ess.
CHARLES." In writing this letter the constable had no other object than
to gain a little time, for, on bidding good by to the Bishop of Autun,
he said to him, "Farewell, my dear bishop; I am off to Carlat, and from
Carlat I shall slip away with five or six horses on my road to Spain."
On the next day but one, indeed, the 8th of September, 1523, whilst the
Bishop of Autun was kept prisoner by the troops sent forward to
Chantelle, the constable sallied from it about one in the morning, taking
with him five-and-twenty or thirty thousand crowns of gold sewn up in
from twelve to fifteen jackets, each of which was intrusted to a man in
his train. For a month he wandered about Bourbonness, Auvergne,
Burgundy, Beaujolais, Vienness, Languedoc, and Dauphiny, incessantly
changing his road, his comrades, his costume, and his asylum,
occasionally falling in with soldiers of the king who were repairing to
Italy, and seeking for some place whence he might safely concert with and
act with his allies. At last, in the beginning of October, he arrived at
Saint-Claude, in Franche-Comte, imperial territory, and on the 9th of
October he made his entry into Besancon, where there came to join him
some of his partisans who from necessity or accident had got separated
from him, without his having been able anywhere in his progress to excite
any popular movement, form any collection of troops, or intrench himself
strongly in his own states. To judge from appearances, he was now but a
fugitive conspirator, without domains and without an army.

Such, however, were his fame and importance as a great lord and great
warrior, that Francis I., as soon as he knew him to be beyond his reach
and in a fair way to co-operate actively with his enemies, put off his
departure for Italy, and "offered the redoubtable fugitive immediate
restitution of his possessions, reimbursement from the royal treasury of
what was due to him, renewal of his pensions and security that they would
be paid him with punctuality." Bourbon refused everything. "It is too
late," he replied. Francis I.'s envoy then asked him to give up the
sword of constable and the collar of the order of St. Michael. "You
will tell the king," rejoined Bourbon, "that he took from me the sword
of constable on the day that he took from me the command of the
advance-guard to give it to M. d'Alencon. As for the collar of his
order, you will find it at Chantelle under the pillow of my bed."
Fra