Bayard: the Good Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach Part 8

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 n.o.ble words to speak the praise and admiration which filled the hearts of all. "Would to G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 Gren.o.ble was reached, and here all the n.o.bles 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Death of Bayard.]