the tragic role which was assigned to him in the fall of his house. "_Vela, Michel li preux li beaux Fleur de tous autres damoiseaux._" a couplet describing the romantic figure of the last count of Gruyere, is still rhymed by the people and still finds its place among their records. Imposing in height as his great forerunner Francois de Gruyere, his features were of a beautiful regularity and nobility, his manner had that princely pride and simplicity which was the greatest charm of Francois I of France. At the French court, as in all Switzerland, he was renowned as "the handsomest knight of his day." With the extinction of the court at Chambery, where his predecessors had received their education in chivalry and where they had so faithfully and honorably served the dukes of Savoy, the young Michel was sent to the still more brilliant court of France. Blazing with the beauty of the great ladies who ruled the adored and adorable young king, the resort of painters and poets, the rendezvous of all the noblesse of France, this court at its highest pitch of pageantry and pride was a dazzling school for the young _damosel_ of Gruyere. Here in the white and gold dress of the "_Enfants du Roi_," and next as king's _Pannetier_, he passed eight years of his youth, patterning his ideals only too faithfully upon the young sovereign he served. On his return to Switzerland fresh from this experience in France, he joined the league of young nobles called "_de la cuiller_," from their vow to make a sweet morsel of the rebel republicans of Geneva. In highwaymen raids in company with his mad cousin de Beaufort of Coppet and Rolle, he defied the formidable seigneurs of Berne, and was only saved from their chastisement by their regard for his father. After these escapades, he departed for Italy to the court of the emperor Charles the Fifth, who at first treated him with extraordinary confidence, but when he demanded to be appointed prince of the empire and gentleman of the bed-chamber, the emperor refused. Passing only enough time at Gruyere to receive the vows of fidelity from his subjects and to make a tour of his estates, he