of war the plan of campaign was determined. But before the
actual clash of arms began the solemn preliminaries usual between
hostile powers must be scrupulously fulfilled. A herald was commissioned
to make proclamation in the name of the lord of St. Victor, through all
the lands of Cartigny, that no man should venture to execute there any
orders, whether of pope or duke, under penalty of being hung. This
energetic procedure struck due terror, for when Bonivard's captain with
several soldiers appeared before the castle it capitulated without a
blow.

It was a brief though splendid victory. The very first raid in which the
"Knights of the Spoon"--an association of neighboring country
gentlemen--harried that region they found that the captain and entire
garrison of the castle had gone to market (not without imputations of
treason), leaving the post in charge of one woman, who promptly
surrendered.

The sovereign of St. Victor's blood was up. He resolved to draw, if need
were, on the entire resources of his realm. The army was promptly
reinforced to twenty men, and Bonivard took the field in person at the
head of his forces. On what wise this array debouched in two corps
d'armee one Sunday morning from two of the gates of Geneva; how the
junction of the forces was effected; the military history of the march;
how they appeared, at last, before the castle of Cartigny,--are these
not written by the pen of the hero himself in his _Chronicles_ of
Geneva? But Bonivard, though brave, was merciful. Willing to spare the
effusion of blood, he sent the general-in-chief, Bischelbach, with his
servant, Diebolt, as an interpreter, to summon the castle. The answer
was a shot that knocked poor Diebolt over with a mortal wound; whereupon
the attacking army fell back in a masterly manner into the woods and
made good their way into Geneva, bringing one prisoner, whom they had
caught unarmed near the castle, and leaving Diebolt to die at a roadside
inn.

We may not further narrate the deeds of Bonivard as a martial hero,
though they are neither few nor uninteresting.[10] But he is equally
worthy of himself as a religious reformer. It was about this time that
the stirrings of religious reformation at Berne and elsewhere began to
be heard at Geneva, and the thought began to be seriously entertained by
some of the patriotic "Sons of Geneva" that perhaps that liberty for
which they had dared and suffered so much in vain might best come with
t