undeserved stigma was set on the banner which
had been carried unstained through six centuries of warfare at home and
abroad.

[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. THEODATE]

With a persistency which deserved a better reward, Count Michel now
determined to redeem his disgrace, and joined the French armies in the
prolonged attempt to relieve the city of St. Dizier, besieged by the
imperial forces. But fortune on this occasion was unfavorable to the
French and no glory was gained and no rehabilitation of the unfortunate
Gruyeriens. In a third campaign under the command of the Duc de Guise,
Count Michel was again with the French before Boulogne, and a witness of
the peace of Crepy which was signed at the moment when that city fell
into the hands of the English. Thus although putting forth every effort
to restore the ancient reputation of his house, the unlucky Count Michel
was forced to return without laurels to Gruyere where, during the last
peaceful years of the reign of Francois I, no further military service
was required of him. But the Bernois still tormented him for recognition
of their sovereignty over the disputed seigneuries of Palezieux, and
continued to lend him money, thus gradually and surely laying their
hands on his long coveted possessions. With a like calculating
generosity, Fribourg accepted mortgages on such portions of his property
as were not already mortgaged to Berne, while Count Michel, like a
butterfly caught in the closing net of its captors, lived gayly in the
lingering sunshine of this false prosperity. A romantic imbroglio in
which his cousin de Beaufort was involved afforded him congenial
distraction, and again served to attract the attention of the king of
France and the emperor to the affairs of Gruyere. Passing their
brilliant youth together at the court of Francois I, where the young
sire de Beaufort was also "_Enfant du Roi_," the comrades were also
associated in the mad escapades of the "_Lique de la Cuiller_,"
against the Geneva republicans, and when de Beaufort carried off the
beautiful Marie de la Palud, it was to Gruyere that he fled, riding
madly across country to ask Count Michel's protection. The mother of the
runaway beauty--a certain Countess de la Varax, was determined to
recover her daughter and as a bourgeoise of Berne, denounced the
ravisher to the city authorities, but when informed by the countess of
Beaufort that she had been married by bell and by book, and had Count
Michel's