of a city; it surrendered,
and the keys were brought and laid upon his bier, so that the place
might appear rendered to his ashes. [Bertrand du Guesclin, born 1320,
first distinguished himself in the service of King John II. of France,
in defending Rennes against Henry Duke of Lancaster, 1356-57. He was
made Constable of France in 1370, and died before the walls of
Chateauneuf-de-Randon (Lozere). July 13, 1380. He was buried by the
order of Charles V. in Saint-Denis, hard by the tomb which the king had
built for himself. In _La Vie vaillant Bertran du Guesclin_ [_Chronique,
etc._ (par E. Charriere), 1839, tom. ii. p. 321, lines 22716, _sq._],
the English do not place the keys of the castle on Du Guesclin's bier,
but present them to him as he lies tossing on his death-bed ("a son lit
agite"). So, too, _Histoire de Messire Bertrand du Guesclin_, par Claude
Menard, 1618, 540: "Et Engloiz se accorderent a ce faire. Lors issirent
dudit Chastel, et vindrent a Bertran, et lui presenterent les clefs. Et
ne demora gueres, qu'il getta le souppir de la mort."]
[278] [John of Trocnow, surnamed Zi[)z]ka, or the "One-eyed," was born
circ. 1360, and died while he was besieging a town on the Moravian
border, October 11, 1424. He was the hero of the Hussite or Taborite
crusade (1419-1422), the _malleus Catholicorum_. The story is that on
his death-bed he was asked where he wished to be buried, and replied,
"that it mattered not, that his flesh might be thrown to the vulture and
eagles; but his skin was to be carefully preserved and made into a drum,
to be carried in the front of the battle, that the very sound might
disperse their enemies." Voltaire, in his _Essai sur Les M[oe]urs et
L'Esprit des Nations_ (cap. lxxiii. s.f. _[OE]uvres Completes, etc._,
1836, iii. 256), mentions the legend as a fact, "Il ordonna qu' apres sa
mort on fit un tambour de sa peau." Compare _Werner_, act i. sc. I,
lines 693, 694.]
[279] {550}["Au moment de la bataille Napoleon avait dit a ses troupes,
en leur montrant les Pyramides: 'Soldats, quarante siecles vous
regardent.'"--_Campagnes d'Egypte et de Syrie_, 1798-9, par le General
Bertrand, 1847, i. 160.]
[280] [Madrid was taken by the French, first in March, 1808, and again
December 2, 1808.]
[281] [Vienna was taken by the French under Murat, November 14, 1805,
evacuated January 12, 1806, captured by Napoleon, May, 1809, and
restored at the conclusion of peace, October 14, 1809. Her treachery
cons
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