him"]

The marquis then caused his own tent to be brought and placed for the
use of the wounded knight. Then he himself helped to lay Bayard in
bed. He smoothed the dying man's pillow, and kissed the hands that had
fought so valiantly against him. Pescara then placed a guard around the
tent and went himself and fetched a priest to console the dying
chevalier.

As Bayard lay thus, there was hardly an officer among the Spanish who
did not come to speak kindly to him. Among the distinguished men who
visited his bedside was the Constable of Bourbon, who shortly before had
deserted the cause of France for a position in the emperor's army. When
the constable beheld the expiring knight, he exclaimed--

"Ah, Captain Bayard, how it troubles me to see thee thus! I have always
loved and honored thee for thy great valor and wisdom. How I pity thee!"

Bayard looked at him steadily and replied--

"My lord, I thank thee, but thy pity is wasted. I die like an honest
man, serving my king. Thou art the man to be pitied, for bearing arms
against thy prince, thy country, and thy oath."

A little while longer he talked to them; then, feeling his strength
fleeting rapidly, he clasped his hands and prayed aloud--

"My God! my Father! forget my sins; listen only to Thine infinite
mercy----Let Thy justice be softened by the merits of the blood of
Jesus Christ--"

Death laid a gentle hand upon his lips; and the man who had dealt with
his fellow-man without reproach went fearless to his God.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

Sidney, thou star of beaming chivalry,
That rose and set 'mid valor's peerless day:
Rich ornament of knighthood's Milky-way;
How much our youth of England owe to thee!

EDWARD MOXON

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

(1554-1586 A. D.)

When Mary Tudor was Queen of England, and after she had become the wife
of Philip II. of Spain, there was born at "Penshurst Place," in the
valley of the Medway, the immortal Philip Sidney.

His mother's family were the powerful house of Dudley, and were among
the noblest in the land. The Sidneys were of high birth too,--not so
exalted as the Dudleys in point of lineage, but of impregnable honor and
integrity.

The little Philip's youth was spent under what would seem to have been
very happy circumstances. While he was yet only four years of age, Queen
Elizabeth came to the throne, and recalled the Sidneys from the social
and political exile to which her sister Mary