part courted me the more, the more I showed myself worthy

av,Qi^
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
15
of their attachment. Envy is not a passion that finds easy root in a Frenchman's bosom. I was one of the youngest of those who attended on the siege ; but my brothers in arms were generous rivals, who in the field obstinately strove with me for superior glory, but over the convivial board forgot their mutual competitions, and opened their hearts to benevolence and friendship. " Let us not/' was a sentiment I heard often repeated, " forget the object that led us from our pleasant homes to pour from the heights of the Alps upon the fields of Italy. It is to humble the imperious Spaniard — to punish the disloyal Bourbon — to vindicate the honour of our beloved and illustrious monarch. Those walls cover the enemy ; yonder mountains serve to hide them from our assault; let no Frenchman mistake him who marches under the same standard for an adver- sary."
The trenches had not been opened before Pavia till about the beginning of November. The winter overtook us, and the siege was yet in progress ; with some apparent advan- tage indeed to our side of the question, but by no means promising an instant conclusion. The season set in with unusual severity ; and both officer and soldier were glad, as much as possible, to fence out its rigour by the indul- gences of the genial board. My finances, as I have said, were at the commencement of the expedition in excellent order : I had brought with me a considerable sum ; and it was not spared upon the present occasion.
There were however other things to be attended to, be- side the demands of conviviality. The king became im- patient of the delays of the siege. The garrison and the inhabitants were reduced to great extremities ; but the go- vernor discovered no symptoms of a purpose to surrender. In the mean time intelligence was brought, that Bourbon was making the most extraordinary exertions in Germany, and promised to lead to the enemy a reinforcement of twelve thousand men from that country ; while the imperial generals, by mortgaging their revenues, and pawning their jewels, and still more by their eloquence and influence with those under their command, were able to keep together the remains of a disheartened and defeated army in expectation
16 TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
of his arrival. There was some danger therefore, i siege were not speedily terminated, that the king mi ultimately be obliged to raise it with ignominy, or to fight the enemy under every disadvantage. Francis however was not to be deterred from his undertaking. He swore a solemn oath, that Pavia should be his, or he would perish in the attempt.
Thus circumstanced, he conceived a very extraordinary project. Pavia is defended on one side by the Tesino, the scene of the first of the four famous battles by which Han- nibal signalised his invasion of Italy. The king believed that if this river could by the labour of his army be diverted from its course, the town must instantly fall into his hands. He was encouraged to the undertaking, by recollecting a stratagem of a similar nature by which Cyrus formerly made himself master of the city of Babylon. It was a thought highly flattering to the grandeur of his soul, to imagine that posterity would in this instance institute a parallel between him and Cyrus the Great.
The plan for diverting the course of the Tesino pro- duced a new and extraordinary scene. It was, as may well be believed, a work of uncommon labour. A new channel was to be scooped out and deepened ; and, while the stream was turned into this channel, piles were to be sunk, and an immense mound of earth created, as an effectual impedi- ment to the waters resuming their former course. This was a heavy burthen to the soldier, in addition to the dis- advantage of being encamped during the course of a winter remarkably severe for the climate in which we fought. By any other army the task would have been performed with cloudiness and discontent, if not complained of with re- pining and murmurs. But here the gaiety of the French character displayed itself. The nobility of France, who attended their sovereign in great numbers, accompanied the infantry in their labour. We laid aside the indulgence of the marquee, of tapestry and carpets ; we threw off our upper garments ; and each seized a spade, a barrow of earth, or a mattock. We put our hands to the engines, and re- fused no effort under pretence that it was sordid or severe. While the trees were leafless, and nature appeared bound
TRAVELS OP ST. LEON. 17
up in frost, sweat ran down our faces and bedewed our limbs. The army were encouraged by our example. An employment which, under other circumstances, would have been regarded as rigid, was thus made a source of new hilarity and amusement. It was a memorable sight to be- hold the venerable and grey-headed leaders of the French army endeavouring to exert the strength and activity of their early years. To me, who had but lately arrived at the stature of manhood, and who was accustomed to all the exercises which give strength^ and vigour to the frame, this new employment was in no degree burdensome. I felt in it the satisfaction that a swift man experiences when he enters the lists of the race ; I congratulated myself upon the nature of my education ; if it be a sin to covet honour, that guilt was mine ; and, so great was my appetite for it, that I was inexpressibly rejoiced to observe the various ways in which it might be gratified.
