in the following pages are retold.

The "Loyal Servitor" is now believed from recent research to have been
Jacques de Mailles, his intimate friend and companion-at-arms, probably his
secretary. He certainly learnt from Bayard himself the story of his early
years, which he tells so delightfully, and he writes with the most minute
detail about the later events which happened in his presence, and the
warlike encounters in which he himself took part; and a most vivid and
interesting account he makes of it. In an ancient catalogue of the Mazarine
Library, his book is first set down as the _Histoire du Chevalier Bayard,
par_ Jacques de Mailles, Paris, in 4to, 1514 (probably a mistake for 1524).
The better-known edition, with only the name of the "Loyal Servitor," was
published in 1527, under the title of

THE VERY JOYFUL AND VERY DELIGHTFUL
HISTORY
OF THE LIFE, THE HEROIC DEEDS, THE TRIUMPHS
AND THE VALOUR OF THE GOOD KNIGHT
WITHOUT FEAR AND WITHOUT REPROACH

BAYARD.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


BAYARD