the King of England secretly offered to take
Bayard into his own service, promising to load the knight with riches
and honors if he would desert the cause of France and cast his fortunes
with the English.

Bayard answered the King of England as he had before answered the Pope
of Rome,--

"I have but one master in heaven--God, and one upon earth--the King of
France."

On the first of January, 1514, Louis XII. died. He was succeeded by
Francis I., who was then only twenty years of age.

Francis, like his predecessors, was haunted by the idea of his Italian
rights, but was never able to maintain them for any great length of
time. One of his first acts of sovereignty was to raise a large army and
invade Italy to recover the Duchy of Milan, which had again been wrested
from France.

Bayard was with the king on this expedition. Indeed, he preceded Francis
into Italy, and by a brilliant stratagem took prisoner Lord Prospero
Colonna, Lieutenant-General of the Pope. Prospero it was who had boasted
that sooner or later he would take Bayard like a bird in a trap.

Soon afterwards, King Francis crossed the mountains with a great army,
and marched upon Milan, at that time defended by a large body of Swiss.
The two armies met in a hard-fought battle, and the French were
victorious, driving the Swiss entirely out of the duchy.

In this battle, as in many others, Bayard's splendid courage won the
day. No other knight could equal him in arms, and none other could so
rouse the spirit of the French soldiers; but his greatest service to
France that day was the lesson in chivalry he taught her boyish king.

Fired by the noble example of the chevalier, young Francis bore himself
in battle like a king indeed, and made old soldiers wonder at his
fortitude and courage.

When the battle was over, the gallant young king was the first to
ascribe the honor of the victory to Bayard, and the nobles and captains
agreed with him heartily.

Anxious to show conspicuous honor to the knight, King Francis then
astonished the assembled company--and none more than the chevalier
himself--by a most strange request.

"Bayard, my friend," he exclaimed in loving familiarity, "I wish to be
knighted by thy hand this day; for thou hast fought on foot and on
horseback, in many battles against many nations, and better than all
others. Thou art indeed the most worthy knight of all."

Never before had monarch honored a subject with such a request.

The