m afar.

In sad procession the captains of Spain and Italy came to do honour and
reverence to the dying hero. Amongst them the Marquis of Pescara (the
husband of Vittoria Colonna) found noble words to speak the praise and
admiration which filled the hearts of all. "Would to God, my gentle lord of
Bayard, that I had been wounded nigh unto death if only you were in health
again and my prisoner; for then I could have shown you how highly I esteem
your splendid prowess and valour ... since I first made acquaintance with
arms I have never heard of any knight who even approached you in every
virtue of chivalry.... Never was so great a loss for all Christendom....
But since there is no remedy for death, may God in His mercy take your soul
to be with Him...." Such were the tender and pitiful regrets from the
hostile camp for the cruel loss to all chivalry of the Good Knight without
Fear and without Reproach.

They would have tended him with devoted service, but Bayard knew that he
was past all human help, and only prayed that he might not be moved in
those last hours of agony. A stately tent was spread out above him to
protect him from the weather, and he was laid at rest beneath it with the
gentlest care. He asked for a priest, to whom he devoutly made his
confession, and with touching words of prayer and resignation to the will
of his heavenly Father, he gave back his soul to God on April 30, 1524.

With the greatest sorrow and mourning of both armies, his body was carried
to the church, where solemn services were held for him during two days, and
then Bayard was borne by his own people into Dauphine.

A great company came to meet the funeral procession at the foot of the
mountains, and he was borne with solemn state from church to church until
Notre Dame of Grenoble was reached, and here all the nobles of Dauphine and
the people of the city were gathered to do honour to their beloved hero
when the last sad rites were performed. He was mourned and lamented for
many a long day as the very flower of chivalry, the Good Knight without
Fear and without Reproach.

[Illustration: The Death of Bayard.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bayard: The Good Knight Without Fear
And Without Reproach, by Christopher Hare

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAYARD: THE GOOD KNIGHT ***

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