aving commanded them. Only do one thing; we know
well that you are half brought round and inclined rather to fighting than
the contrary; make, then, your prayer to God, and entreat Him to be
pleased this once to aid you and counsel you as to what you ought to do.'
Then the king lifted his eyes towards heaven, and, clasping his hands and
throwing his cap upon the table, said, 'O God, I entreat Thee that it may
please Thee to this day give me counsel as to what I ought to do for the
preservation of my kingdom, and that all may be to Thy honor and glory!'
Whereupon the admiral asked him, 'Sir, what opinion occurs to you now?'
The king, after pausing a little, turned towards me, saying, with a sort
of shout, 'Let them fight! let them fight!' 'Well, then, there is no
more to be said,' replied the admiral; 'if you lose, you alone will be
the cause of the loss; and, if you win, in like manner; and you, all
alone, will have the satisfaction of it, you alone having given the
leave.' Then the king and every one rose up, and, as for me, I tingled
with joy. His Majesty began talking with the admiral about my despatch
and about giving orders for the pay which was in arrears. And M. de St.
Pol accosted me, saying with a laugh, 'Rabid madman, thou wilt be cause
of the greatest weal that could happen to the king, or of the greatest
woe.'"

Montluc's boldness and Francis I.'s confidence in yielding to it were not
unrewarded. The battle was delivered at Ceresole on the 14th of April,
1544; it was bravely disputed and for some time indecisive, even in the
opinion of the anxious Count d'Enghien, who was for a while in an awkward
predicament; but the ardor of the Gascons and the firmness of the Swiss
prevailed, and the French army was victorious. Montluc was eagerly
desirous of being commissioned to go and carry to the king the news of
the victory which he had predicted and to which he had contributed; but
another messenger had the preference; and he does not, in his Memoires,
conceal his profound discontent; but he was of those whom their
discontent does not dishearten, and he continued serving his king and his
country with such rigorous and stubborn zeal as was destined hereafter,
in the reign of Henry III., to make him Marshal of France at last. He
had to suffer a disappointment more serious than that which was personal
to himself; the victory of Ceresole had not the results that might have
been expected. The war continued; Charl