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
proceeded by way of France to carry out a mission of the emperor in
Flanders. At Paris where the emperor halted on his way to deal with his
rebellious Flemish subjects, Count Michel was so pleasantly entertained
in the round of fetes and _divertissements_ which celebrated the
imperial visit, that he postponed again and again the adjustment of the
important differences with Fribourg which had been left in abeyance at
the death of his father. His mission to Flanders was so carelessly
executed that he soon lost the confidence of the emperor who, openly
declaring that "he thought little of him," sent him away from Turin. On
his return to Paris after another brief visit to his country Count
Michel received a better welcome from Francois I, who invested him with
the Order of the King and with the Collar of St. Michael. No better
example of the pers