Strange as it may seem, this scene of a winter-camp, in the midst of blood and sweat, surrounded with dangers, and called on for unparalleled exertions, appears to me, through the vista of years that is now interposed between, to have been one of the happiest of my life. The gay labours and surprises of the day were succeeded by a convivial evening, in which we did not the less open our hearts, though frequently liable to be interrupted in our midnight revels by the in- exhaustible activity and stratagems of the enemy. In this various and ever-shifting scene, I forgot the disasters that occurred, and the blood that flowed around me. All sense of a large and impartial morality was, for the time at least, deadened in my breast. I was ever upon the alert. The diversity of events neither suffered my spirits to flag, nor reflection to awake. It is only upon such occasions, or occasions like these, that a man is able fully to feel what life is, and to revel in its exuberance. Above all, I was delighted with the society and friendship of my brother-officers. They honoured me ; they loved me. I seemed to feel what sympathy was ; and to have conscious pleasure in making one in a race of beings like myself. Such were my sens- ations.
18 TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
It must not, however, be imagined, that all about me felt in these respects as I did. I was deeply indebted in this particular to my youth and my fortune. The old en- deavoured to brace themselves in vain ; they sunk under the continual pressure. The poor soldier from the ranks laboured incessantly, and I laboured as much as he; but he had little opportunity to recruit his vigour and renovate his strength. There was yet another class of persons in the camp, whose gaiety was much less interrupted than mine. These were, the king, and the generals who commanded under him. They could not be entirely devoid of thought and consideration. They suffered much anxiety from the length of the siege ; and felt that every period of delay increased the doubtfulness of the event.
Antonio de Leyva, governor of the city, necessarily felt himself alarmed at the extraordinary project in which we were engaged, and made every exertion to prevent it. One evening the king sent for me to his tent, and told me in confidence that the enemy intended that very night to make three several attacks upon our mound, one on each side of the stream, and one by means of boats in the centre. Two of these, he said, were merely intended as feints ; the west bank of the Tesino was the point against which their prin- cipal exertions would be directed. On that side he was resolved to command in person ; the boats with which he proposed to resist their flota he confided to one of the most famous and valuable officers of his army ; the detachment on the east bank he purposed to intrust to my uncle and myself. He observed, that the detachment he could spare for that purpose, after having formed the other two bodies, and reserved a sufficient number for the defence of the camp and the works, would be small ; and he warned me to the exertion of a particular vigilance. It would be doubly unfortunate, if a body, the attack upon which was to be merely a feigned one, should nevertheless be routed. f answerably to the merit of your first achievement; and depend upon it that you will prove hereafter one of the aiost eminent supporters of the martial glory of France.'*
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
The Marquis de Villeroy divided our little force into two bodies : with the larger he lay in wait for the enemy near the scene of the expected attack : the smaller he con- fided to my direction, and placed so that we might be able to fall upon the rear of the garrison-troops as soon as they should be fully engaged with our comrades. In the situ- ation assigned me I took advantage of the skirts of a wood, which enabled me to approach very near to the ex- pected route of our assailants, without being perceived by them. The night was extremely dark, yet the vicinity of my position was such, that I could count the numbers of the adversary as they passed along before my hiding-place. I was alarmed to find that they amounted to at least the triple of what we had been taught to expect. They were no sooner past, than I despatched to the king a young knight, my particular friend, who happened to be with me, to urge the necessity of a reinforcement. At the same time I sent a messenger to my uncle, by a circuitous route, to inform him of what I had observed, and the step I had taken, and to entreat him to defer the attack as long as con- sistently with propriety it should be possible. The enemy, however, had no sooner arrived at the place of his destin- ation, than the troops of the marquis, no longer capable of restraint, rushed to engage. The Spaniards were at first sur- prised, but a short time led them to suspect the weakness of their assailants ; nor was the assistance I brought to my uncle sufficient to turn the fortune of the fight. We lost many of our men ; the rest apparently gave ground ; and it was a vain attempt, amidst the darkness of the night, to endeavour to restore order and rally them to the assault. We were already almost completely overpowered, when the succours we expected reached us. They were, however, unable to distinguish friend from enemy. A storm of mingled rain and snow had come on, which benumbed our limbs, drove fiercely in our faces, and rendered every object alike viewless. The carnage which in this situation took place was terrible. Our blows were struck at random. A Frenchman was not less dreadful than a Spaniard. When the battle ceased, scarcely one of the enemy was left alive ; but we observed- with astonishment and horror the number c 2
