"Let us give ourselves up, comrades; further resistance were but a bootless sacrifice." Not the least noteworthy of Bayard's many fine qualities were his rare good sense and his cheerfulness under misfortune. If he won, he enjoyed his victory; if he lost, he accepted defeat like a philosopher.
His men now followed his advice, each surrendering to the nearest enemy.
Now it chanced, in the confusion, that Bayard saw an exhausted German throw himself down under a near-by tree and unbuckle his sword. In an instant the chevalier sprang to him, snatched up the sword, and presented its point to the officer's throat.
"Surrender or die!" he demanded of the astonished man-at-arms.
Not caring to give up his life, the officer surrendered himself captive to the chevalier, saying,
"As I am without weapon, I render myself to thee. But tell me, pray, to whom I have surrendered."
"To Captain Bayard," replied the chevalier, enjoying the joke, "and I am in turn thy prisoner, by the result of this battle."
So saying, Bayard unbuckled his own sword and handed it to the fellow with mock gravity.
The officer was mystified; but Bayard soon made him see the philosophy, if not the fun, of the situation, and the two marched off together to the English camp—each captive to the other—each bearing the other's surrendered sword.
Here the chevalier remained for some days as prisoner to the man he had captured. But he soon tired of this restraint, and one morning said to his captor with suspicious gravity—