Rene Bazin - "The Ink Stain, v2"

W. S. Harris - "Mr. World and Miss Church Member"

E. M. Forster - "Howards End"

Jean de La Fontaine - "The Tales and Novels, v2: The Contented Cuckold and Others"

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

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Books: The Harvard Classics Volume 38

V >> Various >> The Harvard Classics Volume 38




I saw one very strange thing, which was this: a soldier in my
presence gave one of his fellows a blow on the head with a
halbard, penetrating to the left ventricle of the brain; yet the
man did not fall to the ground. He that struck him said he heard
that he had cheated at dice, and he had drawn a large sum of
money from him, and was accustomed to cheat. They called me to
dress him; which I did, as it were for the last time, knowing
that he would die soon. When I had dressed him, he returned all
alone to his quarters, which were at the least two hundred paces
away. I bade one of his companions send for a priest to dispose
the affairs of his soul; he got one for him, who stayed with him
to his last breath. The next day, the patient sent for me by his
girl, dressed in boy's apparel, to come and dress him; which I
would not, fearing he would die under my hands; and to be rid of
the matter I told her the dressing must not be removed before the
third day. But in truth he was sure to die, though he were never
touched again. The third day, he came staggering to find me in my
tent, and the girl with him, and prayed me most affectionately to
dress him, and showed me a purse wherein might be an hundred or
sixscore pieces of gold, and said he would give me my heart's
desire; nevertheless, for all that, I put off the removal of the
dressing, fearing lest he should die then and there. Certain
gentlemen desired me to go and dress him; which I did at their
request; but in dressing him he died under my hands in a
convulsion. The priest stayed with him till death, and seized his
purse, for fear another man should take it, saying he would say
masses for his poor soul. Also he took his clothes, and
everything else.

I have told this case for the wonder of it, that the soldier,
having received this great blow, did not fall down, and kept his
reason to the end.

Not long afterward, the camp was broken up from diverse causes:
one, because we were told that four companies of Spaniards were
entered into Perpignan: the other, that the plague was spreading
through the camp. Moreover, the country folk warned us there
would soon be a great overflowing of the sea, which might drown
us all. And the presage which they had, was a very great wind
from sea, which rose so high that there remained not a single
tent but was broken and thrown down, for all the care and
diligence we could give; and the kitchens being all uncovered,
the wind raised the dust and sand, which salted and powdered our
meats in such fashion that we could not eat them; and we had to
cook them in pots and other covered vessels. Nor was the camp so
quickly moved but that many carts and carters, mules and mule
drivers, were drowned in the sea, with great loss of baggage.

When the camp was moved I returned to Paris.




THE JOURNEY TO LANDRESY. 1544


The King raised a great army to victual Landresy. Against him the
Emperor had no fewer men, but many more, to wit, eighteen
thousand Germans, ten thousand Spaniards, six thousand Walloons,
ten thousand English, and from thirteen to fourteen thousand
horse. I saw the two armies near each other, within cannon-shot;
and we thought they could not withdraw without giving battle.
There were some foolish gentlemen who must needs approach the
enemy's camp; the enemy fired on them with light field pieces;
some died then and there, others had their arms or legs carried
away. The King having done what he wished, which was to victual
Landresy, withdrew his army to Guise, which was the day after All
Saints, 1544; and from there I returned to Paris.

A little while after, we went to Boulogne; where the English,
seeing our army, left the forts which they were holding,
Moulanabert, le petit Paradis, Monplaisir, the fort of
Chastillon, le Portet, the fort of Dardelot. One day, as I was
going through the camp to dress my wounded men, the enemy who
were in the Tour d' Ordre fired a cannon against us, thinking to
kill two men-at-arms who had stopped to talk together. It
happened that the ball passed quite close to one of them, which
threw him to the ground, and it was thought the ball had touched
him, which it did not; but only the wind of the ball full against
his corselet, with such force that all the outer part of his
thigh became livid and black, and he could hardly stand. I
dressed him, and made diverse scarifications to let out the
bruised blood made by the wind of the ball; and by the rebounds
that it made on the ground it killed four soldiers, who remained
dead where they fell.

