Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 152: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

130 “T must not hear this,’ Bayard said coldly. ‘This is treason.” “What? To say that Etienne’s men are brigands? You heard them boast of it. To say that Etienne takes bribes from the king’s enemies? The marshal told him so before the king’s face and he had no answer. Who leads the army? This knave at the king’s ear, who will keep the army dallying till the Italians have trapped it in the mountains and so earn his bribes.” “I will not believe you,” Bayard cried. “Etienne is greedy and mean of heart but no traitor. But what if he were? The marshal commands and he drives hard. We shall march fast enough, have no fear, and the army is staunch. , there is no traitor can trap the army of France!” “IT pray God you are right,” Silvain said “Why, man, there is no heart in you. - You are turned to cunning and bitterness.”’ “T think I grow old, Bayard,” Silvain said gently. ‘You have a boy’s heart yet.” “Oh, brother, keep your loyalties!”’ Bayard cried. One thing Silvain had forgotten, the de- sire of men to save themselves. What was said in council in that army was not long secret and when that story of a league of enemies passed through the ranks every man was zealous to push on into safety. The marshal had no need to drive them though he drove hard and they marched through the Italian summer, ruthless to themselves and their horses, unwearying. They had cannon, unwieldy as guns were then, in the youth of artillery. When the teams gave out they dragged those fourteen pieces by man power. Great lords took their share of pulling and hauling, knights who had counted it loss of honor to go afoot trudged in their armor that weary pikemen might ride. And the mass of the army labored on up the steep broken tracks from dawn to dark, straining strength and will to the uttermost. “Do you fear yet, brother?” Bayard said. -‘‘We march like Frenchmen. Like Frenchmen we shall fight.” “Tt is an army,” Silvain smiled and tossed back his fair hair and looked up at the peaks of the Apennines. “I wish I Enew what they are doing on the other side of the hills. Give me leave, Bayard and I will go and see.”’ Adventure “Let them do what they will, we shall break them.” Silvain was startled. ‘That is a soldier’s thought not a captain’s, Bayard.” “TI do what I have to do,” said Bayard coldly. ‘‘I do not think of the other side of the hill. And I have not failed in a fight yet.” “You are the most gallant knight of us all,” Silvain said. ‘But see, brother: It will save many a life to know what they in- tend against us. Let me go.” “You try to see too far. You always seek to be wiser than any man. How often has that sent you on a lonely venture, Silvain? And little honor it has brought. Ride on with us and do your part when the hour comes.” ‘“‘And so I will. O Bayard, my brother, it is not my honor I think of but the honor of France. Here is her army marching blind and we can save many a man for her. Let me go.” “Do as you will,”’ said Bayard coldly. ‘You are your own man.” THEN Silvain took Thibaut and ew his two spare horses and rode on into -~ the mountains and traveling fast by mule tracks above the road they climbed on till there lay before them the green northern valleys and the dim plain of Lombardy. In the pass which comes down to the broad stream of the Parma they saw many troops. Some time they spent wandering on the high ground till Silvain had made out that the mass of the army of the league was marshaled below. “We shall never break through there, not though we were all paladins,” he said. “And that is the road we go. Come, brother, there is always a way round.” He led away northward across one valley and another where no army could march till they came upon the defile that goes by Fornovo, a cleft in the mountains dividing into broad valleys which opened on the plain. And there were no troops at all. “By my faith that gate stands open,’ "he said. “My lord of Mantua has made sure which way we shall come. He is very sure!” And they turned their horses and rode back. Dusk was falling when they came upon the army. High in the mountains it lay in bivouac, marked out by a ring of fires that glowed golden and red in the gloom and CoMmicbook A) (© =