You are here

قراءة كتاب Bayard: the Good Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach

تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"

‏اللغة: English
Bayard: the Good Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach

Bayard: the Good Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach

تقييمك:
0
No votes yet
المؤلف:
دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 1


BAYARD

THE GOOD KNIGHT WITHOUT FEAR AND WITHOUT REPROACH

BY
CHRISTOPHER HARE

 

BAYARD

WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS BY
HERBERT COLE

 

INTRODUCTION

That courtesy title which flies to the mind whenever the name Bayard is mentioned—"The Good Knight without Fear and without Reproach"—is no fancy name bestowed by modern admirers, but was elicited by the hero's merits in his own day and from his own people.

The most valuable chronicle of the Good Knight's life and deeds was written with charming simplicity by a faithful follower, who, in single-hearted devotion to his beloved master's fame, took no thought for himself, but blotted out his own identity, content to remain for all time a nameless shadow—merely the LOYAL SERVITOR. It is from his record that the incidents in the following pages are retold.

The "Loyal Servitor" is now believed from recent research to have been Jacques de Mailles, his intimate friend and companion-at-arms, probably his secretary. He certainly learnt from Bayard himself the story of his early years, which he tells so delightfully, and he writes with the most minute detail about the later events which happened in his presence, and the warlike encounters in which he himself took part; and a most vivid and interesting account he makes of it. In an ancient catalogue of the Mazarine Library, his book is first set down as the Histoire du Chevalier Bayard, par Jacques de Mailles, Paris, in 4to, 1514 (probably a mistake for 1524). The better-known edition, with only the name of the "Loyal Servitor," was published in 1527, under the title of

THE VERY JOYFUL AND VERY DELIGHTFUL
HISTORY
OF THE LIFE, THE HEROIC DEEDS, THE TRIUMPHS
AND THE VALOUR OF THE GOOD KNIGHT
WITHOUT FEAR AND WITHOUT REPROACH

BAYARD

BAYARD: Le bon Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche

 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
Illustration: LE CHEVALIER BAYARD Sans peur et sans reproche

CHAPTER 2
Illustration: CHARLES VIII KING OF FRANCE from a medallion

CHAPTER 3
Illustration: LOUIS XII KING of FRANCE from a medallion

CHAPTER 4
Illustration: LUDOVICO SFORZA DUKE OF MILAN from a medallion

CHAPTER 5
Illustration: THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN from the portrait by Albert Durer

CHAPTER 6
Illustration: ANDREA GRITTI DOGE of VENICE from the portrait by Titian Vecelli

CHAPTER 7
Illustration: POPE JULIUS THE SECOND from the portrait by Raphael Sanzio

CHAPTER 8
Illustration: HENRY the EIGHTH KING of ENGLAND from the portrait by Hans Holbein

CHAPTER 9
Illustration: FRANCIS the FIRST KING of FRANCE from the portrait by Titian Vecelli

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BAYARD

BAYARD: LE BON CHEVALIER SANS PEUR ET SANS REPROCHE

A FINE EXHIBITION OF HORSEMANSHIP

BATTLE OF FORNOVO

BAYARD DEFENDS THE BRIDGE

THE PAGE PRESENTS HIS PRISONER

SEIZURE OF THE SPY

BAYARD PRESENTED TO HENRY VIII

THE DEATH OF BAYARD

 

LE CHEVALIER BAYARD Sans peur et sans reproche

THE STORY OF BAYARD

CHAPTER I

Pierre Terrail, the renowned Bayard of history, was born at the Castle of Bayard, in Dauphiné, about the year 1474, when Louis XI. was King of France. He came of an ancient and heroic race, whose chief privilege had been to shed their blood for France throughout the Middle Ages.

The lord of Bayard had married Hélène Alleman, a good and pious lady of a noble family, whose brother Laurent was the Bishop of Grenoble. Pierre Bayard, the hero of this story, was the second son of a large family; he had three brothers and four sisters. His eldest brother, Georges, was five or six years older than himself, then came his sisters, Catherine, Jeanne, and Marie, while younger than himself were Claudie, and two brothers, Jacques and Philippe.

Like so many other mediaeval strongholds, the Castle of Bayard was built upon a rocky hill, which always gave an advantage in case of attack. It had been erected by the great-grandfather and namesake of our Pierre Bayard, probably on the site of an earlier stronghold, in the year 1404. No better position could have been chosen, for it commanded a deep valley on two sides, in a wild and mountainous district of Dauphiné, near the village of Pontcharra in the Graisivaudan. Even now we can still see from its ruins what a powerful fortress it was in its time,

Pages