Books: The Harvard Classics Volume 38

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M. de Guise played a trick upon them: he sent a peasant, who was
none of the wisest, with two letters to the King, and gave him
ten crowns, and promised the King would give him an hundred if he
got the letters to him. In the one letter M. de Guise told the
King that the enemy shewed no of retreating, and had put forth
all their strength made a great breach, which he hoped to defend,
even at the cost of his own life and of all who were in the town;
and that the enemy had planted their artillery so well in a
certain place (which he named) that it was with great difficulty
he could keep them from entering the town, seeing it was the
weakest place in the town; but soon he hoped to rebuild it well,
so that they should not be able to enter. This letter was sewed
in the lining of the man's doublet, and he was told to be very
careful not to speak of it to any person. And the other letter
was given to him, wherein M. de Guise told the King that he and
all those besieged with him hoped to guard the town well; and
other matters which I leave untold here. He sent out the man at
night, and he was taken by the enemy's guard and brought to the
Duke of Alva, that the Duke might hear what was doing in the
town; and the peasant was asked if he had any letters. He said
"Yes," and gave them the one; and they having seen it asked him
if he had not another. He said "No." Then he was searched, and
they found on him that which was sewed in his doubtlet; and the
poor messenger was handed and strangled.

The letters were taken to the Emperor, who called his council,
where it was resolved, since they had been unable to do anything
at the first breach, the artillery should forthwith be set
against the place which they thought weakest, where they put
forth all their strength to make a fresh breach; and they sapped
and mined the wall, and tried hard to make a way into the Hell
Tower, but dared not assault it openly.

The Duke of Alva represented to the Emperor that every day their
soldiers were dying, to the number of more than two hundred, and
there was so little hope of entering the town, seeing the time of
year and the great number of our soldiers who were in it. The
Emperor asked what men they were who were dying, and whether they
were gentlemen and men of mark; answer was made to him "They were
all poor soldiers." Then said he, "It was no great loss if they
died," comparing them to caterpillars, grasshoppers, and
cockchafers, which eat up the buds and other good things of the
earth; and if they were men of any worth they would not be in his
camp at six livres the month, and therefore it was no great harm
if they died. Moreover, he said he would never depart from the
town till he had taken it by force or by famine, though he should
lose all his army; because of the great number of princes who
were shut up in it, with the greater part of the nobility of
France, who he hoped would pay his expenses four times over; and
he would go yet again to Paris, to see the Parisians, and to make
himself King of all the kingdom of France.

M. de Guise, with the princes, captains, and soldiers, and in
general all the citizens of the town, having heard the Emperor's
resolve to exterminate us all, forbade the soldiers and citizens,
and even the princes and seigneurs, to eat fresh fish or venison,
or partridges, woodcocks, larks, francolines, plovers, or other
game, for fear these had acquired any pestilential air which
could bring infection among us. So they had to content themselves
with the fare of the army; biscuit, beef, salt cow-beef, bacon,
cervelas, and Mayence hams; also fish, as haddock, salmon, shad,
tunny, whale, anchovy, sardines, herrings; also peas, beans,
rice, garlic, onions, prunes, cheeses, butter, oil, and salt;
pepper, ginger, nutmegs and other spices to put in our pies,
mostly of horses, which without the spice had a very bad taste.
Many citizens, having gardens in the town, had planted them with
fine radishes, turnips, carrots, and leeks, which they kept
flourishing and very dear, for the extreme necessity of the
famine. Now all these stores were distributed by weight, measure,
and justice, according to the quality of the persons, because we
knew not how long the siege would last. For after we heard the
Emperors words, how he would not depart from before Metz, till he
had taken it by force or by famine, the victuals were cut down;
and what they used to distribute to three soldiers was given to
four; and it was forbidden to them to sell the remains which
might be left after their meals; but they might give them to the
rabble. And they always rose from table with an appetite, for
fear they should be subject to take physick.

