Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/59

 Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century 2 1 Adventure of the Good Chevalier. headpiece by a pike. But it was now so late in the day that neither side could see the other, and both the Swiss and the French were forced for that evening to retire. They disposed themselves for the night as best they could, but I do not think that any one was much at his ease. Every one took what came to him, the king of France as well as the least of his soldiers, for he remained all night on horseback like the rest. We must tell of one affair in which the Good Chevalier without fear and without reproach found himself in a strange and dangerous position. While the last charge was being made upon the Swiss during the evening he mounted upon a gallant courser, which was his second that day, for at the first charge his horse had been killed under him. As he would have pressed on he found himself entirely surrounded by pikes, so that his horse lost its bridle. Finding itself without rein, it took its own course, and in spite of the Swiss passed quite through them, and would have carried the Good Chevalier right into another troop of Swiss had it not been that the way led through a vineyard, where the vines were trained from tree to tree in such a way that they stopped the horse. The Good Chevalier was much frightened, and not with- out good cause, for he was dead, and no mistake, if he fell into the hands of the enemy. He did not, however, lose his good sense, but gently dismounted and, throwing away his headpiece and cuirass, he crawled along the ditches on all fours, in the direction in which lay the camp of the French and where he heard cries of " France." God in his grace permitted him to get through without danger, and luckily for him the first man that he came upon was the gentle duke of Lorraine, one of his masters, who was much astonished to see him so on foot. So the said duke immediately provided him with a gallant The good horse called Carman, which had been captured at the fall of 5l orse Bresse and presented to the duke by the Good Chevalier himself. At the battle of Ravenna it had been left for dead, for the Good Chevalier had dismounted when he found that