I was not far from this shot, so that I could just feel the moved
air, without its doing me any harm save a fright, which made me
duck my head low enough; but the ball was already far away. The
soldiers laughed at me, to be afraid of a ball which had already
passed. Mon petit maistre, I think if you had been there, I
should not have been afraid all alone, and you would have had
your share of it.

Monseigneur the Due de Guise, Francois de Lorraine, was wounded
before Boulogne with a thrust of a lance, which entered above the
right eye, toward the nose, and passed out on the other side
between the ear and the back of the neck, with so great violence
that the head of the lance, with a piece of the wood, was broken
and remained fast; so that it could not be drawn but save with
extreme force, with smith's pincers. Yet notwithstanding the
great violence of the blow, which was not without fracture of
bones, nerves, veins, and arteries, and other parts torn and
broken, my lord, by the grace of God, was healed. He was used to
go into battle always with his vizard raised: that is why the
lance passed right out on the other side.




THE JOURNEY TO GERMANY. 1552


I went to Germany, in the year 1552, with M. de Rohan, captain of
fifty men-at-arms, where I was surgeon of his company, as I have
said before. On this expedition, M. the Constable was general of
the army; M. de Chastillon, afterward the Admiral, was chief
colonel of the infantry, with four regiments of lansquenets under
Captains Recrod and Ringrave, two under each; and every regiment
was of ten ensigns, and every ensign of five hundred men. And
beside these were Captain Chartel, who led the troops that the
Protestant princes had sent to the King (this infantry was very
fine, and was accompanied by fifteen hundred men-at-arms, with a
following of two archers apiece, which would make four thousand
five hundred horse); and two thousand light horse, and as many
mounted arquebusiers, of whom M. d'Aumalle was general; and a
great number of the nobility, who were come there for their
pleasure. Moreover, the King was accompanied by two hundred
gentlemen of his household, under the command of the Seigneurs de
Boisy and de Canappe, and by many other princes. For his
following, to escort him, there were the French and Scotch and
Swiss guards, amounting to six hundred foot soldiers; and the
companies of MM. the Dauphin, de 'Guise, d'Aumalle, and Marshal
Saint Andre, amounting to four hundred lances; which was a
marvellous thing, to see such a multitude; and with this equipage
the King entered into Toul and Metz.

I must not omit to say that the companies of MM. de Rohan, the
Comte de Sancerre, and de Jarnac, which were each of them of
fifty horse, went upon the wings of the camp. And God knows how
scarce we were of victuals, and I protest before Him that at
three diverse times I thought to die of hunger; and it was not
for want of money, for I had enough of it; but we could not get
victuals save by force, because the country people collected them
all into the towns and castles.

One of the servants of the captain-ensign of the company of M. de
Rohan went with others to enter a church where the peasants were
retreated, thinking to get victuals by love or by forces; but he
got the worst of it, as they all did, and came back with seven
sword wounds on the head, the least of which penetrated to the
inner table of the skull; and he had four other wounds upon the
arms, and one on the right shoulder, which cut more than half of
the bladebone. He was brought back to his master's lodging, who
seeing him so mutilated, and not hoping he could be cured, made
him a grave, and would have cast him therein, saying that else
the peasants would massacre and kill him: I in pity told him the
man might still be cured if he were well dressed. Diverse
gentlemen of the company prayed he would take him along with the
baggage, since I was willing to dress him; to which he agreed,
and after I had got the man ready, he was put in a cart, on a bed
well covered and well arranged, drawn by a horse. I did him the
office of physician, apothecary, surgeon, and cook. I dressed him
to the end of his case, and God healed him; insomuch that all the
three companies marvelled at this cure; The men-at-arms of the
company of M. de Rohan, the first muster that was made, gave me
each a crown, and the archers half a crown,




THE JOURNEY TO DANVILLIERS. 1552


On his return from the expedition against the German camp, King
Henry besieged Danvilliers, and those within would not surrender.
They got the worst of it, but our powder failed us; so they had a
good shot at our men. There was a culverin-shot passed through
the tent of H. de Rohan, which hit a gentleman leg who was of his
household. I had to finish the cutting off of it, which I did
without applying the hot irons.

