cent upon that town. They set off early the next morning, but
the Milanese learned of the intended surprise, and were ready for them.

With the cry, "France! France!" the chevalier and his companions flung
themselves upon the whole three hundred; but the Milanese were no
cowards, and for one hour they withstood even the firebrand impetuosity
of Bayard himself. They were not many who could stand so long before
Bayard. At length the knight, impatient at this stubborn resistance,
cried out to his fellows--

"What, my comrades! shall we let these few keep us fighting all day?
Courage! Let us multiply our strokes and give wings to their feet!"

At the sound of his deep voice the French rushed to the attack again,
and with such enthusiasm that the enemy wavered--fell back--then fled,
pell-mell, toward Milan. The victors followed in hot pursuit, with the
peerless knight far in the lead.

The fugitives reached Milan scarcely ahead of their pursuers, and
thundered in through the gate. One of the leaders of the French, seeing
the danger into which he and his companions were rushing, cried out just
in time,--

"Turn, men-at-arms, turn!"

The order was obeyed by all except Bayard, who had ears for nothing but
his own battle-cry, and eyes only for the enemy. Right into the heart
of the city, nay, up to the very steps of the duke's palace, he chased
the flying Milanese; then he suddenly found himself surrounded by an
angry populace, who, when they saw the white crosses of France upon him,
cried,--

"Seize him! Seize him!"

He was soon disarmed and taken prisoner by the commander he had just
pursued from Binasco. When Cazache--for such was the Milanese captain's
name--got his enemy thus in his power, he did not, as might be supposed,
wreak any petty vengeance on the head of the chevalier. He treated
Bayard as a soldier and a gentleman, and by so doing evinced a
chivalrous spirit close akin to the chevalier's own.

Ludovic, Duke of Milan, hearing the uproar before the palace, asked the
cause thereof, and was soon told that the Milanese at Binasco had been
defeated, and that a young chevalier had pursued Cazache and his company
to the very palace door.

"By my sword, but I'd like to see this daring Frenchman!" roared the
duke. "Captain, fetch the prisoner hither."

Cazache obeyed in fear and trembling for his captive. The captain--a
generous-hearted fellow--had conceived a deep admiration for Bayard, and
he feared for the