The Winslow mail., 1900-04-05
This being done there was nothing ,af4


horses, which were in truth in such luxury
as perhaps the poor beasts had never en-
joyed. a groom of the cardinals establish.
ment had attended TO them, and | slipped
piece of silver into his hand for his trouble
He bit this to test whether it was genuine
or not, and then settled himself on heap of
hay to mend some saddlery.
l. lett him to his occupation, and with a
parting caress to my beasts, moved further
on to look at the other animals. And here,
meeting the head groom, l had some CONVEX
satlon with him, admlring the cardinal
stud.
eyes, excellency," he said, "they are good
horses, notably the two barbs which the
Soldan Diem presented to his eminence, but
there are other two now in our stables, be-
longing to the Sieur de Bayard, the like of
which have never seen. They are this
way, excellency, if you will but accompany
me-"
| readily assented, and, passing by the
barbs, whose slight, delicate frames belied
their powers of speed and endurance, we
came to couple of stalls, in which there
were pair of war horses that fully justified
the head groom's praise. They were both
English, and l recognized the breed, as
Hardwood had brought three or four with
him from Britain, saying, and with truth,
that they were the only animals that could
ever carry him when in full mail. But the
two before me in the stables were as SUI
perior to Hawkwoods as barb is to mule
One was the great bay Bayard was riding
on the day of my trial, when he accompanied
the duke and his staff back to Arezzo. The
other was blue roam, whose color did not
show off his size to advantage, but whose
broad chest, sloping shoulders and lean
hanks marked his power. His eyes were
mild and soft, yet full of fire, and his small
head was set like that of stag upon his
strong neck. Two grooms, bearing on their
liveries the arms of the house of Terrail, of
which the Seigneur de Bayard was chief,
were in attendance, and set to work with a
somewhat unnecessary zeal on our appear
ance to polish the coats of their charges,
which already shone like satin. Whilst en-
gagged in admirlng these splendid animals
l heard the deep bay of the hound behind
me, and, turning, saw Bayard himself, who
had come to visit his favorites. / compli-
mented him on the possession of two such
steeds, as who would not have done, and
Dayard said:
Yes, they are fine animals, truly the finest
/ have ever seen, except perhaps the one.
eyed Savoy, who was also of the same
breed; and yet 1 not sure" and he ran
his eyes over the horses. "They were given
to me, along with Bran here"-he touched
the head of the hound-"by his majesty,
Henry of England, when was taken pris-
oner in the English war;"
"a noble gift"
"Yes-from a noble prince. And you
really admire them, cavaliere?"
"Yes-and / knew Savoy, too, and doubt
if he was better"
what can knight want more? A good
horse, a good hound"-and his face sad
dened little-"a true love- Pardieu! but
/ must see to that last. My castle on the
Garonne needs a chatelaine."
/ said nothing, knowing of the one great
sorrow Of his life, which he bore so bravely,
and which 1 knew had bitten to his heart,
for all his gay words.
"Castor and Pollux | call them" he said,
indicating the horses with a slight gesture
Not that they are alike, except in speed
and courage, but that they are both sup
posed to have been born the same day, and
have never been separated. The best Of
friends must, however, part, and knight
wants no more than one horse; SO, cavaliere,
if you will accept Castor, the blue roam there,
you will find that he will never fail you"
i could hardly speak for the moment, and
at first stoutly refused to take so valuable
gift; but Bayard would have no denial,
and the short of it was that Castor was led
into one of the stalls reserved for me.
To say that was grateful would be to say
very little; but will merely add here that
the gift itself was only equaled by the man
ner of the giver. l accompanied Bayard into
the garden, which lay to the west of the
palace, and in course of conversation told
him that / had received the sum sent by
d. Amboise, and of the steps had taken to
get together a few men, and assured him
that, whatever the task was that | was to be
set to perform, nothing but death itself
would cut short my endeavor. Our talk then
drifted to other matters, and he gave me
some information of interest concerning
Nine. DEntrangues. 1t appeared that
D'Entrangues, who had friend at court in
his kinsman, Etienne de Vesci, the SEN
eschal of Beaucaire, had forwarded a strong
petition against Tremouille's decision re-
garding himself, and prayer that the king
would restore him to his position, and COM
pei Nine. D'Entrangues to return to him.
AS if he himself had not abandoned her!
Owing to his influence with Cesare he had,
moreover, obtained an order from .Alexan-
der denying madame the refuge of con-
vent. Louis had, however, declined to in
terfere with Tremouille's decision, but had
ordered madame to leave the court and re-
turn to her husband. Fearing that force
would be resorted to in order to compel her
-, 10 L n J
the protection of the Duchesse de la Ire
mouille, who denied all knowledge of her
movements, and the matter stood there
By this time it was almost approaching the
dinner hour, and we separated, Bayard, fol-
lowed close at his heels by Bran, going to
seek the cardinal, and l returning to my
chamber, where | found Jacopo, who had
just come back. He had been to the stables
on his way up, and was loud in his praise of
Castor.
"They say he is feet as the wind, excel
lency, and he is as gentle as lambkin. It is
glorious steed, and princely gift"
"It'is so; but what success have YOU had?'
None as yet about tue swords, sgnore;
there has not been time; but have engaged
couple Of grooms and lackey, and or
dered plain liveries for them. The grooms
are even now with the horses, and the lackey
will be here tomorrow"
VERY we'll, there is time enough. Bastal
There go the trumpets. His eminence must
be served"
We made our way to the dining-hall, en-
tering it almost at the same time as the car
dinal, his guests, and the rest of the suite.
At the high table ON the dais sat the cardi-
nal with Bayard another nrince of the
church whom l afterwards found out was
the Cardinal of Strigonia, a scion of the
house of Este, and a tall, somber looking