20 TRAVELS OP ST. LEON.
of the besiegers who had probably, in the midst of the con- fusion, been cut to pieces by their own countrymen. * I anl now arrived at the period which put an end to the festivity and jocundness of the campaign. All after this was one continued series of disaster. About the close of January, our work, though not wholly interrupted, was con- siderably retarded by a succession of heavy rains. This was injurious to us in many ways; our project, which was executed in the midst of waters, rendered additional damp a matter of serious consideration. We were also seized with an apprehension of still greater magnitude, which was speedily realised. The snows being at length completely dissolved, and the quantity of water continually increasing, we perceived one afternoon strong symptoms that our mound, the principal subject of our labour and source of our hope, was giving way in various places. The next morning at daybreak, it rushed down every where at once with wonderful violence and noise. It is difficult to de- scribe the sensation of anguish which was instantly and universally diffused. The labour of many weeks was over- thrown in a moment. As we had proceeded in our work, we every day saw ourselves nearer the object to which we aspired. At this time our project was almost completed, and Pavia was in imagination already in our hands, to gain possession of which had cost us such unremitted exertions, the display of so much gallantry, and the loss of so many soldiers. "We were confounded at the catastrophe we saw. We gazed at each other, each in want of encouragement, and every one unable to afford it.
Still, however, we were not destitute of advantages. The garrison began to be in want both of ammunition and pro- visions. They were in a general state of discontent, almost of mutiny, which scarcely all the address and authority of the governor were able to suppress. If the town continued longer unrelieved, it was sure to fall into our hands. But even this our last hope was considerably diminished by the intelligence we received the very day after the destruction of our mound, that the imperial army, after having received large reinforcements, was approaching in considerable force. The king had some time before, in the height of his con-
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 21
fidence, and elation of his heart, sent off a detachment of six thousand men to invade the kingdom of Naples ; for upon that, as well as the Milanese, he had inherited pre- tensions from his immediate predecessors.
But, though the enemy was superior in numbers, and a part perhaps of their forces better disciplined than ours, they laboured under several disadvantages to which we were not exposed. The Emperor, though his dominions were more extensive, did not derive from them a revenue equal to that of Francis. As he did not take the field in person, the war appeared to his subjects only a common war, pro- ceeding upon the ordinary motives of war. But my coun- trymen were led by their sovereign, were fresh from the recent insolence of an invasion of their own territory, and fought at once for personal glory and their country's honour. The king, who commanded them, seemed expressly formed to obtain their attachment and affection. His nobles became enthusiastic by the example of his enthusiasm, and willingly disbursed their revenues to give prosperity and eclat to the campaign.
The first question that arose upon the approach of the enemy was, whether we should break up the siege, and attend in some strong post the slow, but sure, effect of their want of money, and the consequent dispersion of their troops, or wait their attack in our present posture. The former advice was safe; but to the gallant spirit of Francis it appeared ignominious. He was upon all occasions the partisan of rapid measures and decisive proceedings ; and his temper, with the exception of a few wary and deliberate counsellors, accorded with that of our whole army. For some days we congratulated ourselves upon the wisdom of our choice ; we presented to the enemy so formidable an appearance, that, notwithstanding the cogent motives he had to proceed, he hesitated long before he ventured to attack us. At length, however, the day came that was pregnant with so momentous expectation.
