THE CHEVALIER BAYARD.1

The pages of French history present to us an array of characters almost infinite in variety. In perusing them we are met by examples of eminent virtue as well as of utter dissoluteness, of far-reaching, all-embracing genius as well as of giddy trifling, of profound thought as well as of showy vacuity, of heroic self-sacrifice as well as of detestable selfishness, of loving, tender mercy as well as of monstrous cruelty. Great statesmen, profound philosophers, poets, dramatists, mighty monarchs, brilliant courtiers, subtle intriguers, cruel tyrants, blatant demagogues, brave soldiers, eloquent orators, faithful priests, miserable dissemblers, roues, hollow skeptics, are all brought before us, and all claim our consideration. None is without his use. There is scarcely any phase of human development, good or bad, of which we cannot find an examplar in the history of France. Here all tastes may be gratified, all persons can find their heroes.

The fame of him concerning whom I am about to speak to you this evening shines with perhaps as strong a light of combined purity and brilliancy as any in history. It seems as if all mankind had agreed here to cease from the strife, which usually arises in estimating the deeds and life of a historical character, as if it were on all sides confessed that here was one man whom it would be useless to attack, that it would be lost labor to attempt to affix a stain upon the memory of Bayard, the chevalier without fear and without reproach.

This lecture was written for the Northeastern Workingmen's Club, and delivered before it April 18th, 1873. It was afterward delivered on several occasions and places, including St. Mary's Hall, May 19th, 1892, when it was prefaced by an introduction, which would not interest the general reader, and contained an allusion at some length to the religious system adopted by Bishop Doane for the guidance of the school, both of which are here omitted.

To be a chevalier sans peur et sans reproche-without fear and without reproach-was the injunction laid upon him by his mother. A chevalier without fear and without reproach was the character he maintained throughout his life; on the battlefield, where his distinguished bravery made him conspicuous amongst thousands, where his impetuous charges carried terror to the ranks of the foe-without fear! Under adverse circumstances, when overwhelming odds threatened, in the midst of defeat and loss and disaster,-still without fear! and in the hour of victory no deed of cruelty stained the glory of that hour,—without reproach! At the court of France, the nursery of vice, which even in his time displayed the beginnings of that course which afterward raised it to that bad eminence for which it became noted, when the principal occupation of the monarch seemed to be his amours and the occupation of the courtiers to press forward a new mistress, hoping the royal favor from her influence, when bribery, intrigue, corruption of all sorts reigned triumphant, there, even there, was Bayard without fear and without reproach, for he possessed the higher courage than that manifested on the battlefield, the courage to follow out the path of right and duty, no matter how unfashionable, how difficult, how perilous that path, preferring his honor even to his sovereign's favor; and yet he served that sovereign faithfully and devotedly; no man was a truer subject; he gave his life for his King.

It will be strange, indeed, if, in contemplating a character so excellent, so noble, we cannot gain some food for reflection, something which may be assimilated to ourselves, made part of our own lives.

In treating of Bayard I shall not go too deeply into the details of his life. I shall, of course, be obliged to give some narration of his actions, but my main object will be to tell just so much of him as may present him and his characteristics to us; for the use of history and biography is not simply, or mainly, to acquire knowledge

