onal charm of Francois I is to be found in history
than his influence over his Swiss allies. Assuring the ambassadors of
Berne, when they visited Paris with the hope of being released from
their military service, that the disastrous results of his Italian
campaigns were due only to the derangement of his finances, he promised
personally to lead them in his approaching invasion, beguiled them with
fair words and promises, even engaging to place the crown diamonds in
their custody as gage of their pay, and professing that he was "_l'ami
de coeur_" of the Confederates bound them for weal or woe to his
cause. At the battle of Sesia when Bayard fell before the armies of the
emperor and the traitorous Constable of France, it was the Swiss who
saved the existence of the French forces. At the disastrous defeat of
Pavia, losing half of their soldiers, they fought with a desperate
courage for the lost cause of the still beloved king, who at the moment
of surrender could salute the Swiss guard and say to his captor: "If all
my soldiers had fought like these, I would not be your prisoner but you
would be mine."

In the complications which arose from Berne's renewed demands for the
recognition of their authority over Gruyere, Count Michel became a
figure of international importance. When his domain was threatened with
invasion, he declared that he had received it from God and his fathers,
and would not submit. The Fribourgeois, in the interests of the Catholic
party, were against Berne, and declared they would support him to the
full extent of their power. Six other Catholic cities also ranged
themselves with Fribourg, and war seemed so imminent that the matter was
taken before the Diet, when, with the aid of the French ambassadors and
a summons from the emperor Charles V to respect the independence of his
imperial fief, Count Michel was able to retain the freedom of Gruyere,
but compelled like his father to admit Berne's authority over his
possessions in the Pays de Vaud. In the support which Francois I gave to
Count Michel, he followed not so much his predilection for a courtier
whom he had invested with the Order of St. Michel as his habitual policy
of conciliating the Swiss, whose support was indispensable to him in the
war he had again declared against the emperor. In December of the year
1543, Count Michel at the invitation of the king joined the French army
before Landrecies, where with a small force of cavalry armed and
equi