THE CHEVALIER BAYARD 147 light that Bayard had struck the blazon of Sir Claude. But no one had a thought of what was coming. The day arrived, the tilt was held, and Bayard, by the voice of all the ladies, bore off the prize above the head of every knight in Lyons. The glory of this exploit was extreme. It quickly spread. Three days later Bayard went to join the garrison at Aire. He found, as he rode into the little town, that the fame of his achievement had arrived before him. Heads were everywhere thrust out of windows, and a band of fifty of his future comrades is- sued on horseback from the garrison to bid him welcome. A few days after his arrival he held a tilt in his own person, after the example of Sir Claude. The palms were a diamond and a clasp of gold. Forty-eight of his companions struck his shield, and rode into the lists against him. Bayard overthrew the whole band, one by one, and was once more hailed at sunset by the notes of trumpets as the champion of the tourney. It is not in tournaments and tilts v however, that a knight can win his spurs. Bayard burned for battle. For many months he burned in vain ; but at last the banners of the king were given to the wind, and Bayard, to his unspeakable de- light, found himself marching under Lord Ligny against Naples. The two armies faced each other at Fornovo. The odds against the French were six to one, and the fight was long and bloody. When the great victory was at last decided, Bayard was among the first of those called up before the king. That day two horses had dropped dead beneath him ; his cuirass and sword were hacked and battered, and a captured standard, blazing with the arms of Naples, was in his hand. At the king's order he knelt down, and received upon the spot the rank of knight. At one bound he had achieved the height of glory to be knighted by his sovereign on the field of battle. Bayard was not yet nineteen. His figure at that age was tall and slender; his hair and eyes were black ; his complexion was a sunny brown ; and his coun- tenance had something of the eagle's. He was now for some time idle. He was left in garrison in Lombardy. But fiercer fields were soon to call him. Ludovico Sforza took Milan. At Binasco, Lord Bernardino Cazache, one of Sforza's captains, had three hundred horse ; and twenty miles from Milan was Bayard's place of garrison. With fifty of his comrades he rode out one morning, bent on assaulting Lord Bernardino's force. The latter, warned by a scout of their approach, armed his party, and rushed fiercely from the fort. The strife was fought with fury ; but the Lombards, slowly driven back toward Milan, at length wheeled round their horses and gal- loped like the wind into the city. Bayard, darting in his spurs, waving' his bare blade, and shouting out his bat- tle-cry of " France," was far ahead of his companions. Before he knew his dan- ger, he had dashed in with the fugitives at the city gates and reached the middle of the square in front of Sforza's palace. He found himself alone in the midst of the fierce enemy with the white crosses of France emblazoned on his shield. Sforza, hearing a tremendous uproar in the square, came to a window of the