The King sent for powder to Sedan, and when it came we began the
attack mere vigorously than before, so that a breach was made.
MM. de Guise and the Constable, being in the King's chamber, told
him, and they agreed that next day they would assault the town,
and were confident they would enter into it; and it must be kept
secret, for fear the enemy should come to hear of it; and each
promised not to speak of it to any man. Now there was a groom of
the King's chamber, who being laid under the King's camp-bed to
sleep, heard they were resolved to attack the town next day. So
he told the secret to a certain captain, saying that they would
make the attack next day for certain, and he had heard it from
the King, and prayed the said captain to speak of it to no man,
which he promised; but his promise did not hold, and forthwith he
disclosed it to a captain, and this captain to a captain, and the
captains to some of the soldiers, saying always, "Say nothing."
And it was just so much hid, that next day early in the morning
there was seen the greater part of the soldiers with their boots
and breeches cut loose at the knee for the better mounting of the
breach. The King was told of this rumour that ran through the
camp, that the attack was to be made; whereat he was astonished,
seeing there were but three in that advice, who had promised each
other to tell it to no man. The King sent for M. de Guise, to
know if he had spoken of this attack; he swore and affirmed to
him he had not told it to anybody; and M. the Constable said the
same, and told the King they must know for certain who had
declared this secret counsel, seeing they were but three. Inquiry
was made from captain to captain. In the end they found the
truth; for one said, "It was such an one told me," and another
said the same, till it came to the first of all, who declared he
had heard it from the groom of the King's chamber, called Guyard,
a native of Blois, son of a barber of the late King Francis. The
King sent for him into his tent, in the presence of MM. de Guise
and the Constable, to hear from him whence he had his knowledge,
and who had told him the attack was to be made; and said if he
did not speak the truth he would have him hanged. Then he
declared he lay down under the King's bed thinking to sleep, and
so having heard the plan he revealed it to a captain who was a
friend of his, to the end he might prepare himself with his
soldiers to be the first at the attack. Then the King knew the
truth, and told him he should never serve him again, and that he
deserved to be hanged, and forbade him ever to come again to the
Court.

The groom of the chamber went away with this to swallow, and
slept that night with a surgeon-in-ordinary of the King, Master
Louis of Saint Andre; and in the night he gave himself six stabs
with a knife, and cut his throat Nor did the surgeon perceive it
till the morning, when he found his bed all bloody, and the dead
body by him. He marvelled at this sight on his awaking, and
feared they would say he was the cause of the murder; but he was
soon relieved, seeing the reason, which was despair at the loss
of the good friendship of the King.

So Guyard was buried. And those of Danvilliers, when they saw the
breach large enough for us to enter, and our soldiers ready to
assault them, surrendered themselves to the mercy of the King.
Their leaders were taken prisoners, and their Soldiers were sent
away without arms.

The camp being dispersed, I returned to Paris with my gentleman
whose leg I had cut off; I dressed him, and God healed him. I
sent him to his house merry with a wooden leg; and he was content
saying he had got off cheap, not to have been miserably burned to
stop the blood, as you write in your book, won petit matetre,




THE JOURNEY TO CHATEAU LE COMTE. 1552


Some time after. King Henry raised an army of thirty thousand
men, to go and lay waste the country about Hesdin. The King of
Navarre, who was then called M. de Vendosme, was chief of the
army, and the King's Lieutenant. Being at St. Denis, in France,
waiting while the companies passed by, he sent to Paris for me to
speak with him. When I came he begged me (and his request was a
command) to follow him on this journey; and I, wishing to make my
excuses, saying my wife was sick in bed, he made answer there
were physicians in Pairs to cure her, and he, too, had left his
wife, who was of as good a house as mine, and he said he would
use me well, and forthwith ordered I should be attached to his
household. Seeing this great desire he had to take me with him, I
dared not refuse him.

