rom Gruyere to the Pays de Gex. As he was the
acknowledged head of the still existing league "de la Cuiller," his
acquisition of this formidable line of fortresses only too clearly
indicated his design of restoring the supremacy of the nobles in
Switzerland, and by a brilliant dash for liberty at once to obliterate
the power and the embarrassing financial claims of Berne and Fribourg.
His friends had already begun to collect ammunition, and apparitions of
armed bands were reported to Berne, when a warning from the French
ambassador that a project was on foot to threaten their liberties and to
reestablish the exiled duke of Savoy, caused the authorities to send
word to the baillis in the several departments to watch Count Michel and
find out the secret of his intentions. When he was summoned to appear at
Berne to account for these suspicious occurrences, Count Michel
forthwith abandoned his far-reaching and unpracticable scheme, and sent
a request to the council asking for time to prepare the documents to
establish his innocence. Vanished now were his splendid hopes of
reestablishing the noblesse under his leadership, and crushed under the
enormous debts which he had incurred in the acquisition of the now
useless fortresses, he was forced to make a supreme effort to preserve
himself and his domain from utter and imminent ruin. His long
attachment to Francois I, although rewarded by the very considerable
dignity of the royal Order of St. Michael, had been far less profitable
in substantial results, for his old master, according to his custom, had
failed to pay either the salaries of his positions at court or the
pensions alloted to Gruyere according to the terms of the Perpetual
Peace. To the arrears of these pensions and salaries, Count Michel added
the expenses of his various expeditions with the French armies and the
pay of the soldiers who had so disgraced him at Cerisolles. The sum of
these claims, drawn up in an interminable document and presented to
Francois I's son and successor Henri II, amounted to no less than
1,700,000 francs. King Henri, who had by no means forgotten the sort of
service rendered by these soldiers, was irritated at the fantastic sum
of Count Michel's claims, and after a long delay offered half of the
arrears of the pay of his soldiers but rejected the other demands,
declaring that as a knight of the Order of St. Michael the count was a
French subject and had no right as a Confederate to the pens