ill think we are three times as many
men as we are, and especially when all our trumpets sound forth at once."

No one had anything better to suggest, for indeed the Good Knight was so
great an authority in war that all were glad to follow where he led.

The attack was thus made on both sides, du Fay giving such a tremendous
alarm on the outer side of the camp that the enemies hastily began to put
on their armour, to mount their horses, and go straight towards where they
heard the trumpets. The foot-soldiers set about arranging themselves in
battle order, but fortunately this took so long that meantime the
assailants of du Fay were attacked and driven back by Pierre du Pont, while
the Swiss poured down upon the foot-soldiers, whose number would have
overwhelmed them had not the men-at-arms rode down upon the papal infantry
from the other side.

The Duke and the French company, with two thousand foot-soldiers, who had
arrived under the walls without being observed, now joined in the fray from
the other side, to the utter confusion of the enemy, who were completely
surrounded and cut to pieces. Some of the horsemen of the papal army made a
desperate attempt to rally, but Bayard and another captain called their
ensigns and rode straight at them, with the cry of: "France! France! The
Duke! the Duke!" and charged them with such vehemence that most of them
were brought to the ground. The fighting went on for a good hour, but at
last the camp was lost and those escaped who could, but they were not many.
This battle cost the Pope about three thousand men, all his artillery and
camp furnishing, and was the salvation of the duchy of Ferrara. More than
three hundred horses remained in the hands of the conquerors, besides many
prisoners of importance.

Indeed, we do not wonder that so much stress is laid upon this victory by
the chronicler of Bayard, as it was solely due to his energy and
resolution. The battle took place on February 11, 1511.

It was at the siege of Brescia that the fame of Bayard reached its highest
point. His splendid courage in volunteering to place himself in the
forefront of battle and face the dreaded hand-guns of the arquebusiers is
the more striking as he had a special hatred of these new arms which were
coming more and more into use. All this gunpowder business was detestable
to the great knight, who had been trained in the old school of chivalry,
where gentlemen showed their skill in the use of arms,