The King said flat, he would not have me go, and wished me to stop with himself.  Then the Queen-mother told him I would but go and come back, and he must remember it was a foreign lord, who had come, at the command of the King of Spain, to help him. then he let me go, provided I came back very soon.  So he sent for me, and the Queen-mother with him, and bade me go and find the Lord de Mansfeld, wherever he should be, to do all I could for him to heal his wound.  I went to him, with a letter from Their Majesties.  When he saw it, he received me with good-will, and forthwith dismissed three or four surgeons who were dressing him; which was to my very great regret, because his wound seemed to me incurable.

Now many gentlemen had retreated to Borgueil, having been wounded:  for they knew that M. de Guise was there, who also had been badly wounded with a pistol-shot through the leg, and they were sure that he would have good surgeons to dress him, and would help them, as he is kindly and very generous, and would relieve their wants.  This he did with a will, both for their eating and drinking, and for what else they needed:  and for my part, they had the comfort and help of my art:  some died, others recovered, according to their wounds.  M. le Comte Ringrave died, who was shot in the shoulder, like the King of Navarre before Rouen.  M. de Bassompierre, colonel of twelve hundred horse, was wounded by a similar shot, in the same place, as M. de Mansfeld:  whom I dressed, and God healed.  God blessed my work so well, that in three weeks I sent them back to Paris:  where I had still to make incisions in M. de Mansfeld’s arm, to remove some pieces of the bones, which were badly splintered, broken, and carious.  He was healed by the grace of God, and made me a handsome present, so I was well content with him, and he with me; as he has shown me since.  He wrote a letter to M. le Duc d’ Ascot, how he was healed of his wound, and also M. de Bassompierre of his, and many others whom I had dressed after the battle of Moncontour; and advised him to ask the King of France to let me visit M. le Marquis d’ Auret, his brother:  which he did.

THE JOURNEY TO FLANDERS. 1569

M. le Duc d’ Ascot did not fail to send a gentleman to the King, with a letter humbly asking he would do him so much kindness and honour as to permit and command his chief surgeon to visit M. le Marquis d’ Auret, his brother, who had received a gunshot wound near the knee, with fracture of the bone, about seven months ago, and the physicians and surgeons all this time had not been able to heal him.  The King sent for me and bade me go and see M. d’ Auret, and give him all the help I could, to heal him of his wound.  I told him I would employ all the little knowledge it had pleased God to give me.

I went off, escorted by two gentlemen, to the Chateau d’ Auret, which is a league and a half from Mons in Hainault, where M. le Marquis was lying.  So soon as I had come, I visited him, and told him the King had commanded me to come and see him and dress his wound.  He said he was very glad I had come, and was much beholden to the King, who had done him so much honour as to send me to him.