Abbiate-Grasso, where he had some unpleasant words with the admiral;
howbeit, I will not make any mention of them; but if they had both lived
longer than they did live, they would probably have gone a little
farther. The good knight was like to die of grief at the mishap that
had befallen him, even though it was not his fault; but in war there is
hap and mishap more than in all other things." [_Histoire du bon
Chevalier sans Peur et sans Reproche,_ t. ii. pp. 120-123. _Les Gestes
et la Vie du Chevalier Bayard,_ by Champier, pp. 171-174.]

The situation of the French army before Milan was now becoming more and
more, not insecure only, but critical. Bonnivet considered it his duty
to abandon it and fall back towards Piedmont, where he reckoned upon
finding a corps of five thousand Swiss who were coming to support their
compatriots engaged in the service of France. Near Romagnano, on the
banks of the Sesia, the retreat was hotly pressed by the imperial army,
the command of which had been ultimately given by Charles V. to the
Constable de Bourbon, with whom were associated the Viceroy of Naples,
Charles de Lannoy, and Ferdinand d'Avalos, Marquis of Pescara, the most
able amongst the Neapolitan officers. On the 30th of April, 1524, some
disorder took place in the retreat of the French; and Bonnivet, being
severely wounded, had to give up the command to the Count of St. Pol and
to Chevalier Bayard. Bayard, last as well as first in the fight,
according to his custom, charged at the head of some men-at-arms upon the
Imperialists, who were pressing the French too closely, when he was
himself struck by a shot from an arquebuse, which shattered his reins.
"Jesus, my God," he cried, "I am dead!" He then took his sword by the
handle, and kissed the cross-hilt of it as the sign of the cross, saying
aloud as he did so, "Have pity on me, O God, according to Thy great
mercy" (Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam);
thereupon he became incontinently quite pale, and all but fell; but he