The day after the battle of Dreux, the King bade me go and dress M. le Comte d’Eu, who had been wounded in the right thigh, near the hip-joint, with a pistol-shot:  which had smashed and broken the thigh-bone into many pieces:  whereon many accidents supervened, and at last death, to my great grief.  The day after I came, I would go to the camp where the battle had been, to see the dead bodies.  I saw, for a long league round, the earth all covered:  they estimated it at twenty-five thousand men or more; and it was all done in less than two hours.  I wish, mon petit maistre, for the love I bear you, you had been there, to tell it to your scholars and your children.

Now while I was at Dreux, I visited and dressed a great number of gentlemen, and poor soldiers, and among the rest many of the Swiss captains.  I dressed fourteen all in one room, all wounded with pistol-shots and other diabolical firearms, and not one of the fourteen died.  M. le Comte d’Eu being dead, I made no long stay at Dreux.  Surgeons came from Paris, who fulfilled their duty to the wounded, as Pigray, Cointeret, Hubert, and others; and I returned to Paris, where I found many wounded gentlemen who had retreated thither after the battle, to have their wounds dressed; and I was not there without seeing many of them.

THE JOURNEY TO HAVRE DE GRACE. 1563

And I will not omit to tell of the camp at Havre de Grace.  When our artillery came before the walls of the town, the English within the walls killed some of our men, and several pioneers who were making gabions.  And seeing they were so wounded that there was no hope of curing them, their comrades stripped them, and put them still living inside the gabions, which served to fill them up.  When the English saw that they could not withstand our attack, because they were hard hit by sickness, and especially by the plague, they surrendered.  The King gave them ships to return to England, very glad to be out of this plague-stricken place.  The greater part of them died, and they took the plague to England, and they have not got rid of it since.  Captain Sarlabous, master of the camp, was left in garrison, with six ensigns of infantry, who had no fear of the plague; and they were very glad to get into the town, hoping to enjoy themselves there, Mon petit maistre, if you had been there, you would have done as they did.

THE JOURNEY TO BAYONNE. 1564

I went with the King on that journey to Bayonne, when we were two years and more making the tour of well-nigh all this kingdom.  And in many towns and villages I was called in consultation over sundry diseases, with the late M. Chapelain, chief physician to the King, and M. Castellan, chief physician to the Queen-mother; honorable men and very learned in medicine and surgery.  During this journey, I always inquired of the surgeons if they had noted anything rare in their practices,