I went after him to Chateau le Comte, within three or four
leagues of Hesdin. The Emperor's soldiers were in garrison there,
with a number of peasants from the country road. M. de Vendosme
called on them to surrender; they made answer that he should
never take them, unless it were piecemeal; let him do his worst,
and they would do their best to defend themselves. They trusted
in their moats, which were full of water; but in two hours, with
plenty of faggots and casks, we made a way for our infantry to
pass over, when they had to advance to the assault; and the place
was attacked with five cannons, and a breach was made large
enough for our men to enter; where those within received the
attack very valiantly, and killed and wounded a great number of
our men with arquebuses, pikes, and stones. In the end, when they
saw themselves overpowered, they set fire to their powder and
ammunition, whereby many of our men were burned, and some of
their own. And they were almost all put to the sword; but some of
our soldiers had taken twenty or thirty, hoping to have ransom
for them: and so soon as this was known, orders were given to
proclaim by trumpet through the camp, that all soldiers who had
Spaniards for prisoners must kill them, on pain of being
themselves hanged and strangled: which was done in cold blood.

Thence we went and burned several villages; and the barns were
all full of grain, to my very great regret. We came as far as
Tournahan, where there was a large tower, whither the enemy
withdrew, but we found the place empty: our men sacked it, and
blew up the tower with a mine of gunpowder, which turned it
upside down. After that, the camp was dispersed, and I returned
to Paris. And the day after Chateau le Comte was taken, M. de
Vendosme sent a gentleman under orders to the King, to report to
him all that had happened, and among other things he told the
King I had done very good work dressing the wounded, and had
showed him eighteen bullets that I had taken out of their bodies,
and there were many more that I had not been able to find or take
out; and he spoke more good of me than there was by half. Then
the King said he would take me into his service, and commanded M.
de Goguier, his first physician, to write me down in the King's
service as one of his surgeons-in-ordinary, and I was to meet him
at Rheims within ten or twelve days: which I did. And the King
did me the honour to command me to live near him, and he would be
a good friend to me. Then I thanked him most humbly for the
honour he was pleased to do me, in appointing me to serve him.




THE JOURNEY TO METZ. 1552


The Emperor having besieged Metz with more than an hundred and
twenty thousand men, and in the hardest time of winter,--it is
still fresh in the minds of all--and there were five or six
thousand men in the town, and among them seven princes; MM. le
Duc de Guise, the King's Lieutenant, d'Enghien, de Conde, de la
Montpensier, de la Roche-sur-Yon, de Nemours, and many other
gentlemen, with a number of veteran captains and officers: who
often sallied out against the enemy (as I shall tell hereafter),
not without heavy loss on both sides. Our wounded died almost
all, and it was thought the drugs wherewith they were dressed had
been poisoned. Wherefore M. de Guise, and MM. the princes, went
so far as to beg the King that if it were possible I should be
sent to them with a supply of drugs, and they believed their
drugs were poisoned, seeing that few of their wounded escaped. My
belief is that there was no poison; but the severe cutlass and
arquebus wounds, and the extreme cold, were the cause why so many
died. The King wrote to M. the Marshal de Saint Andre, who was
his Lieutenant at Verdun, to find means to get me into Metz,
whatever way was possible. MM. the Marshal de Saint Andre, and
the Marshal de Vielleville, won over an Italian captain, who
promised to get me into the place, which he did (and for this he
had fifteen hundred crowns). The King having heard the promise
that the Italian captain had made, sent for me, and commanded me
to take of his apothecary, named Daigne, so many and such drugs
as I should think necessary for the wounded within the town;
which I did, as much as a post-horse could carry. The King gave
me messages to M. de Guise, and to the princes and the captains
that were in Metz.

