16 AMBROISE 



than they, because he had known me in Piedmont. Then I 

 made him rise from hi? bed, and told him to put himself in 

 the same posture that he had when he was wounded, which 

 he did, taking a javelin in his hand just as he had held his 

 pike to fight. I put my hand around the wound, and found 

 the bullet. . . . Having found it, I showed them the place 

 where it was, and it was taken out by M. Nicole Lavernot, 

 surgeon of M. the Dauphin, who was the King's Lieutenant 

 in that army; all the same, the honour of finding it belonged 

 to me. 



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 quar- 

 ters, 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 dress- 

 ing, fearing lest he should die then and there. Certain gen- 

 tlemen 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. 