And before we surrendered to the mercy of the enemy, we had
determined to eat the asses, mules, and horses, dogs, cats, and
rats, even our boots and collars, and other skins that we could
have softened and stewed. And, in a word, all the besieged were
resolved to defend themselves valiantly with all instruments of
war; to set the artillery at the entry of the breach, and load
with balls, stones, cart-nails, bars and chains of iron; also all
sorts and kinds of artificial fires, as barricadoes, grenades,
stink-pots, torches, squibs, fire-traps, burning faggots; with
boiling water, melted lead, and lime, to put out the enemy's
eyes. Also, they were to make holes right through their houses,
and put arquebusiers in them, to take the enemy in flank and
hasten his going, or else give him stop then and there. Also they
were to order the women to pull up the streets, and throw from
their windows billets, tables, trestles, benches, and stools, to
dash out the enemy's brains. Moreover, a little within the
breach, there was a great stronghold full of carts and palisades,
tuns and casks; and barricades of earth to serve as gabions,
interlaid with falconets, falcons, field-pieces, crooked
arquebuses, pistols, arquebuses, and wildfires, to break their
legs and thighs, so that they would be taken from above and on
the flank and from behind; and if they had carried this
stronghold, there were others where the streets crossed, every
hundred paces, which would have been as bad friends to them as
the first, or worse, and would have made many widows and orphans.
And if fortune had been so hard on us that they had stormed and
broken up our strongholds, there would yet have been seven great
companies, drawn up in square and in triangle, to fight them all
at once, each led by one of the princes, for the better
encouragement of our men to fight and die all together, even to
the last breath of their souls. And all were resolved to bring
their treasures, rings, and jewels, and their best and richest
and most beautiful household stuffs, and burn them to ashes in
the great square, lest the enemy should take them and make
trophies of them. Also there were men charged to set fire to all
the stores and burn them, and to stave in all the wine-casks;
others to set fire to every single house, to burn the enemy and
us together. The citizens thus were all of one mind, rather than
see the bloody knife at their throats, and their wives and
daughters ravished and taken by the cruel savage Spaniards.

Now we had certain prisoners, who had been made secretly to
understand our last determination and desperation; these
prisoners M. de Guise sent away on parole, who being come to
their camp, lost no time in saying what we had told them; which
restrained the great and vehement desire of the enemy, so that
they were no longer eager to enter the town to cut our throats
and enrich themselves with the spoils. The Emperor, having heard
the decision of this great warrior, M. de Guise, put water in his
wine, and restrained his fury; saying that he could not enter the
town save with vast butchery and carnage, and shedding of much
blood, both of those defending and of those attacking, and they
would be all dead together, and in the end he would get nothing
but ashes; and afterward men might say it was a like destruction
to that of the town of Jerusalem, made of old time by Titus and
Vespasian.

The Emperor thus having heard our last resolve, and seeing how
little he had gained by his attack, sappings, and mines, and the
great plague that was through all his camp, and the adverse time
of the year, and the want of victuals and of money, and how his
soldiers were disbanding themselves and going off in great
companies, decided at last to raise the siege and go away, with
the cavalry of his vanguard, and the greater part of the
artillery and engines of war. The Marquis of Brandebourg was the
last to budge from his place; he had with him some troops of
Spaniards and Bohemians, and his German regiments, and there he
stopped for a day and a half, to the great regret of M. de Guise,
who brought four pieces of artillery out of the town, which he
fired on him this side and that, to hurry him off: and off he
went, sure enough, and all his men with him.

When he was a quarter of a league from Metz, he was seized with a
panic lest our cavalry should fall upon his tail; so he set fire
to his store of powder, and left behind him some pieces of
artillery, and a quantity of baggage, which he could not take
along with him, because their vanguard and their great cannons
had broken and torn tip the roads. Our cavalry were longing with
all their hearts to issue from the town and attack him behind;
but M. de Guise never let them, saying on the contrary we had
better make their way smooth for them, and build them gold and
silver bridges to let them go; like the good pastor and shepherd,
who will not lose one of his sheep.

That is how our dear and well-beloved Imperials went away from
Metz, which was the day after Christmas Day, to the great content
of those within the walls, and the praise of the princes,
seigneurs, captains, and soldiers, who had endured the travail of
this siege for more than two months. Nevertheless, they did not
all go: there wanted more than twenty thousand of them, who were
dead, from our artillery and the fighting, or from plague, cold,
and starvation (and from spite and rage that they could not get
into the town to cut our throats and plunder us): and many of
their horses also died, the greater part whereof they had eaten
instead of beef and bacon. We went where their camp had been,
where we found many dead bodies not yet buried, and the earth all
worked up, as one sees in the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents
during some time of many deaths. In their tents, pavilions, and
lodgings were many sick people. Also cannon-shot, weapons, carts,
waggons, and other baggage, with a great quantity of soldier's
bread, spoiled and rotted by the snows and rains (yet the
soldiers had it but by weight and measure). Also they left a good
store of wood, all that remained of the houses they had
demolished and broken down in the villages for two or three
leagues around; also many other pleasure-houses, that had
belonged to our citizens, with gardens and fine orchards full of
diverse fruit-trees. And without all this, they would have been
benumbed and dead of the cold, and forced to raise the siege
sooner than they did.

