This is exactly what we might have expected from the good Anne of Brittany.
She had such a passion for match-making that she had obtained from the Pope
a "portable" altar, which always travelled with her, that she might have a
marriage solemnised at any time.

[Illustration: Bayard presented to the King of England.]




[Illustration: HENRY _the_ EIGHTH KING OF ENGLAND
_from the portrait by Hans Holbein_.]

CHAPTER VIII


The next war in which Bayard was engaged was that in which Louis XII. was
attacked by the King of Spain in Navarre. Henry VIII. was at the same time
preparing to invade the north of France, landing near Calais, and the Swiss
were already pouring into Burgundy.

As we may expect, Bayard was not long without being sent on some perilous
adventure. He was at the siege of Pampeluna with the deposed King Jean
d'Albret of Navarre and the lord of La Palisse, when they told him there
was a certain castle about four leagues off which it would be well for him
to take, as the garrison was a constant annoyance to the French. The Good
Knight at once set off with his own company, that of Captain Bonneval, a
certain number of adventurers, and two troops of "landsknechte." When he
arrived before the fortress, he sent a trumpeter to proclaim to those
within that they must yield it to their rightful sovereign, the King of