“Sire,” replied Count William, with astonished countenance, “the wickedness of the undertaking would be very great, but the folly of seeking to execute it would be no less.”

The King laughed, sheathed his sword again, and hearing the hunt hard by, spurred after it with all speed. When he reached his train he spoke to none of what had passed, but he felt convinced that, although Count William was as brave and ready a gentleman as might be, he was not the man to carry out so high an enterprise.

However, Count William, fearing that he had been discovered or was at least suspected, repaired the next morning to Robertet, Secretary for the King’s Finances, (6) and told him that he had considered the privileges and pay offered him to continue in the King’s service, and that they would not suffice to support him for half the year. Unless therefore it pleased the King to give him double, he would be forced to depart; and he accordingly begged the said Robertet to acquaint him as soon as might be with the will of the King. To this the Secretary replied that he could not better advance the business than by going to the King straightway; and he undertook the mission right willingly, for he had seen the warnings that the Governor had received.

6 This is Florimond Robertet, the first of that family of
statesmen who served the French crown from Charles VIII. to
Henri III. It was Charles VIII. who appointed Florimond
Treasurer of France and Secretary of Finances, offices in
which he displayed great skill and honesty. Louis XII., who
confirmed him in his functions, habitually consulted him on
important political affairs. He acquired considerable
wealth, and was often called “the great baron,” after the
barony of Alluye, which he possessed in Le Perche. One of
the curiosities of Blois is the Hôtel d’Alluye, a house of
semi-Moorish style, erected by Robertet at the close of the
fifteenth century. Another of his residences was the château
of Bury, near Blois, where he set up Michael Angelo’s famous
bronze statue of David, presented to him by the city of
Florence, and the fate of which has furnished material for
so much speculation. Under Francis I. Robertet enjoyed the
same credit as during the two previous reigns. Fleuranges
declares that no one else was so intimate with the King, and
commends him as being the most experienced and competent
statesman of the times. According to the Journal d’un
Bourgeois de Paris, Robertet died “at the Palais (de
Justice) in Paris, of which he was concierge,” on November
29, 1527. Francis repeatedly visited him during his illness,
and, on his death, ordered that his remains should lie in
state, and be interred with great pomp and ceremony. Clement
Marot’s works contain a poem, four hundred lines in length,
celebrating Robertet’s virtues and talents.—L., B. J., and
Ed.

As soon, therefore, as the King was awake he failed not to lay the matter before him in the presence of the Lord de la Trémoille and the Admiral de Bonnivet, who were ignorant of the trick that the King had played the Count the day before.

Then the King laughed, and said to them—“You desired to banish Count William, and you see he is banishing himself. Wherefore, tell him that if he be not content with the establishment which he accepted on entering my service, and which many men of good families have deemed themselves fortunate to have, he must e’en seek a better fortune elsewhere. For my part, I will in no wise hinder him, but shall be well pleased if he can find some condition wherein to live according to his deserts.”

Robertet was as prompt to bear this answer to the Count as he had been to prefer his request to the King. The Count replied that with the King’s permission he was resolved to depart, and, like one whom fear urges to flight, he did not tarry even four and twenty hours; but, just as the King was sitting down to table, came to take leave of him, feigning much sorrow that his need should force him from the Royal presence.

He also went to take leave of the King’s mother, who parted from him no less joyfully than she had formerly received him as a kinsman and friend. And thus he returned to his own country; and the King, seeing his mother and courtiers in amazement at his sudden departure, told them of the fright he had given him, saying that, even if the Count were innocent of that which was laid against him, his fear had been sufficiently great to constrain him to leave a master whose temper he had not yet come to know.

“For my part, ladies, I can see no reason why the King should have been moved to risk himself thus against so famous a captain, except that, forsaking the company and places where Kings find no inferiors ready to give them battle, he desired to place himself on an equal footing with one whom he suspected to be his enemy; and this that he might have the satisfaction of testing the stoutness and valour of his own heart.”

“Without a doubt,” said Parlamente, “he was in the right; for all the praise of man cannot so well satisfy a noble heart as its own particular knowledge and experience of the virtues that God has placed in it.”