hin the wall. See p.
68.]

"The French are remembered in Italy only by the graves they left
there," said De Comines, and once again the Italian campaigns ended in
disaster. At the defeat of Pavia, in 1525--the Armageddon of the
French in Italy--the efforts and sacrifices of three reigns were lost
and the _gran re_, whose favourite oath is said to have been _foi de
gentilhomme_, went captive to the king of Spain in Madrid, whence he
issued, stained by perjury, and three years later, signed "the moral
annihilation of France in Europe," at Cambray.

During the tranquil intervals that ensued on this rude awakening from
dreams of an Italian Empire, and between the third and fourth wars
with the emperor, the king was able to initiate a project that had
long been dear to him. "Come," says Michelet, "in the still, dark
night, climb the Rue St. Jacques, in the early winter's morning. See
you yon lights? Men, yea, old men, mingled with children, are
hurrying, a folio under one arm, in the hand an iron candlestick. Do
they turn to the right? No, the old Sorbonne is yet sleeping snug in
her warm sheets. The crowd is going to the Greek schools. Athens is at
Paris. That man with the fine beard in majestic ermine is a descendant
of emperors--Jean Lascaris: that other doctor is Alexander, who
teaches Hebrew."

The schools they were pressing to were those of the Royal College of
France. Already in 1517 Erasmus had been offered a salary of a
thousand francs a year, with promise of further increment, to
undertake the direction of the college, but declined to leave his
patron the emperor. The prime movers in the great scheme were the
king's confessor, Guillaume Parvi, and the famous Grecian, Guillaume
Bude, who in 1530 was himself induced to undertake the task which
Erasmus had declined. Twelve professors were appointed in Greek,
Hebrew, mathematics, philosophy, rhetoric and medicine, each of the
twelve with a salary of two hundred gold crowns (about L80), and the
dignity of royal councillors. The king's vast scheme of a great
college and magnificent chapel, with a revenue of 50,000 crowns for
the maintenance (_nourriture_) of six hundred scholars, where the most
famous doctors in Christendom should offer gratuitous teaching in all
the sciences and learned languages, was never executed. Too much
treasure had been wasted in Italy, and it was not till the reign of
Louis XIII. that it was partially carried out. The first stone was
laid i