In the war commenced by Ferdinand the Catholic, he displayed beyond the Pyrenees the same talents and the same heroism which had distinguished him beyond the Alps. The fatal reverses which embittered the last days of Louis XII., only added a brighter splendour to the glory of Bayard. Henry VIII., of England, under whom the Emperor Maximilian was then serving, threatened Picardy in 1513, and besieged Terouanne. A reinforcement was sent from the French army to the aid of the besieged, but being intercepted by Henry at Guinegate, the French disgracefully took to flight, when Bayard, with his accustomed intrepidity, made an ineffectual resistance to the enemy. Overpowered by superior numbers, his troop was on the point of laying down their arms, when the chevalier perceived an English knight, resting wounded under a tree, at some distance from him; he immediately gallopped to him, and required him to surrender, which the state of his wounds compelled him to do. Upon his giving up his sword to Bayard, the chevalier immediately returned his own, saying: "I am Bayard, and now your prisoner." Thus both were captive alike. The boldness and ingenuity of this action pleased the emperor and the King of England, who decided that the brave knight needed no ransom, and both captives were soon exchanged on their parole. This battle of Guinegate is known, in consequence of the sudden flight of the French, as the " Battle of Spurs."

When Francis I. ascended the throne, he sent

Bayard into Dauphiné, to open a way for his army through the Alps. Colonna lay in wait for him on his march, expecting to surprise him, but he was himself made prisoner. When Charles V. invaded Champagne with a large army, and threatened to penetrate into the heart of France, Bayard defended the town of Mezières-weakly fortified, with a garrison of only 1,000 men, besieged by an army of 35,000 men— against every assault, until the dissentions of the hostile leaders compelled them to retreat. On his return, he was saluted in Paris as the saviour of his country; the king bestowed on him the order of St. Michael and a company of one hundred men, whom he was to command in his own name-an honour which till then had only been conferred on princes of the blood. After the surrender of Lodi, fortune changed, and the French troops were expelled from their conquests. Bonnivet being obliged to retreat through the valley of Aousta, his rear was beaten, and himself severely wounded, when the safety of his army was committed to Bayard. It was necessary to pass the Sesia, in the presence of a superior enemy; and Bayard, always first in the advance, and the last to retreat, vigorously attacked the Spaniards, when a stone from a blunderbuss struck his right side, and shattered his backbone. He fell, exclaiming: "Jesus, my God, I am a dead man!" His attendants hastened towards him. "Place me under a tree," he said, "that I may see the

my." For want of a crucifix, he kissed the cross

of his sword, confessed to his squire, and consoled his servants and his friends. The dying hero fell into the hands of the Marquis of Pescara, commander of the Spanish troops, who, finding that his prisoner could not be removed from the field, erected a tent over him, and tended him with every care. Bayard died April 30, 1524, surrounded by his friends and enemies, who alike shed tears of admiration and grief. His body was embalmed by order of Pescara, and was given to the French, and interred in the church of the Minorites, near Grenoble.

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So solved the great problem of life the Chevalier Bayard; and well did he deserve the character he bore as the knight sans peur, sans reproche." All the noble qualities of his youth he sustained without any deviation from the high principles which had been implanted in him from his earliest days. It is the fate of few to be so supremely happy. Nor must it be forgotten that Bayard preserved his purity of conduct and innocence in an age much given to vice, voluptuousness, and frivolity, in which he shone as the very impersonation of virtue, honour, and magnanimity, teaching alike by his example the most powerful monarchs as well as the meanest soldiers of his camp, and giving to the art of war a splendour which still shines through the bloody mists of bygone generations.

A.D. 1527.

G

USTAVUS ERICKSON, commonly called Gustavus Vasa, was born in 1490. He was noble as a boy, and was afterwards one of those great men whom nature so seldom produces, and who appears to

have been endowed with every quality becoming a sovereign. His handsome person and cheerful countenance prepossessed every one in his favour; his artless eloquence was irresistible, and his conceptions were so bold that nothing but the most indomitable courage and perseverance could bring them to happy issues. He was no less intrepid than prudent; full of courtesy in a rude and barbarous age; and his magnanimity was equal to his other virtues.

In his early years, the tyrant, Christian II. of Denmark, surnamed the Nero of the North, endeavoured to make himself master of the whole of Sweden.

From his very infancy the child Gustavus seemed to have had a proper indignation against the natural enemies of his country. One day, when he was only between five and six years of age, he was running among some bushes. His father, to deter him, told him to beware of some large snakes which infested the place. "Give me a stick," said the boy, "and I will kill them all. I will not leave one of them, and then they can sting no one else." This his father did not think proper to do. On the next morning, Gustavus rose betimes, and arming himself with a long pole, which had a club at one end, and a sharp steel at the other, he went to the place where the snakes were, hunted them up, and before the sun went down he killed all that he could find. When he could find no more, he put those he had killed into a bag, and returned home. Having reached the door of his little