If through the whole limits of our camp there was not
a man that did not feel himself roused upon this glorious
occasion, to me it was especially interesting. The scene
accorded with the whole purpose of my education, and
c 3
22 TRAVELS OP ST. LEON.
novelty made it impressive. I lived only in the present moment. I had not a thought, a wish, a straggling ima- gination, that wandered beyond the circuit of the day. My soul was filled ; at one minute wild with expectation, and at another awed into solemnity. There is something in- describably delicious in this concentration of the mind. It raises a man above himself ; and makes him feel a certain nobleness and elevation of character, of the possession of which he was to that hour unconscious. Fear and pain Were ideas that could find no harbour in my bosom : I re- garded this as the most memorable of days, and myself as the most fortunate of mortals. Far indeed was I from an- ticipating the disgraceful event, in which this elation of heart speedily terminated.
The sun rose bright in a cloudless sky. The cold of the season was such, as only to give new lightness and elas- ticity to the muscles and animal spirits. I saw few of those objects of nature, which in this delightful climate gave so sacred a pleasure to the human soul. But in my present temper there was no object of sight so ravishing, as the firm and equal steps of the martial bands, the impatience of the war-horse, and the display of military standards ; nor any music so enchanting, as the shrillness of the pipe, the clangor of the trumpet, the neighing of steeds, and the roaring of cannon. It is thus that man disguises to himself the real nature of his occupation ; and clothes that which is of all things the most nefarious or most to be lamented, with the semblance of jubilee and festival.
The Imperialists were at first unable to withstand the efforts of French valour. They gave way on every side ; we pursued our advantage with impetuosity. To the slaughter of whole ranks mowed down with tremendous celerity, to the agonies of the dying, I was blind ; their groans had no effect on my organ, for my soul was occupied in another direction. My horse's heels spurned their mangled limbs, and were red with their blood. I fought not merely with valour, but with fury; I animated those around me by my example and my acclamations. It may seem contrary to delicacy to speak with this freedom of my own praises; but I am at my present writing totally changed
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 23
and removed from what I was, and I write with the free- dom of a general historian. It is this simplicity and inge- nuousness that shall pervade the whole of my narrative.
The fortune of the day speedily changed. The cow- ardice and desertion of our Swiss allies gave the first signal of adversity. The gallant commander of the garrison of Pavia sallied out in the midst of the fight, and suddenly attacked us in the rear. A stratagem of the Imperial gene- ral effected the rout of our cavalry. The whole face of the field was utterly reversed.
It would be in vain for me to attempt to describe even the small part that I beheld of the calamity and slaughter of the French army. At this distance of time, the recol- lection of it opens afresh the almost obliterated wounds of my heart. I saw my friends cut down, and perish on every side. Those who, together with myself, had marched out in the morning, swelled with exultation and hope, now lay weltering in their blood. Their desires, their thoughts, their existence, were brought to a fatal termination. The common soldiers were hewed and cut to pieces by hundreds, without note and observation. Many of the first nobility of France, made desperate by the change of the battle, rushed into the thickest of the foe, and became so many voluntary sacrifices; choosing rather to perish, than to turn their backs with dishonour.