When I came to Verdun, some days after, M. the Marshal de Saint
Andre got horses for me and for my man, and for the Italian
captain, who spoke excellent German, Spanish, and Walloon, beside
his own mother-tongue. When we were within eight or ten leagues
of Metz, we began to go by night only; and when we came near the
enemy's camp I saw, more than a league and a half off, fires
lighted all round the town, as if the whole earth were burning;
and I believed we could never pass through these fires without
being discovered, and therefore hanged and strangled, or cut in
pieces, or made to pay a great ransom. To speak truth, I could
well and gladly have wished myself back in Paris, for the great
danger that I foresaw. God guided our business so well, that we
entered into the town at midnight, thanks to a signal the captain
had with another captain of the company of M. de Guise; to whom I
went, and found him in bed, and he received me with high favour,
being right glad at my coming.

I gave him my message as the King had commanded me, and told him
I had a little letter for him, and the next day I would not fail
to deliver it. Then he ordered me a good lodging, and that I
should be well treated, and said I must not fail next morning to
be upon the breach, where I should find all the princes and
seigneurs, and many captains. Which I did, and they received me
with great joy, and did me the honour to embrace me, and tell me
I was welcome; adding they would no more be afraid of dying, if
they should happen to be wounded.

M. le Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon was the first who entertained
me, and inquired what they were saying at the Court concerning
the town of Metz. I told him all that I chose to tell. Forthwith
he begged me to go and see one of his gentlemen named M. de
Magnane, now Chevalier of the Order of the King, and Lieutenant
of His Majesty's Guards, who had his leg broken by a cannon-shot.
I found him in bed, his leg bent and crooked, without any
dressing on it, because a gentleman promised to cure him, having
his name and his girdle, with certain words (and the poor patient
was weeping and crying out with pain, not sleeping day or night
for four days past). Then I laughed at such cheating and false
promises; and I reduced and dressed his leg so skilfully that he
was without pain, and slept all the night, and afterward, thanks
be to God, he was healed, and is still living now, in the King's
service. The Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon sent me a cask of wine,
bigger than a pipe of Anjou, to my lodging, and told me when it
was drunk, he would send me another; that was how he treated me,
most generously.

After this, M, de Guise gave me a list of certain captains and
seigneurs, and bade me tell them what the King had charged me to
say; which I did, and this was to commend him to them, and give
them his thanks for the duty they had done and were doing in
holding his town of Metz, and that he would remember it. I was
more than eight days acquitting myself of this charge, because
they were many. First, to all the princes; then to others, as the
Duke Horace, the Count de Martigues, and his brother M. de Bauge,
the Seigneurs de Montmorency and d'Anville, now Marshal of
France, M. de la Chapelle aux Ursins, Bonnivet, Carouge, now
Governor of Rouen, the Vidasme de Chartres, the Count de Lude, M.
de Biron, now Marshal of France, M. de Randan, la Rochefoucaut,
Bordaille, d' Estres the younger, M. de Saint Jehan en pauphine,
and many others whom it would take too long to name; and also to
many captains, who had all done their duty well for the defence
of their lives and of the town. Afterward I asked M. de Guise
what it pleased him I should do with the drugs I had brought with
me; he bade me distribute them to the surgeons and apothecaries,
and principally to the poor wounded soldiers, who were in great
numbers in the Hospital. Which I did, and can truly say I could
not so much as go and see all the wounded, who kept sending for
me to visit and dress them.

