46 AMBROISE PARfi 



wife that I was living, and she was not to be unhappy, 

 and he would pay my ransom. 



BATTLE OF SAINT QUENTIN. 1557 



AFTER the battle of Saint Quentin, the King sent me 

 to La Fere en Tartenois, to M. le Marechal de Bourdillon, 

 for a passport to M. le Due de Savoie, that I might go 

 and dress the Constable, who had been badly wounded 

 in the back with a pistol-shot, whereof he was like to die, 

 and remained prisoner in the enemy's hands. But never 

 would M. le Due de Savoie let me go to him, saying he 

 would not die for want of a surgeon ; that he much doubted 

 I would go there only to dress him, and not rather to 

 take some secret information to him; and that he knew 

 I was privy to other things besides surgery, and remem- 

 bered I had been his prisoner at Hesdin. M. le Marshal 

 told the King of this refusal: who wrote to M. le Mar6- 

 chal, that if Mme. the Constable's Lady would send some 

 quick-witted man of her household I would give him a 

 letter, and had also something to say to him by word of 

 mouth, entrusted to me by the King and by M. le Cardinal 

 de Lorraine. Two days later there came one of the Con- 

 stable's gentlemen of the bedchamber, with his shirts and 

 other linen, to whom M. le Marechal gave a passport to 

 go to the Constable. I was very glad, and gave him my 

 letter, and instructed him what his master must do now 

 he was prisoner. 



I thought, having finished my mission, to return to the 

 King; but M. le Marechal begged me to stop at La Fere 

 with him, to dress a very great number of wounded who 

 had retreated there after the battle, and he would write 

 to the King to explain why I stopped; which I did. Their 

 wounds were very putrid, and full of worms, with gangrene, 

 and corruption; and I had to make free play with the 

 knife to cut off what was corrupt, which was not done 

 without amputation of arms and legs, and also sundry 

 trepannings. They found no store of drugs at La Fere, 

 because the surgeons of the camp had taken them all away; 

 but I found the waggons of the artillery there, and these 