M. de Guise had their dead buried, and their sick people treated.
Also the enemy left behind them in the Abbey of Saint Arnoul many
of their wounded soldiers, whom they could not possibly take with
them. M. de Guise sent them all victuals enough, and ordered me
and the other surgeons to go dress and physick them, which we did
with good will; and I think they would not have done the like for
our men. For the Spaniard is very cruel, treacherous, and
inhuman, and so far enemy of all nations: which is proved by
Lopez the Spaniard, and Benzo of Milan, and others who have
written the history of America and the West Indies: who have had
to confess that the cruelty, avarice, blasphemies, and wickedness
of the Spaniards have utterly estranged the poor Indians from the
religion that these Spaniards professed. And all write that they
are of less worth than the idolatrous Indians, for their cruel
treatment of these Indians.

And some days later M. de Guise sent a trumpet to Thionville to
the enemy, that they could send for their wounded in safety:
which they did with carts and waggons, but not enough. M. de
Guise gave them carts and carters, to help to take them to
Thionville. Our carters, when they returned, told us the roads
were all paved with dead bodies, and they never got half the men
there, for they died in their carts: and the Spaniards seeing
them at the point of death, before they had breathed their last,
threw them out of the carts and buried them in the mud and mire,
saying they had no orders to bring back dead men. Moreover, our
carters said they had found on the roads many carts stuck in the
mud, full of baggage, for which the enemy dared not send back,
lest we who were within Metz should run out upon them.

I would return to the reason why so many of them died; which was
mostly starvation, the plague, and cold. For the snow was more
than two feet deep upon the ground, and they were lodged in pits
below the ground, covered only with a little thatch.
Nevertheless, each soldier had his camp-bed, and a coverlet all
strewed with stars, glittering and shining brighter than fine
gold, and every day they had white sheets, and lodged at the sign
of the Moon, and enjoyed themselves if only they had been able,
and paid their host so well over night that in the morning they
went off quits, shaking their ears; and they had no need of a
comb to get the down and feathers out of their beards and hair,
and they always found a white table-cloth, and would have enjoyed
good meals but for want of food. Also the greater part of them
had neither boots, half-boots, slippers, hose, nor shoes: and
most of them would rather have none than any, because they were
always in the mire up to mid-leg. And because they went bare-
foot, we called them the Emperor's Apostles.

After the camp was wholly dispersed, I distributed my patients
into the hands of the surgeons of the town, to finish dressing
them: then I took leave of M. de Guise, and returned to the King,
who received me with great favour, and asked me how I had been
able to make my way into Metz. I told him fully all that I had
done. He gave me two hundred crowns, and an hundred which I had
when I set out: and said he would never leave me poor. Then I
thanked him very humbly for the good and the honour he was
pleased to do me.

THE JOURNEY TO HESDIN. 1553

The Emperor Charles laid siege to the town of Therouenne; and M.
le Due de Savoie was General of his whole army. It was taken by
assault: and there was a great number of our men killed and taken
prisoners.

The King, wishing to prevent the enemy from besieging the town
and castle of Hesdin also, sent thither MM. le Duc de Bouillon,
le Duc Horace, le Marquis de Villars, and a number of captains,
and about eighteen hundred soldiers: and during the siege of
Therouenne, these Seigneurs fortified the castle of Hesdin, so
that it seemed to be impregnable. The King sent me to the
Seigneurs, to help them with my art, if they should come to have
need of it.

Soon after the capture of Therouenne, we were besieged in Hesdin.
There was a clear stream of running water within shot of our
cannon, and about it were fourscore or an hundred of the enemy's
rabble, drawing water. I was on a rampart watching the enemy
pitch their camp; and, seeing the crowd of idlers round the
stream, I asked M. du Pont, commissary of the artillery, to send
one cannon-shot among this canaille: he gave me a flat refusal,
saying that all this sort of people was not worth the powder
would be wasted on them. Again I begged him to level the cannon,
telling him, "The more dead, the fewer enemies;" which he did for
my sake: and the shot killed fifteen or sixteen, and wounded
many. Our men made sorties against the enemy, wherein many were
killed and wounded on both sides, with gunshot or with fighting
hand to hand; and our men often sallied out before their trenches
were made; so that I had my work cut out for me, and had no rest
either day or night for dressing the wounded.

