n the
market-place with the lord of Montboison. They thought at first that a spy
had been taken, but soon learnt that he was the bearer of bad news. As the
Duke read the letter which the commander had written he turned pale, and
when he had finished he shrugged his shoulders and said: "If I lose La
Bastida I may as well abandon Ferrara, and I do not see how we can possibly
send help within the time mentioned, for he implores assistance before
to-morrow morning, and it is impossible."

"Why?" asked the lord of Montboison.

"Because it is five-and-twenty miles from here, and in this bad weather it
will be more than that," replied the Duke. "There is a narrow way for about
half a mile where the men will have to go one after the other. Besides,
there is another thing, for if our enemies knew of a certain passage twenty
men could hold it against ten thousand, but I trust they will not discover
it."

When the Good Knight saw how distressed the Duke was, he said:

"My lord, when a small matter is at stake we may hesitate; but when we are
threatened with utter destruction we must try any means. The enemies are
before La Bastida, and they are quite confident that we shall not dare to
leave this city to raise the siege, knowing that the great army of the Pope
is so near us. I have thought of a plan which will be easy to carry out, if
fortune is with us.

"You have in this town four or five thousand foot-soldiers, well hardened
and good soldiers; let us take two thousand of them with eight hundred
Swiss under Captain Jacob and send them this night in boats up the river.
You are still master of the Po as far as Argenta; they will go and wait for
us at the passage you spoke of. If they arrive there first they will take
it, and the men-at-arms who are in this town will ride by the road all this
night. We shall have good guides and will so manage as to arrive by
daybreak and thus join the others; our enemies will have no suspicion of
this enterprise. From the passage you spoke of it is three miles or less to
La Bastida; before they have time to put themselves in order of battle we
will attack them sharply, and my heart tells me that we shall defeat them."

The Duke, delighted, replied with a smile: "Upon my word, Sir Bayard,
nothing seems impossible to you! But I believe that if the gentlemen who
are here agree with you, we shall indeed win...." No one made any
difficulty; on the contrary, the captains of the men-at-arms were so