or
nine months against the Imperialists with an intelligence and a bravery
which earned for him twenty years later the title of Marshal of France.
Charles de Brissac was carrying on the war in Piedmont with such a
combination of valor and generosity that the king sent him as a present
his own sword, writing to him at the same time, "The opinion I have of
your merit has become rooted even amongst foreigners. The emperor says
that he would make himself monarch of the whole world if he had a Brissac
to second his plans." His men, irritated at getting no pay, one day
surrounded Brissac, complaining vehemently. "You will always get bread
by coming to me," said he; and he paid the debt of France by sacrificing
his daughter's dowry and borrowing a heavy sum from the Swiss on the
security of his private fortune. It was by such devotion and such
sacrifices that the French nobility paid for and justified their
preponderance in the state; but they did not manage to succeed in the
conduct of public affairs, and to satisfy the interests of a nation
progressing in activity, riches, independence, and influence. Disquieted
at the smallness of his success in Italy, Henry II. flattered himself
that he would regain his ascendency there by sending thither the Duke of
Guise, the hero of Metz, with an army of about twenty thousand men,
French or Swiss, and a staff of experienced officers; but Guise was not
more successful than his predecessors had been. After several attempts
by arms and negotiation amongst the local sovereigns, he met with a
distinct failure in the kingdom of Naples before the fortress of
Civitella, the siege of which he was forced to raise on the 15th of May,
1557. Wearied out by want of success, sick in the midst of an army of
sick, regretting over "the pleasure of his field-sports at Joinville, and
begging his mother to have just a word or two written to him to console
him," all he sighed for was to get back to France. And it was not long
before the state of affairs recalled him thither. It was now nearly two
years ago that, on the 25th of October, 1555, and the 1st of January,
1556, Charles V. had solemnly abdicated all his dominions, giving over
to his son Philip the kingdom of Spain, with the sovereignty of Burgundy
and the Low Countries, and to his younger brother, Ferdinand, the empire
together with the original heritage of the House of Austria, and retiring
personally to the monastery of Yuste, in Estramadu