of facts, it is to acquire the power resulting from that knowledge. It has been well said, "Knowledge is power," but it is true only when the knowledge is applied. For what earthly real good would it do any one of us if he were able to relate in order every event of the world's history from the time of Adam to the present day, tell every battle, remember every date, recite the actions of every administration, recount the rise and fall of every dynasty, if he did not go deeper and consider the human nature underlying all these actions and, remembering that like causes always produce like effects, apply the lessons learned to himself or to his country? What good would it do the mariner to study thoroughly his chart, to be familiar with every line upon it, if he sailed on, heedlessly, over the waters represented by it? Would he not probably fall a prey to one of the very snags of whose existence, on the chart, he was so well aware? What good would it be to a lawyer if he knew by heart every decision in the long, long series of reports, if, when a case arose, he never applied his knowledge of those reports; or, even worse, if he never distinguished the principles underlying the decisions, that he might recognize their operation whenever it was manifested? What good in either case the chart or the reports? So with history. It is a great chart worthless for practical purposes if not applied to real emergencies. Merely to commit to memory facts is to store the mind with at best curiosities; it may be with rubbish. We must systematize and analyze those facts; we must reduce them to their principles, and we must apply those principles; and, therefore, my endeavor must be not to waste time in useless details, but to point your attention to those parts of Bayard's life which display to us the man himself, in order that we may behold and imitate.

In the course of the lecture it will be necessary for me sometimes to leave its immediate subject and to diverge a little into the realms of contemporaneous history, with

which Bayard was so intimately connected, and if, in so doing, I may chance to go over portions of history with which many of you are familiar, I pray you to regard me not as presuming to instruct, but merely as recalling that which may have slipped the memory of some of you, in order that I may more satisfactorily present my subject.

For the proper conception of a man, his life and character, it is necessary to consider the time in which he lived, since, even of a great man, it is true not only that the man acts upon the age, but that the age also acts upon him.

The time of Bayard may be described as the end of the middles ages, or, perhaps, the connecting link between the middle age and modern time, and Bayard may be regarded as the last specimen of the medieval knight, into whose nature had been infused in advance of the world the gentler characteristics of a more civilized warrior. In his time modern science was beginning to make its way into the art of war. The introduction of fire arms, those great equalizers of the physically strong and weak, had begun the movement which ended in the exile of nearly all the ancient weapons, the lance, the battle-axe, the morning star, and in the discarding as useless, worse than useless, of the defensive armor and coats of mail; for formerly a man fought encased in steel from head to foot, and, when unhorsed, was as if dead. Nor was a change going on only in the personnel of an army. Armies themselves were being organized on a very different footing. Under the old system, when a war broke out, the King summoned his lords to arms, and the lords in turn summoned their retainers, or tenants, bound by their oaths and by the conditions upon which they held their lands to follow their immediate superiors to the war, and thus was made up the array. The modern system you know is very different. As national wealth has increased, standing armies of paid soldiers have come into existence. In Bayard's time

neither system existed in its fullness. The old could not be eradicated, the new be brought to full fruition in one day, but whereas, formerly, every man, whatever had been his occupation in peace, became in war a soldier, the military was now fast becoming a separate profession, subject to different discipline, and was turned into a weapon more readily wielded. Other changes besides. those in the art of war were taking place; the famous political doctrine of the balance of power was fast growing up; changes were taking place, or about to take place, in thought, in religious speculation, in manners, in science, to which it is not necessary for me to revert here. Time forbids. But that to which I would call your attention more especially is this, that the era we are to consider was an era of transition, and that Bayard, while displaying in the highest degree the virtues of the middle age, was one of the pioneers of some of the most beautiful characteristics of the modern time.

Pierre du Terrail, the chevalier Bayard, or, as the old chronicles call him, Bayart, was born at the chateau Bayard, in Dauphiny, in the year 1476, in the reign of Louis XI. This reign marks a new birth in the history of France, for from that time she properly began to act compactly and as a unit, a nation. Before the time of Louis, France resembled rather a great number of petty nations, held together by but a slender, easily-broken tie, frequently warring upon each other, and fighting with all the bitterness of private malice; nay, the great lords, the Dukes of Normandy, of Burgundy, of Orleans, not content with making war upon their fellow subjects, assaulted the throne itself, and they were able on some occasions to bend even the power of the throne; for their lands poured forth men devoted to their immediate superior, bound to him by every principle of fealty and interest, regarding his quarrel as their own and feeling no more exalted spirit of patriotism; very much as if, my friends, we were to allow our patriotism to waste