All the seigneurs within the town asked me to give special care,
above all the rest; to M. de Pienne, who had been wounded, while
on the breach, by a stone shot from a cannon, on the temple, with
fracture and depression of the bone. They told me that so soon as
he received the blow, he fell to the ground as dead, and cast
forth blood by the mouth, nose, and ears, with great vomiting,
and was fourteen days without being able to speak or reason; also
he had tremors of a spasmodic nature, and all his face was
swelled and livid, He was trepanned at the side of the temporal
muscle, over the frontal bone. I dressed him, with other
surgeons, and God healed him; and to-day he is still living,
thank God.

The Emperor attacked the town with forty double cannons, and the
powder was not spared day or night. So soon as M. de Guise saw
the artillery set and pointed to make a breach, he had the
nearest houses pulled down and made into ramparts, and the beams
and joists were put end to end, and between them faggots, earth,
beds, and wool-packs; then they put above them other beams and
joists as before. And there was plenty of wood from the houses in
the suburbs; which had been razed to the ground, for fear the
enemy should get under cover of them, and make use of the wood;
it did very well for repairing the breach. Everybody was hard at
work carrying earth to repair it, day and night; MM. the princes,
the seigneurs, and captains, lieutenants, ensigns, were all
carrying the basket, to set an example to the soldiers and
citizens to do the like, which they did; even the ladies and
girls, and those who had not baskets, made use of cauldrons,
panniers, sacks, sheets, and all such things to carry the earth;
so that the enemy had no sooner broken down the wall than they
found behind it a yet stronger rampart. The wall having fallen,
our men cried out at those outside, "Fox, fox, fox," and they
vented a thousand insults against one another. M. de Guise
forbade any man on pain of death to speak with those outside, for
fear there should be some traitor who would betray what was being
done within the town. After this order, our men tied live cats to
the ends of their pikes, and put them over the wall and cried
with the cats, "Miaut, Miaut."

Truly the Imperials were much enraged, having been so long making
a breach, at great loss, which was eighty paces wide, that fifty
men of their front rank should enter in, only to find a rampart
stronger than the wall. They threw themselves upon the poor cats,
and shot them with arquebuses as men shoot at the popinjay.

Our men often ran out upon them, by order of M. de Guise; a few
days ago, our men had all made haste to enrol themselves in
sallying-parties, chiefly the young nobility, led by experienced
captains; and indeed it was doing them a great favour to let them
issue from the town and run upon the enemy. They went forth
always an hundred or six score men, well armed with cutlasses,
arquebuses, pistols, pikes, partisans, and halbards; and advanced
as far as the trenches, to take the enemy unawares. Then an
alarum would be sounded all through the enemy's camp, and their
drums would beat plan, plan, ta ti ta, ta ta ti ta, tou touf
touf. Likewise their trumpets and clarions rang and sounded, To
saddle, to saddle, to saddle, to horse, to horse, to horse, to
saddle, to horse, to horse. And all their soldiers cried, "Arm,
arm arm! to arms, to arms, to arms! arm, to arms, arm, to arms,
arm":--like the hue-and-cry after wolves; and all diverse
tongues, according to their nations; and you saw them come out of
their tents and little lodgings, as thick as little ants when you
uncover the ant-hills, to bring help to their comrades, who were
having their throats cut like sheep. Their cavalry also came from
all sides at full gallop, patati, patata, patati, patata, pa, ta,
ta, patata pata, ta, eager to be in the thick of the fighting, to
give and take their share of the blows. And when our men saw
themselves hard pressed, they would turn back into the town,
fighting all the way; and those pursuing them were driven back
with cannon-shots, and the cannons were loaded with flint-stones
and with big pieces of iron, square or three-sided. And our men
on the wall fired a volley, and rained bullets on them as thick
as hail, to send them back to their beds; whereas many remained
dead on the field: and our men also did not all come back with
whole skins, and there were always some left behind (as it were a
tax levied on us) who were joyful to die on the bed of honour.
And if there was a horse wounded, it was skinned and eaten by the
soldiers, instead of beef and bacon; and if a man was wounded, I
must run and dress him. Some days afterward there were other
sallies, which infuriated the enemy, that we would not let him
sleep a little in safety.