In the battle I had two horses killed under me. The first of them suffered a sort of gradual destruction. He had already received one wound in the nostrils, and another in the neck, when a third shot carried away two of his feet, and laid him prostrate on the earth. Bernardin, my faithful attendant, observed what was passing, and imme- diately brought me a fresh charger ; but I had not long mounted him, when he received a wound which killed him on the spot. I was myself hurt in several places, and at length the stroke of a sabre brought me to the ground. Here I remained for a long time insensible. When I re- covered, and looked around me, I found myself in entire solitude, and could at present perceive no trace either of the enemy or of my own people. Soon, however, I recol- lected what had passed, and was but too well assured of the c 4
24 TRAVELS OP ST. LEON.
defeat my countrymen had sustained. Weak and battered as I was, I attempted to retire to a place of greater secu- rity. I had scarcely changed my ground, before I saw a trooper of the enemy rushing towards me, with the inten- tion to take away my life. Fortunately I observed a tree at hand, to the shelter of which I hastened ; and, partly by moving the branches to and fro, and partly by shifting my position, I baffled my adversary, till he became weary of the attempt. A moment after, I saw one of my most inti- mate and familiar companions killed before my eyes. It was not long, however, before a party of fugitive French came up to the spot where I stood, and I, like the rest, was hurried from the field. My uncle perished in the battle.
It is wonderful how men can harden their hearts against such scenes as I then witnessed. It is wonderful how they can be brought to co-operate in such demoniac fury, and more than demoniac mischief, barbarity, and murder. But they are brought to it ; and enter, not from a deplorable necessity, but as to a festival, in which each man is eager to occupy his place, and share the amusements. It seemed to me at that time, as it seems to me now, that it should be enough for a man to contemplate such a field as I saw at Pavia, to induce him to abjure the trade of violence for ever, and to commit his sword once more to the bowels of the earth, from which it was torn for so nefarious a purpose.
These sensations, though now finally established in my mind, were, at the time of which I am writing, but of fleet- ing duration. The force of education, and the first bent of my mind, were too strong. The horror which over- whelmed me in the first moments of this great national defeat subsided ; and the military passion returned upon me in its original ardour. My convictions, and the moral in- tegrity of my soul, were temporary ; and I became myself a monument of that inconstancy and that wonder, to which I have just alluded.
Various circumstances, however, prevented this passion from its direct operation. The character of France was altered by the battle of Pavia, though mine remained the same. It was in the fullest degree decisive of the fortune
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 25
of the war. Milan, and every other place in the duchy, opened their gates to the conqueror j and, in a fortnight, not a Frenchman was left in the fields of Italy. Of the whole army only a small body effected an orderly retreat, under the command of the Duke of Alencon. Many per- sons of the highest distinction perished in the hattle : many were made prisoners hy the enemy. France by this event found the list of her noblesse considerably reduced in num- bers ; add to which, those whose loss she sustained, were almost all of them taken from among the most distinguished and meritorious in the catalogue.
But what constituted the principal feature in this me- morable event was, that the king himself was found in the number of the prisoners ; nor was he released by his un- generous competitor till after more than a twelvemonth's confinement. During this period Francis tasted of the dregs of adversity. Inclined in the first instance to judge of his rival by himself, he expected a liberal treatment. In this he was deeply disappointed. After a detention of many months in the Milanese, the scene of his former suc- cesses, he was transferred to Madrid. He was personally neglected by the emperor, while his disloyal subject * was treated with singular distinction. The most rigorous terms were proposed to him. All this had the effect, in one in- stance, of sinking him into a disease of languor and dejec- tion which he was not expected to survive ; and, in another, of inducing him to execute an instrument by which he ab- dicated the crown, and declared his resolution of remaining a prisoner for life. His confinement was at length termin- ated by his solemnly engaging to compulsory articles, which he was determined to break as soon as he found himself at liberty ; an alternative peculiarly grating to the liberality of his spirit. This reverse of fortune materially changed his character. The fine spirit of his ambition was from this time evaporated ; and, while he still retained the indefeasi- ble qualities of his soul, and was gallant, kind-hearted, and generous, he bartered, as far as was compatible with his disposition, the enterprising and audacious temper he had previously manifested, for the wary and phlegmatic system
* The constable of Bourbon.
26
TRAVELS OF ST.
of his more fortunate competitor. His genius cowered be- fore that of Charles ; and the defeat of Pavia may, perhaps, be considered as having given a deadly wound to the reign of chivalry, and a secure foundation to that of craft, dissi- mulation, corruption, and commerce.