And here I would note that we had put many of them in a great
tower, laying them on a little straw: and their pillows were
stones, their coverlets were cloaks, those who had any. When the
attack was made, so often as the enemy's cannons were fired, our
wounded said they felt pain in their wounds, as if you had struck
them with a stick: one was crying out on his head, the other on
his arm, and so with the other parts of the body: and many had
their wounds bleed again, even more profusely than at the time
they were wounded, and then I had to run to staunch them. Mon
petit maistre, if you had been there, you would have been much
hindered with your hot irons; you would have wanted a lot of
charcoal to heat them red, and sure you would have been killed
like a calf for your cruelty. Many died of the diabolical storm
of the echo of these engines of artillery, and the vehement
agitation and severe shock of the air acting on their wounds;
others because they got no rest for the shouting and crying that
were made day and night, and for want of good food, and other
things needful for their treatment. Mon petit maistre, if you had
been there, no doubt you could have given them jelly,
restoratives, gravies, pressed meats, broth, barley-water,
almond-milk, blanc-mange, prunes, plums, and other food proper
for the sick; but your diet would have been only on paper, and in
fact they had nothing but beef of old shrunk cows, seized round
Hesdin for our provision, salted and half-cooked, so that he who
would eat it must drag at it with his teeth, as birds of prey
tear their food. Nor must I forget the linen for dressing their
wounds, which was only washed daily and dried at the fire, till
it was as hard as parchment: I leave you to think how their
wounds could do well. There were four big fat rascally women who
had charge to whiten the linen, and were kept at it with the
stick; and yet they had not water enough to do it, much less
soap. That is how the poor patients died, for want of food and
other necessary things.

One day the enemy feigned a general attack, to draw our soldiers
into the breach, that they might see what we were like: every man
ran thither. We had made a great store of artificial fires to
defend the breach; a priest of M. le Duc de Bouillon took a
grenade, thinking to throw it at the enemy, and lighted it before
he ought: it burst, and set fire to all our store, which was in a
house near the breach. This was a terrible disaster for us,
because it burned many poor soldiers; it even caught the house,
and we had all been burned, but for help given to put it out;
there was only one well in the castle with any water in it, and
this was almost dry, and we took beer to put it out instead of
water; afterward we were in great want of water, and to drink
what was left we must strain it through napkins.

The enemy, seeing the explosion and violence of the fires, which
made a wonderful flame and thundering, thought we had lit them on
purpose to defend the breach, and that we had many more of them.
This made them change their minds, to have us some other way than
by attack: they dug mines, and sapped the greater part of our
walls, till they came near turning our castle altogether upside
down; and when the sappers had finished their work, and their
artillery was fired, all the castle shook under our feet like an
earthquake, to our great astonishment. Moreover, they had
levelled five pieces of artillery, which they had placed on a
little hillock, so as to have us from behind when we were gone to
defend the breach. M. le Duc Horace had a cannonshot on the
elbow, which carried off his arm one way and his body the other,
before he could say a single word; his death was a great disaster
to us, for the high rank that he held in the town. Also M. de
Martigues had a gunshot wound which pierced his lungs: I dressed
him, as I shall tell hereafter.

Then we asked leave to speak with the enemy; and a trumpet was
sent to the Prince of Piedmont, to know what terms he would give
us. He answered that all the leaders, such as gentlemen,
captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, would be taken prisoners for
ransom, and the soldiers would leave the town without their arms;
and if we refused this fair and honest offer, we might rest
assured they would take us next day, by attack or otherwise.

A council was held, to which I was called, to know if I would
sign the surrender of the town; with many captains, gentlemen,
and others. I answered it was not possible to hold the town, and
I would sign the surrender with my own blood, for the little hope
I had we could resist the enemy's forces, and for the great
longing I had to be out of this hell and utter torture; for I
slept neither night nor day for the great number of the wounded,
who were about two hundred. The dead were advanced in
putrefaction, piled one upon the other like faggots, and not
covered with earth, because we had none. And if I went into a
soldier's lodging, there were soldiers waiting for me at the door
when I came out, for me to dress others; it was who should have
me, and they carried me like the body of a saint, with my feet
off the ground, fighting for me. I could not satisfy this great
number of wounded: nor had I got what I wanted for their
treatment. For it is not enough that the surgeon do his duty
toward his patients, but the patient also must do his; and the
assistants, and external things, must work together for him: see
Hippocrates, Aphorism the First.

