of half the king's army for any enterprise he
pleased, even if the king did not please."

Scarcely had Francis I. ascended the throne, on the 12th of January,
1515, when he made the Duke of Bourbon's great position still greater by
creating him constable of France. Was it solely to attach to himself the
greatest lord and one of the most distinguished soldiers of the kingdom,
or had, perhaps, as has already been hinted, the favor of the
queen-mother something to do with the duke's speedy elevation? The whole
history of Charles of Bourbon tends to a belief that the feelings of
Louise of Savoy towards him, her love or her hate, had great influence
upon the decisive incidents of his life. However that may be, the young
constable, from the moment of entering upon his office, fully justified
the king's choice.

[Illustration: The Constable de Bourbon----53]

He it was who, during the first campaign in Italy, examined in person,
with the shepherd who had pointed it out, an unknown passage across the
Alps; and, on the 13th and 14th of September, he contributed greatly to
the victory of Melegnano. "I can assure you," wrote Francis I. to his
mother, the regent, "that my brother the constable and M. de St. Pol
splintered as many lances as any gentlemen of the company whosoever; and
I speak of this as one who saw; they spared themselves as little as if
they had been wild boars at bay." On returning to France the king
appointed the constable governor of conquered Milaness; and to give him a
further mark of favor, "he granted him the noble privilege of founding
trades in all the towns of the kingdom. This, when the Parliament
enregistered the king's letters patent, was expressly stated to be in
consideration of Bourbon's extraordinary worth, combined with his quality
as a prince of the blood, and not because of his office of constable."
[_Histoire de la Maison de Bourbon,_ by M. Desormeaux, t. ii. p. 437.]
The constable showed that he was as capable of governing as of
conquering. He foiled all Emperor Maximilian's attempts to recover
Milaness; and, not receiving from the king money for the maintenance and
pay of his troops, he himself advanced one hundred thousand livres,
opened a loan-account in his own name, raised an army-working-corps of
six thousand men to repair the fortifications of Milan, and obtained from
the Swiss cantons permission to enlist twelve thousand recruits amongst
them. His exercise of authority over t