“I knew a brave gentleman who, one day at Rome, was alone with a pretty Roman lady—­her husband being away—­and she gave him a similar alarm, causing one of her women to come in hastily to warn her that her husband had returned from the country.  The lady, feigning astonishment, begged the gentleman to hide himself in a closet, as otherwise she would be lost.  ‘No, no,’ said the gentleman; ’I would not do that for all the wealth in the world; if he comes I will kill him.’  And as he seized upon his sword the lady began to laugh and confess that she had contrived this to try him so as to see how he would act, and if he would defend her well should her husband seek to do her any harm.

“I also knew a very beautiful lady who suddenly left a lover she had, because she did not find him brave, and took another who did not resemble him, but who was extremely feared and redoubted on account of his sword, he being one of the best swordsmen that could then be found.”—­Lalanne’s OEuvres de Brantome, vol. ix. pp. 388-90.

E. (Tale XVII., Page 195.)

Brantome, in the Thirtieth Discourse of his Capitaines Etrangers, writes of Furstemberg as follows:—­

“Count William von Furstemberg was accounted a good and valiant captain, and would have been more highly esteemed had he not been deficient in faith, over greedy and too much addicted to pillage, as he showed once in France, when he passed along with his troops; for after his passage there was nothing left.  He served King Francis for the space of six or seven years [not more than six.—­Ed.] with some five companies always numbering from six to seven thousand men; however, after this long term of services, or rather ravages and pillage, he was suspected of having designs against the King’s person, as I have elsewhere related, and those who would learn more of the matter will find the story in the hundred tales of Queen Margaret of Navarre, wherein the valour, generosity and magnanimity of that great King are clearly shown.  The other, in great fear, left his service and entered that of the Emperor (Charles V.).  If he had not been related to Madame la Regente (Louise of Savoy), through the House of Saxony, whence sprang that of Savoy, he would possibly have met with the fate he merited, had the King been minded to it; but on this occasion the King wished to show his magnanimity rather than have him put to death by the officers of justice.  Again the King pardoned him when, on the arrival of the Emperor at St. Dizier in Champagne, he was taken, sounding the river Marne, (2) which he had on other occasions well reconnoitred, in coming to or on leaving France with his troops.  He was on this occasion merely sent to the Bastille, and got quit for a ransom of 30,000 crowns.  Some great captains said and opined that he ought not to have been thus treated as a prisoner of war but as a real vile spy, for he had professedly acted as such; and they said, moreover, that he got off too cheaply at such a ransom, which did not represent the smallest of the larcenies that he had perpetrated in France.”—­Lalanne’s OEuvres de Brantome, vol. i. pp. 349-50.