Having heard that we were to surrender the place, I knew our
business was not prospering; and for fear of being known, I gave
a velvet coat, a satin doublet, and a cloak of fine cloth trimmed
with velvet, to a soldier; who gave me a bad doublet all torn and
ragged with wear, and a frayed leather collar, and a bad hat, and
a short cloak; I dirtied the neck of my shirt with water mixed
with a little soot, I rubbed my hose with a stone at the knees
and over the heels, as though they had been long worn, I did the
same to my shoes, till one would have taken me for a chimney-
sweep rather than a King's surgeon. I went in this gear to M. de
Martigues, and prayed him to arrange I should stop with him to
dress him; which he granted very willingly, and was as glad I
should be near him as I was myself.

Soon afterward, the commissioners who were to select the
prisoners entered the castle, the seventeenth day of July, 1553.
They took prisoners MM. le Due de Bouillon, le Marquis de
Villars, de Roze, le Baron de Culan, M. du Pont, commissary of
the artillery, and M. de Martigues; and me with him, because he
asked them; and all the gentlemen who they knew could pay ransom,
and most of the soldiers and the leaders of companies; so many
and such prisoners as they wished. And then the Spanish soldiers
entered by the breach, unresisted; our men thought they would
keep their faith and agreement that all lives should be spared.
They entered the town in a fury to kill, plunder, and ravage
everything: they took a few men, hoping to have ransom for them.
... If they saw they could not get it, they cruelly put them to
death in cold blood. ... And they killed them all with daggers,
and cut their throats. Such was their great cruelty and
treachery; let him trust them who will.

To return to my story: when I was taken from the castle into the
town, with M. de Martigues, there was one of M. de Savoie's
gentlemen, who asked me if M. de Martigues's wound could be
cured. I told him no, that it was incurable: and off he went to
tell M. le Due de Savoie. I bethought myself they would send
physicians and surgeons to dress M. de Martigues; and I argued
within myself if I ought to play the simpleton, and not let
myself be known for a surgeon, lest they should keep me to dress
their wounded, and in the end I should be found to be the King's
surgeon, and they would make me pay a big ransom. On the other
hand, I feared, if I did not show I was a surgeon and had dressed
M. de Martigues skilfully, they would cut my throat. Forthwith I
made up my mind to show them he would not die for want of having
been well dressed and nursed.

Soon after, sure enough, there came many gentlemen, with the
Emperor's physician, and his surgeon, and those belonging to M.
de Savoie, and six other surgeons of his army, to see M. de
Martigues's wound, and to know of me how I had dressed and
treated it. The Emperor's physician bade me declare the essential
nature of the wound, and what I had done for it. And all his
assistants kept their ears wide open, to know if the wound were
or were not mortal. I commenced my discourse to them, how M.
Martigues, looking over the wall to mark those who were sapping
it, was shot with an arquebus through the body, and I was called
of a sudden to dress him. I found blood coming from his mouth and
from his wounds. Moreover, he bad a great difficulty of breathing
in and out, and air came whistling from the wounds, so that it
would have put out a candle; and he said he had a very great
stabbing pain where the bullet had entered. ... I withdrew some
scales of bone, and put in each wound a tent with a large head,
fastened with a thread, lest on inspiration it should be drawn
into the cavity of the chest; which has happened with surgeons,
to the detriment of the poor wounded; for being fallen in, you
cannot get them out; and then they beget corruption, being
foreign bodies. The tents were anointed with a preparation of
yolk of egg, Venice turpentine, and a little oil of roses. ... I
put over the wounds a great plaster of diachylum, wherewith I had
mixed oil of roses, and vinegar, to avoid inflammation. Then I
applied great compresses steeped in oxycrate, and bandaged him,
not too tight, that he might breathe easily. Next, I drew five
basons of blood from his right arm, considering his youth and his
sanguine temperament. ... Fever took him, soon after he was
wounded, with feebleness of the heart. ... His diet was barley-
water, prunes with sugar, at other times broth: his drink was a
ptisane. He could lie only on his back. ... What more shall I
say? but that my Lord de Martigues never had an hour's rest after
he was wounded. ... These things considered, Gentlemen, no other
prognosis is possible, save that he will die in a few days, to my
great grief.

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