CHAPTER VII

_L’Histoire Du Bon Chevalier, Sans Paour et Sans Reproche, Gentil Seigneur De Bayart_, gives some account of Bayard’s combats in the lists. The Chevalier was born in 1476 and died in 1524, and his first fights on foot and on horseback took place when he was a raw, growing stripling of eighteen. This was on the occasion when the Burgundian Chevalier, Claude de Vauldray, came to Lyons in 1494 to accomplish a deed of arms—“_à course de lance et coups de hache_”; and the young Bayard, though without possessing an equipment for the joust or means of procuring one, conceived the idea of engaging this redoubted champion in combat. The difficulty as to horse and armour was solved by the coming forward of a kinsman, L’Abbe d’Esnay, with the necessary cash. After several chevaliers of the French court had encountered De Vauldray, Bayard entered the lists to do battle. No particulars of the combat itself are given by the chronicler, but the account states that the youngster bore himself right gallantly; and the verdict of the ladies on the stand erected for their accommodation, expressed in the Lyonese dialect, “_Vey-vo cestou malotru, il a mieulx fay que tous los autres_.”

Soon the young Bayard, advancing towards fame and fortune, caused a proclamation to be made for a _pas d’armes_ to be held at the town of Ayre, in Picardy, on the 20th July, 1494, _Pour l’amour des dames_. The articles of combat provided that “hoasting” armour be worn, and on the first day three courses be run with rebated lances and afterwards twelve strokes exchanged with the sword, all on horseback; on the morrow the combats to be on foot at barriers, high as the _nombril_, with lances and later with axes. Prizes were offered to the successful competitors as follows:—For the first day a bracelet of gold, enamelled with Bayard’s device, of the value of thirty _ecus_; and for the second day a diamond worth forty _ecus_. The proclamation runs:—

“_Pierre de Bayart, jeune gentil-homme et apprentif des armes, natif de Daulphiné, des ordonnances du roy de France, soubz la charge et_ _conduicte de hault et puissant Seigneur monseigneur de Ligny, faisoit crier et publier ung tourney au dehors de la ville d’Ayre, et joignant les murailles à tous venans, au vingtiesme jour de juillet, de trois coups de lance sans lice, à fer esmolu, et en harnoys de guerre; et douze coups d’espée, le tout à cheval. Et au mieulx faisant donnoit ung brasselet d’or esmaillé de sa livrée, et du prix de trente escuz. Le lendemain seriot combatu à pied, a poux de lance, à une barrière de la halteur du nombril; et après la lance rompue à coups de hache, jusques à la discrétion des juges et de ceulx qui garderoient le camp. Et au mieulx faisoit donnoit ung dyamant du pris de quarante escus._”

On the first day, on the trumpet sounding, _le bon Chevalier_ presented himself for the first course, his adversary being a neighbour from Dauphiny named Tartarin, in which the latter broke his lance within six inches of the head, thus forfeiting a point; and jousting between other cavaliers lasted until evening. On the second day Bayard fought at barriers against a Messire Honotin de Sucre, first with lances and afterwards with axes. Bayard struck his adversary two heavy blows over the region of the ear, the second of which bore him to the ground. Other foot encounters followed, after which the prizes for the two days were awarded by the judges to _le bon Chevalier_, as having done the best on both days, but he refused to accept them, and they were adjudged to other champions who came next in order of merit.[191] The Chevalier’s next tourney was at Carignan, in Italy, at which he gained the prize.[192]