24 AMBROISE PARE 



and he would be a good friend to me. Then I thanked 

 him most humbly for the honour he was pleased to do me, in 

 appointing me to serve him. 



THE JOURNEY TO METZ. 1552 



THE Emperor having besieged Metz with more than an 

 hundred and twenty thousand men, and in the hardest time 

 of winter, it is still fresh in the minds of all and there 

 were five or six thousand men in the town, and among them 

 seven princes; MM. le Due de Guise, the King's Lieutenant, 

 d'Enghien, de Conde, de la Montpensier, de la Roche-sur- 

 Yon, de Nemours, and many other gentlemen, with a num- 

 ber of veteran captains and officers: who often sallied out 

 against the enemy (as I shall tell hereafter), not without 

 heavy loss on both sides. Our wounded died almost all, 

 and it was thought the drugs wherewith they were dressed 

 had been poisoned. Wherefore M. de Guise, and MM. the 

 princes, went so far as to beg the King that if it were pos- 

 sible I should be sent to them with a supply of drugs, and 

 they believed their drugs were poisoned, seeing that few 

 of their wounded escaped. My belief is that there was no 

 poison ; but the severe cutlass and arquebus wounds, and 

 the extreme cold, were the cause why so many died. The 

 King wrote to M. the Marshal de Saint Andre, who was 

 his Lieutenant at Verdun, to find means to get me into Metz, 

 whatever way was possible. MM. the Marshal de Saint 

 Andre, and the Marshal de Vielleville, won over an Italian 

 captain, who promised to get me into the place, which he 

 did (and for this he had fifteen hundred crowns). The 

 King having heard the promise that the Italian captain had 

 made, sent for me, and commanded me to take of his apothe- 

 cary, named Daigne, so many and such drugs as I should 

 think necessary for the wounded within the town ; which I 

 did, as much as a post-horse could carry. The King gave 

 me messages to M. de Guise, and to the princes and the cap- 

 tains that were in Metz. 



When I came to Verdun, some days after, M. the Marshal 

 de Saint Andre got horses for me and for my man, and for 

 the Italian captain, who spoke excellent German, Spanish, 



